Surfin' Through Second: May Day

Aloha my fabulous friends!! This has been one crazy but memorable week!! If you have followed my blog for awhile you know that May Day is a big deal at my school. Every classroom works tirelessly to put on an amazing show. This year was a bit different since my youngest daughter is in the 6th grade. She would be part of the Royal Court and it would be the last time seeing her perform.

The 6th grade court puts on quite a show and they have a King and Queen who preside over the whole performance. Well this year my sweetie was chosen (name pulled out of hat, lol) to be the May Day Queen!!! She was thrilled! I remember her telling me in Kindergarten that she wanted to be the Queen someday!

So for the past month we have been working on getting her dress just right, ordering her leis and leis for the king. We also made 9 leis out of crown flowers which took quite awhile. 810 crown flower buds to be exact!! But can I just say I loved every minute of it! (Even though Friday afternoon I had to go to the doctor due to an infection in my finger from the flower sap!)

I won't bore you with all the details, let's just get right to the pics of this wonderful day.

This is the stage, which is our kickball field. Parents and staff make this look amazing!!

The conch shell blowers announce the arrival of the Royal Court.

Each island has a prince and princess. Finally the King and Queen arrive.

They take the stage and the parents come up and present them both with crowns and leis.

Once that is finished the performances begin.

Our staff started off the performances with a hula and then a fun little

number to Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk.

Preschool did a cute song about Eddie Aukai and the Hokulea.

Third Grade did a sweet Hawaiian Hula.

Kindergarten did a Blues Brothers medley of fun songs.

Fifth Grade did a medley of songs from the 70's to the present.

First grade did an amazing hula celebrating the Samoan culture.

The Sixth grade boys come out with the King and do their own hula.

Finally the king escorts the queen out onto the field to perform her hula.

Luckily I had a front row center seat!

They performed two beautiful hulas, but I was so distracted I forgot to film

the first one!! Luckily I woke up to film the second.

So proud of this beautiful girl and her performance. I just loved it!!!

My mother even flew out from Phoenix to see her perform!!

I couldn't have asked for a more spectacular day with family, friends, coworkers and an amazing community. I feel so blessed and lucky to live and work in such a magical and unique setting.

Mahalo for sharing in my excitement!!!

Aloha my friends! I hope you hopped through my last post and got some amazing ideas for the end of the year! I am still trying to decide which writing activity to use with my students this coming week.

If you have followed my blog for awhile them you may be familiar with our May Day program. Schools all over Hawaii celebrate May Day with song and dance to represent our unique cultures. Our school takes it up a notch and we really go all out every year. It is kind of a big deal at our school.

I admit I have a love/hate relationship with May Day. It's so much work and preparation for weeks in advance, but I love the outcome!

It is held outside on our field. Teachers, parents and community members set it all up. The flowers, plants and decorations are all donated by the community.

This is the stage for the Royal Court. In a traditional May Day the court has a King and Queen, princes and princesses to represent the Hawaiian Islands.

The program begins with our principal welcoming everyone.

The conch shell blows to signal the arrival of the Royal Court.

The 6th graders each have a part in the court. Each color represents an island. This is the island princess and prince of Kaho'olawe.

These are the king's guards getting ready for the arrival of the King and Queen.

The ladies in waiting.

The arrival of the King and Queen.

The parents of the King and Queen arrive to adorn them with flower leis.

The crown that the Queen is wearing is made of flowers!

Once the court is seated the performances begin.

Kindergarten and preschool did a Globetrotter routine. Very cute!

The first grade did a Tahitian dance and it was just beautiful and adorable. I may have had tears in my eyes at the cuteness of it!

Aren't they just precious?!

Third grade performed a dance from Ghana.

The first graders took us on a trip to Samoa.

Fourth grade girls performed a Carnival dance from Brazil.

The boys then took the stage and showed us their Capoeira skills.

Here are my talented second graders. They were super cute and their performance was top notch!

Once all the grades have performed the princesses perform a hula,

as well as the princes.

The finale is the Queen and all of her ladies in waiting performing the final hula.

I forgot to mention that the teachers perform too! We did a disco routine to a medley of songs since this year marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of our school. I don't have a picture, but there is a video floating around on Facebook that I will post on my page.

Post by Surfin' Through Second.

You can see just by the pictures that this is a huge school event that unites our community and makes the parents, kids and staff proud of our school.

Our Mardi Gras routine was so cute and the kids loved it. I loved their costumes! But let me tell you, sewing costumes and rehearsing for the last few weeks with my second graders has kept me very busy!!

Now that May Day is done I am on auto-pilot for the rest of the year. I am not running off any copies of anything!

We are working on some fun plays this week. We will be reading and maybe performing (depending on time) Spiderella, The Three Little Elephants and Pinnochio.

12 Fabulously Funny Fairy Tale Plays: Humorous Takes on Favorite Tales That Boost Reading Skills, Build Fluency & Keep Your Class Chuckling With Lots of Read-Aloud Fun!

These have been perfect to get my class engaged and reading. I have two boys that are so into their parts. They have been asking to read it every day! I will definitely be filming them when they are ready!

I hope your end of the year activities are wrapping up nicely and that you don't have too many days left! Mahalo for stopping by!