Penticton teens and their kindergarten buddies revisit the best of childhood in heartwarming music video

As this year's high school grad class at Princess Margaret Secondary School in Penticton prepare to move to the next step in life, their little buddies in kindergarten were happy to remind them of what not to forget about childhood through a special music video.

Maggie students in Grade 12 work with kids at local elementary schools through the First Peoples class, which implements inter-generational learning tactics.

"We meet once a month, just to get to know each other, do some activities together. Sometimes we've written poetry together. But I always like to do something where we make some sort of final product together that we can share with parents and others. And so the Grade 12s always make a music video with their little buddies," explained Maggie teacher Erica Fitton.

Usually, Fitton lets the kids come up with the music choice themselves, but this year, after watching artist Macklemore's touching music video for the song "Glorious," in which he tours his grandmother around town revisiting her youth, she had an idea to pitch them.

"A grad-buddy video where the kindergarteners could kind of show the grads everything they're gonna miss about being a kid. And so I said, I have an idea. And you guys don't have to go with it. But here's what it is. And I showed them that video. And then I kind of explained my idea. And it was very sweet. A lot of them were actually crying by the end. And they're like, yes, we want to do that for sure. And so we spent an hour kind of brainstorming everything they missed about being a kid."

Nerf guns, snow sledding, that parachute game that was the best day ever in gym class — it's all in there.

Once the concept came together, kids signed up for specific activities in the film they wanted to take part in, and Fitton oversaw operations. A Maggie student with an interest in videography took over editing and filming.

The grad class also made sure that their little buddy counterparts had grad t-shirts just like theirs, except instead of "Grad 2023," the kindergartners have "Grad 2035."

"A bunch of us got together and all the kids chipped in five bucks each and we ordered the shirts off Amazon, in white, and then are one of our teachers printed off the Grad 2035 labels and we ironed those on," Fitton said.

"And then we tie-dyed the shirts, and we gave them that as their Christmas gift, and they also got to wear it in the video."

The video turned out full of fun, with all the kids having a good time. Fitton said she has had nothing but good feedback so far from parents of all the kids who say they treasure the footage.

She said it truly represents inclusivity.

"Looking at that video, you would never know who the at-risk kids are. Who the unpopular kids are, who the popular kids are. It's a very equalizing thing, and I love that about it," Fitton said.

"A big part of our classes is about community building and coming together as a [graduating] class. And it's one of the largest components of really bringing the class together in a strong and meaningful way."