North Clackamas
School District
It’s Double Trouble in Scouters Mountain Second Grade!
Take a look around second grade classrooms at Scouters Mountain Elementary, and it probably won’t take long to find pairs of scissors, pairs of headphones, pairs of glasses, or even pairs of gloves worn by students on their way to school on a chilly morning. But guess what type of pair you’ll likely discover even quicker in second grade? How about a pair…of twins?
In fact, make that four pairs of twins…eight smiling second graders who all laugh at the way they have their classmates and teachers seeing double every day.
“Sometimes, teachers can’t tell me and my brother apart,” explained seven-year-old Maven Tan, whose identical twin brother Maxton is just down the hall in a different second grade classroom. “But I think it’s funny because they can’t blame us if they see one of us doing something we’re not supposed to.”
Speaking of seeing, most second graders and staff members have to look very closely at the eyeglasses worn by sisters Allison and Riley Nguyen to tell the identical twins apart. Allison has tiny hearts decorating her frames, while Riley’s glasses are speckled with small stars. But Riley says there’s an even easier way to figure out who’s who, depending on the time of day. “Allison has messier hair in the morning and I have messier hair in the afternoon.”
All four sets of twins are separated in different classrooms at Scouters Mountain, which is a first for Allison and Riley. “When my mom told us that, I started crying at first,” remembered Riley. “But it’s worked out OK. I still see my sister all the time.”
Anderson and Alex Abad don’t see all the fuss made over being twins, especially as the only Coyote combo in second grade who isn’t identical. “How can you not tell the difference between me and Anderson?” asked a curious Alex. “We don’t look alike.”
“Yeah, the only difference is that Alex likes to roughhouse with me more,“ chimed in Anderson. “And I like ketchup, and he hates mustard and ketchup.”
Fellow second grader Daniel Bosovyk says he and his twin brother Yonatan don’t differ much on condiments—but Daniel says he would like to “catch up” to his brother in height. “We do look alike, so sometimes people get us mixed up,” said Daniel. “We play together, but he’s bigger than me so sometimes we fight and argue.”
Principal Mike Potter says there’s no argument the four sets of dynamic duos have made this year’s second grade group at Scouters Mountain not only one to remember, but one to celebrate for the way these eight similar students always bring joy to their classmates.
“Our second grade team just does an amazing job with all of our school’s second graders, and it always brings me such joy to be around them,” said the proud principal. “Mix in an unbelievable four sets of twins, and you can’t help but smile a little wider.”
And as all these super siblings move along to the next grade in June, you can expect third grade at Scouters Mountain to be just as twin-credible next year!