Video: Grandparents Day at Long Beach Elementary

For more than 10 years, staff at have been welcoming their students’ grandparents into their halls and classrooms once a year.

It’s called Grandparents Day, and judging by the smiles on display on Friday, it’s a big hit. Principal Kevin Lipke said there were 365 grandparents at Long Beach Elementary this year, representing more than half of the school’s roughly 600 students.

On Friday, those grandparents got to sit in on classes, watch their grandkids play games in the gym, and, at the end, enjoy a performance by the Long Beach Honor Choir, made up of 4th and 5th grade students.

In Jennifer Pergler’s 3rd grade class, grandparents and students compared their elementary school experiences—some grandparents said they went to schools with only dozens of students, and one said he rode a horse to school.

Lipke said Grandparents Day is an experience students talk about for days afterward. Many students, he said, have grandparents who live in other states, and they plan trips around the event.

“It’s our way of reaching out to the community,” Lipke said.

Check out the video to see scenes from Friday’s Grandparents Day at Long Beach Elementary.