First graders mark Patriot Day
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Students made tiny flags.

On Monday, Sept. 11, millions of people all over the United States mournfully reviewed, once again, the carnage and heartbreak of that day exactly five years before when terrorists killed nearly 3,000 Americans.

But no one grieved in teacher Shanon Null's first-grade class at H.G. Olsen Elementary School in Port Aransas. No one talked about Osama bin Laden, of doomed airliners, of flattened skyscrapers. Instead, the kids laughed and sang patriotic songs playing from a cassette tape player.

Sixteen 6and 7-year-olds sat at their desks, making little American flags out of popsicle sticks, construction paper, tempera paint, Elmer's glue and crayons.

"It was Patriot Day," Null said. "To honor Patriot Day, we all wore red, white and blue and talked about the flag and created the flag. It was a way of remembering 9-11 without all of the sadness."

Congress declared Sept. 11 Patriot Day, a national day of remembrance, not long after the 911 attacks.

Finished with their artwork, the kids said they loved their flags.

"It's special," said 6-year-old Natalia Bien. "Because it reminds us of America."