LYNNWOOD – At Oak Heights Elementary School, Veterans Day is more than just a day off from school.

Preparations begin in August, when fifth-grade teachers select patriotic music they will teach students.

Ninety fifth-graders prepare speeches, study historical passages and poetry to recite, and learn songs to sing and sign. Some learn to march in a choreographed flag exercise.

Students in other grades make posters and write letters to veterans that second-grade teacher Carol Blaschka personally delivers to Seattle Veterans Affairs Hospital.

The ambitious preparations and time investment wasn’t lost on Rod Smith, 74, of Lynnwood, who wore his Korean War Veterans cap Wednesday to the students’ annual tribute.

Two of his grandchildren, Jacob, a fourth-grader, and Meagan, a sixth-grader, attend the school. More than a dozen veterans spanning five decades of military service were recognized and honored.

“It’s very moving, impressive, appreciated, whatever other words you can think of,” the former Marine staff sergeant said.

Jerry Olmstead, 41, a former Navy petty officer third class, was part of the crew on the USS Midway stationed in Yokosuka, Japan, for six years. His son, Jay, was part of the fifth-grade choir, and he watched him closely.

“It’s really nice what they do every year,” he said.

Olmstead and other veterans visiting the north Lynnwood campus Wednesday said they wished troops in Iraq and Afghanistan could have been at Oak Heights Elementary to see how much they are appreciated.

If they did, they would have understood that young people do understand who veterans are.

“Veterans are people who have fought in the many wars our country has faced,” said Shaneel Sologar, a fifth-grade student. “They are the men and women who have served in the armed forces during times of conflict and during times of peace.”

Morgan Robinson, a fifth-grader, quoted from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us … that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Fifth-grade teacher Susan Newman helped arrange her 10th Veterans Day assembly. She has watched the ceremony evolve into a tradition and source of school pride over the years.

Newman shares with her students the heartfelt letters from a World War II veteran who attended the assembly for many years before he died.

“Every year is different,” she said. “Every year we try a different theme. It’s always worth it.”

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.