_{Fifth-graders at B.F. Day School in Fremont prepare for Saturday’s Solstice Parade}

On the second-to-last day of school in Seattle, the fifth-grade class at B.F. Day Elementary School is bustling around the art room, cutting streamers, trying on hats and testing out their twirls. Volunteers from the Fremont Arts Council are also busy, helping students scissor through fabric, glue on streamers and parade their wares around the school.

Like many Fremonsters, the kids who attend B.F. Day are excited about next Saturday’s parade. They dash from one end of the room to the other, looking for the glue gun, while art teacher Robin Kinney Robbins looks on.

“For the second-to-last day of school, they’re pretty calm,” Robbins says.

While this year’s graduates-to-be are busy making streamered hats, many of the other classes are celebrating the end of the school year at Golden Gardens. You would think the kids would be jealous, but they’re too busy creating streamered hats of all shapes and sizes. The girls are holding yards of fabric across the room as one of them shears through it, while the boys stand at a counter gluing fabric strips to cardboard cutouts, before a little mini-parade ensues, down the stairs, out to the playground, then back in to the office to show off.

_{Students at B.F. Day School in Fremont creating hats for the Solstice Parade}

It’s a familiar sight to see the students enjoying themselves during art class with volunteers from the Fremont Arts Council. In fact, the tradition goes all the way back to 1995, according to fifth-grade teacher Lauri Boren. Back then, a collaboration between the Arts Council, the school, B.F. Day’s PTA, the City of Seattle and Aruba Pottery allowed students to begin creating ceramic tiles to decorate the retaining wall at the bottom of the school.

These days, students spend days creating the tiles. Each 5th-grader designs a tile depicting what they want to be when they grow up, and then, when they are finished, Fremont Arts Council volunteers like Jessica Randall, help secure the tiles to the wall. To make them, the students use the slab method, harden them with 22 hours of kiln firing, and use both a colored underglaze and a clear glaze to protect them from the elements.

“We tell the kids those tiles will probably be up there longer than they are alive,” Robbins explains.

_{A portion of the B.F. Day mural at Fremont Ave. and 39th St.}

Tiles from B.F. Day’s Class of 2008 can be seen along 39th St., just east of Fremont Ave. The Fremont Solstice Parade will be held on June 21st at noon- directions can be found on the Fremont Arts Council’s website.

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2. Can’t Rain on Their Parade
3. Pictures of you: Solstice Parade
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