Forget the Flight of the Bumblebee - Rheem Elementary's Butterflies March Again

Donald Rheem Elementary School was a sea of orange and not because Halloween was around the corner, but for the 37th Annual Kindergarten Butterfly Parade -- a tradition at the school. The children prepared all month for this event by making their wings in class, raised caterpillars until they metamorphosed into full grown Monarch butterflies, and on Friday everyone took flight.

Parents, former faculty members and the kindergarten's fifth grade buddies showed up to witness the annual migration. Among the parents on hand was Stephanie Kusinski -- in attendance to watch her daughter Hania. Kusinski was in the very first class to march in the parade back in 1974. Also in attendance was her former Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Maryeda Theer. Theer started the butterfly parade after a fellow teacher shared a lesson on the famed Pacific Grove monarchs.

“The parade was a little different back then," Theer said. "The first year we tried (it), only the girls were Monarch and the boys were one big caterpillar which they painted themselves. The process was extremely difficult, so the next year and ever since we had all the children be Monarchs."

After the parade was over the children returned to their classrooms and to serenade their parents with a few songs about their favorite creatures, led by current kindergarten teacher Bess Inzeo.

Inzeo said the teachers have come to love the event almost as much as their students, which is why they will keep having it for years to come. It's a way of "Keeping the magic in kindergarten," she said.