OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. - Students at Waukazoo Elementary School covered their school's front lawn with American flags Tuesday, Sept. 11.
It happens every year at the school. The annual event starts early in the morning when parents arrive at the school to stick pencils into the lawn. During the school day, students remove the pencils and replace them with the flags, turning the lawn red, white and blue.
The elementary students weren't alive on Sept. 11, 2001. So teachers look for appropriate ways to teach them about the 9-11 terror attacks.
Some teachers read stories; others show videos to students.
"In 5th grade, they can do a little more with what actually happened on that day," said Sam Lemmon, Waukazoo Elementary Principal.
By the time the students move on to 6th grade they know all about what happened in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania.
"On 9-11 there was a plane crash on the twin towers," said Garrison Gardiner, a 4th grade student at Waukazoo.
Gardiner now knows the day each year when parents stick pencils into the lawn at his school is to honor Patriots Day.
"It's a tradition," said Gardiner.
"It's amazing to see the transformation from yesterday just green grass to today it will be flags everywhere," said Lemmon.
The school's theme this year is family. On Patriots Day 2018, family defined broadly to include those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.
By the end of Tuesday, the school's front lawn had more than 450 American flags.
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