Released by St. Mary of the Lakes School
On Friday, May 18, St Mary of the Lakes School hosted its annual Grandparents/Special Persons Day. Grandparents came from far and wide to enjoy a morning of entertainment given by the students of St. Mary of the Lakes School. This tradition has continued at the school for more than 20 years.
This year’s theme was “American Bandstand.” Each grade sang songs popular from 1952 through 1989. Kindergarten sang the Mickey Mouse Club song, second-grade sang “Locomotion” and fourth-grade sang “Button Up Your Overcoat.” Eighth-grade ushered in the disco era and recreated the popular “Rate-a-Record” segment from the American Bandstand show.
Throughout the performances, Eighth-grade hosts asked American Bandstand trivia questions and handed out prizes for correct answers.
Grandparents overflowed the auditorium and the balcony. They came from as close as Medford and from as far away as El Salvador — 5,000 miles! There were grandparents with their first grandchild in the school and there were grandparents who were coming for the 17th time to Grandparents Day.
After the song performances, grandparents spent the rest of the morning visiting their grandchildren’s classrooms and viewing exhibits. In kindergarten, grandparents were treated to songs and poems and the annual viewing of the baby chicks, ducks and butterflies. First-grade performed two mini-plays and sang songs. Second-grade presented their book reports and third-grade sang songs and recited haiku poems created for each of their grandparents. Fourth-grade performed the “How I Became a Pirate” play and fifth grade conducted a sing-a-long of silly songs and interviewed their grandparents. Sixth-grade wrote grandparent poems and seventh grade presented Science experiments and gave “Not So Famous Americans” reports. Eighth-grade memorized and performed speeches from history, famous scenes from movies and famous poems.
SML TV put on their daily broadcast, showed Student Service Announcements and interviewed a grandparent in Italian.
Finally, the St. Mary of the Lakes School Annual Art Show opened on Friday, May 18 and grandparents enjoyed viewing the student work from kindergarten through eighth-grade. The Art Show was open until May 31.
Every year, the students look forward to Grandparents Day and they work so hard to put on a great show for their grandparents. Grandparents also look forward to it and they put the date on the calendar in the beginning of the school year as soon as it is announced. There was a sense of joy throughout the halls of St. Mary of the Lakes School and as it ended, students and grandparents were already looking forward to next year’s Grandparents/Special Persons Day.
