Lisa Ann Walter Jokes She 'Loves' Her Abbott Elementary Kids as Her Own Won't 'Give Me Grandbabies' (Exclusive)

Lisa Ann Walter says she has a special bond with her Abbott Elementary class.

On Sept. 12, PEOPLE partnered with IHG Hotels & Resorts to host a pre-Emmys panel event featuring the cast of the Emmy-nominated series Abbott Elementary. Walter, who attended alongside her costars Sheryl Lee Ralph, Chris Perfetti and William Stanford Davis, says that one of the things she enjoys when filming the show is spending time with the children who play her students.

"Some of them, especially when they're new, still look at us like teachers," Walter, who plays second-grade teacher Melissa Schemmenti, tells PEOPLE. "Even the ones that were in my class.” 

“I'm Miss Melissa and they talk to me like I'm their teacher,” she continues. “Sometimes it's Miss Barbara, sometimes Mrs. Howard. And they ask us [questions] like, can they go to the bathroom or help with this worksheet?"

Walter, 61, said it is a very different experience than the one she has at home with her four grown kids Jordan, 36, Delia, 32, and twins Spencer and Simon, 23 — especially since she doesn’t have any grandchildren yet.

"And personally I love it because my four grown children are too selfish to give me grandbabies," she jokes at the event, held at Kimpton Everly Hotel in Los Angeles. "One's getting a PhD, but that's her excuse. And I love that I get to meet with the kids and teach them and just share the time with them and sometimes it's wild."

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The cast has spoken about their gratitude for the show several times before ahead of season 4. When news of the renewal first broke in April, Walter said this is the first time in her career she truly felt safe. 

“We worked our whole three decades plus long careers and then became big hits at this stage of our lives," Walter told PEOPLE about herself and Ralph, 67, at the time. "Nothing is a guarantee about what you can do or when you should do it or what you should try."

A few months later at D23 in August, Ralph shared what she loved most about her role as veteran kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard on Abbott, which was created by star Quinta Brunson.

"First of all, I really love Barbara Howard," Ralph said. "It's that favorite teacher or the teacher that pushed you to do just a bit better because she saw in you what you might not have seen in yourself."

She even joked that the kids on set come in like they’re in a real classroom with her as their teacher.

“Oh my God, it's just the best,” she gushed. "And they write me when the show is over, they'll keep in touch, they'll tell me what they did during the summer."

Ralph continued to explain that she feels a deep connection to her character because of her upbringing: "I've been raised by teachers, surrounded by teachers, but I'm getting the best of a fake teacher's life."

Abbott Elementary premiered in 2021 and is now headed into its fourth season. The sitcom was a hit right off the bat and has won several major awards over the years, including an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Brunson’s portrayal of school teacher Janine Teagues.

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Abbott Elementary season 4 is set to premiere on Oct. 9 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC. Past seasons can be streamed on Hulu.