All of Youngsville Elementary School — about 300 students — celebrated a year of School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. Students in the SOAR — Safety Ownership Always Respectful — program helped select the activities.

“The luau is our year-end celebration for their positive behavior throughout the year,” Counselor Laura Bierbower said. “Everyone gets to participate.”

Throughout the school year, students earn tickets for positive behaviors.

The Positive Behavior program includes a list of consistent and explicit expectations, Bierbower said.

Times Observer photos by Brian Ferry And right, Youngsville Elementary School kindergartners Harper Wallace (left) and Vaida Humphrey, wearing their luau leis and sunglasses, take a look around the gym while they wait in line for the bounce houses at the school’s end-of-the-year luau.

Students who demonstrate those expectations can earn tickets that can be turned in for chances in drawings, special prizes, and add-ons during the luau.

Students last week in grades three through five spent the morning in the gym and outside. There were bounce houses, oversized games, a treasure hunt in the sand, bubbles, flamingo ring toss, and many other activities. Students in grades kindergarten through two had their luau in the afternoon.

Each student received sunglasses and a lei.

Points could be spent on things like grass-skirts, visors, headbands, and bracelets.

Sometimes, the end-of-the-year activities are split up, with the parent teacher organization running an event and SOAR organizing another.

This year, “we joined forces to make it a bigger event,” Bierbower said.