MOSES LAKE — It’s a tradition at Lakeview Terrace Elementary for the fifth grade to have a year-ending, fifth-grade-only party. This year it had a special twist – the fifth-graders came back from Camp Five.

The school lunchroom was turned over to the fifth-graders, who got pizza and pop, snacks and cookies and candy, a movie and popcorn. Only fifth-graders and a few teachers and aides are allowed, said organizer Diana Palmer.

The fifth-graders pick the theme, and the selection process is always a big deal. “They (the current fifth grade) came to me when they were third-graders,” Palmer said, having decided they liked “The Jungle Book” as their party theme. But by the time they got to fifth grade “The Jungle Book” seemed like a little-kid story, and Palmer and the kids decided on a safari theme.

So the lunchroom was filled with stuffed tigers and leopards, fake palm trees and jungle-themed decorations. The fifth-graders were encouraged to dress like they were on safari or in the jungle, and in fact, “we made it safari day for the whole school.”

And even though the fifth-graders decided “The Jungle Book” was kind of a little-kid book, the movie for the party was a live-action version of “The Jungle Book.”

Palmer said she wanted to bump the party up a notch because the fifth graders have spent the year at Camp Five. Fifth-graders from Lakeview and Garden Heights had their own campus at Chief Moses Middle School – Camp Five – due to overcrowding at the two grade schools.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].