Celebration of Nations

Today was a super emotional day for me as it was the last time both kids will participate in the PSE Celebration of Nations. Preston was picked by Mrs. Safran to be the flag bearer for his class, which was a big honor.  This honor also came with lots of responsibility too!  He had to work with the TD teacher to research interesting facts about South Korea, made a PowerPoint to share with the class and then was able to lead his class through the parade.

The fifth graders were last to parade in.  Here is Savannah getting ready to march out with her class.  They studied New Zealand and had grass skirts, leis, and the boys had arm tattoos to complete their costumes.  Of course, Mr. Grabon had to do his annual stop and dance show as they paraded in . . . 

After every class in the school had paraded in each grade level came back out to do a dance representing their continent.  But, the fifth graders always get a pop song instead.  It's top secret and they aren't allowed to tell what the fun song is!  This year they danced to "Can't Stop the Feeling".  

After all of the nations had paraded and danced, the most emotional part of the day started. PSE has a tradition of the passing of the torch, which represents good character that the school is built on.  So each year a few fifth graders are selected for each character trait and they participate in a ceremony in front of the entire school.  This ceremony is a visual representation of the older sibling passing the torch of character to their younger sibling.

Savannah was first out, representing the character trait of responsibility.  She ran out to meet Preston, they walked together to the center of the black top, and she left him with the torch to carry on the character trait of responsibility.

I'm not sure what was more emotional, the fact that my two kids were chosen to participate, that it was a visual representation of Savannah leaving PSE, or the honor that came with knowing Preston was left to carry on good character at PSE.  It was such a bittersweet moment that made me super proud!

After it was all over, I had to pick right up with my room parent responsibilities and collect the water and towels from Preston's class. :)  What a fun and special day!!