'Aina Haina first-grader Raelynn Leilani, 7, smells her lei after her school’s Lei Day program today. The colorful May Day celebrations are a tradition at schools throughout the Islands. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

A Disney mambo with aloha from the kindergartners.

Third-graders looking way-cool with sunglasses.

A nod to the '60s, surfin' and the Beach Boys.

Oh, and don't forget the sixth-graders. Dressed in homemade hapi coats, they stole the show with their up-tempo performance of a Japanese song, "Soranbushi." A visiting teacher from Japan taught them the moves but had to return home before the show.

She would have been proud.

"This was really exciting," said Dyan Slakes, who was there to watch her twin first-graders. "It was really powerful. It didn't seem like your average kid-school program."

Librarian Candace Foster has been at the school for 13 years and said it's always the same: a frantic rush to the finish that leaves everyone exhausted but proud.

"The lower grades are very excited," she said. "The upper grades, they try to be cool but you can tell, when they go out to perform, that it's special to them, especially if their parents are here."

Foster, who has videotaped many of the performances, said Lei Day is as important as any lesson learned in class.

"Even though teaching them how to read and write is what it's all about, they won't remember the day they learned to read," she said. "But they will remember their kindergarten Lei Day. It's all about building memories."

Kathy Su'a, who held one grandchild while two more performed, swayed to the music. The children love this, she said, no doubt about it. She does, too.

"They're going to dance on May Day and they like to dance," she said. "People do get into May Day. The parents sure do. There are lei and there are costumes you have to sew. It's a big deal."

Lei Day is one of those quintessential, only-in-Hawai'i celebrations, a reunion of friends and a nostalgic reminder for anyone who went to school in the Islands. And if the abundant and fragrant lei didn't say that, the cameras sure did.

"It reminds us that Hawai'i is a special place full of flowers and that people here have a loving feeling for each other," said Keawe Miller, one of the school's kupuna.

Regina Mahelona held her videocamera over her head as her fifth-grade son joined the other students ­ and many in the crowd, herself included ­ to sing "Hawai'i Aloha."

"It means a lot to him," she said. "It's a culture thing. He knows that it's where everyone comes together and shares their talents."