Eberwhite Elementary School second-grader Lucy Palacios, 7, does her best to place a velcro marker on a measuring scale while stretching out a bungee cord as far as she can before it snaps her back to the start. She was playing a game during Friday's 12th annual K-grams Kid's Fair at the Univeristy of Michigan's Crisler Arena.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

The 12th annual K-grams Kids Fair drew about 950 students to Crisler Arena today for educational activities presented by a robot, a dragon, a princess and other fancifully dressed University of Michigan students.

And of course, it wouldn’t have been Ann Arbor without a couple of hippies.

The fair was the splashy wrap-up to another year of the K-grams mentoring program, which has U-M students become pen pals with kids and visit their classrooms to impart educational basics.

The kids came from 10 different schools in three districts to participate. All wore the tie-dye T-shirts they’d made earlier in the school year as a special project with their K-grams mentors.

University of Michigan student Jennifer Chronis watches as her Eberwhite Elementary School pen pals Sofie Miller, 9, left, Simone Boberly, center, and Aliisa Annala see how many pennies they can successfully float on a tin foil boat.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

The K-grams name is short for Kids’ Programs. The organization is run through the U-M’s University Housing office and also receives funding from the Michigan Student Assembly and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.

Supplemental fundraisers include a talent show and T-shirt sales, as well as restaurant nights in which the establishment contributes a percentage of the gross. Executive Director Haley Gire said operating funds this year amounted to $19,000.

Gire estimated that with several hundred students volunteering in one capacity or another, a total of 2,000 people were involved in the fair.

Students from two elementaries in the Willow Run Community Schools district, along with three from the Detroit Public Schools, joined with classes from five elementaries from Ann Arbor Public Schools.

They participated in four different fair “zones,” each with distinct themes: Medieval, 20th century, the future and prehistory.

Wearing paper crowns given out at the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority’s booth, Dicken School fifth-graders Emily Krile, 11, and Lara Aljammali, 10, agreed the 20th century was their favorite theme.

“It’s because there’s hippies, and it’s all based on the ’70s and ’80s,” Emily said, making herself heard over the strains of the Commodores’ “Brick House.”

Emily described hippies as “fun, energetic people, free-living, and they just enjoy life.”

Eberwhite Elementary School third-grader Camryn Bolden, 8, does her best to elude a play sword while learning choreographed combat moves.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

Her classmate Lara added, “It’s fun to see what they wear.”

Their teacher, Ken Monash, said he’s an 11-year veteran of the fair. After seeing news coverage of the first one in 1998, soon after K-grams was founded by Rishi Moudgil, Monash began bringing his classes.

He explained that a half-dozen K-grams volunteers from South Quad residence hall served as monthly pen pals with his 31 students. Halls are matched with schools in the program. The college students personally deliver their letters to the younger ones’ classrooms.

Some volunteers also visit the classrooms for K-grams’ weekly BookMARK program. BookMARK stands for Mentoring and Reading with Kids.

“The major benefit is the commitment the students in my classroom make with the college students,” said Monash, a 36-year veteran of the Ann Arbor Public Schools. “They love the experience of having a college pen pal.”

Emily and Lara said they also loved the experience of winning prizes when visiting the booths of 80 student groups at the fair.

One “20th century” activity was learning CPR techniques at the booth of the campus-based Washtenaw County American Red Cross club.

Amanda Caccavo, a junior from Rumson, N.J., who organizes campus blood drives, said Kids-Fair fits with the club’s outreach program.

Watching a third-grader try to compress the chest of the CPR mannequin, Caccavo said, “They’re probably not going to be able to save a life.”

Nor, judging by results at the U-M Marching Band’s booth, would many kids be able to play the tuba. Band members were letting novice soloists attempt selected brass instruments, with the mouthpiece of each horn getting a sanitizing wipe after every one.

In most cases, little more than a weak note emerged through the tuba’s giant bell. But Kim Jozwiak, a sophomore from Livonia who’s on the band’s flag line, observed one exceptional young player managed all of “Let’s Go Blue.”

Jozwiak said the purpose was to expose kids to the instruments and create a desire to master one.

“If they play an instrument and they like it, hopefully they’ll continue playing music through middle school and high school," Jozwiak said.

U-M facility worker Dwayne Gray Sr. stood by and watched 8-year-old Dwayne Jr., a Pattengill Elementary third-grader, who said he was looking forward to eating his bag lunch of a sandwich, Doritos, grapes and pop.

Gray, Sr., lauded the fair. “I like it due to the fact that it gives kids the opportunity to have fun while learning,” he said, noting the energy and emotion that was abundantly evident. “A lot of the kids need it just for kids’ time because the parents don’t offer it.”

And when “The Victors” sounded moments later to signal the lunch break, a remarkable number of the elementary students knew exactly when to pump their fists in the air.

Ronald Ahrens is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.