LAKEWOOD — The end of school was fast approaching Monday, but the buses, parents and teachers had to wait.

The Tulalip Canoe Family had the stage, and the students at Lakewood Elementary School were having too much fun to stop the assembly.

Waving flashy black capes over red dresses, dancers Wahulice (Roselle Fryberg) and Tisha Anderson were leading a double file of students in a long oval. Banging on his ceremonial hand drum, Tony Hatch leaned into the microphone to urge them on.

"Go faster! Faster!" Hatch said, picking up the pace. Onstage with him, Maniyah, Melody and Kiona Dumont, Lisa Powers, Bibiana Ancheta and Matt and Ray Fryberg sang and drummed at a quicker clip.

The double lines stretched and rippled with glee as kids started running and skipping to keep up.

The assembly capped the first of two days of activities called "Celebrating Differences." Now in its 10th year, the annual cultural diversity project has grown, said Dave Duzan, the teacher who has coordinated the event for seven years.

"It was nice to get the kids involved," Duzan said of the Tulalip dancers.

Getting the kids involved is what Duzan has been doing, too. In the morning, the second-graders participated in a disability awareness workshop.

Some wore goggles that limited their vision. Others learned about sign language or had to write their names on cards on their foreheads and then try to read the scribbles to experience the frustration of learning disabilities.

"Some of the kids were great, though," said John Muhler, a Camano Island artist who sometimes substitute teaches at the school. "They could decipher the letters."

In past years, students also have used wheelchairs to experience what people with limited mobility have to go through.

In the hallway, a cultural fair was set up that took kids to Africa at one table, South Korea at the next, then Latvia and the Peruvian Amazon. The last table was a station where kids could make African kufi hats or American Indian masks.

At the Africa table, Clif Irvin returned with his collection of wooden tongue drums, spoons and bones. Kids played the tongue drums xylophone-style with Superball-tipped mallets.

At the Peru table, kindergarten teacher Becky Bartlett pointed to a picture of a family in a dugout canoe.

"Have you ever taken a canoe to school?" Bartlett asked her students.

"No, and I don’t plan to," said 6-year-old Elijah Boomer. Bartlett smiled.

After all the kids had filed out of the assembly, the Tulalip Canoe Family continued playing the song to its conclusion. Voices and drums boomed in the empty gym.

When they finished, the only one left watching, Muhler, smiled with appreciation.

"That was beautiful," he said.

Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.