AURORA, Colo. — Students across the Denver metro woke up to a snow day in May, just weeks before summer break.
For Harper Elam, a Cherry Creek Schools fourth grader, the day was a dream come true — one she thinks she may have helped bring about herself.
"I didn't know we'd have a snow day in May, and I really did want to have one, but I didn't know it'd be May," Harper said.
❄️ WATCH: Denver7's Adria Iraheta caught up with Harper and other students on Denver's May snow day
Harper learned about snow day superstitions from her school bus driver on Tuesday afternoon.
“I got home from my bus stop and my bus driver told me to get two ice cubes, flush it down the toilet, wear your pajamas inside out, and put a spoon under your pillow," Harper said. "So that's what I did.”
The Cherry Creek School District ended up making the snow day announcement Tuesday night after Harper went to sleep.
“I tried waking her up to let her know, but she was sound asleep,” Harper's mom, Jacklin Elam, said.
"First snow day, and there's two and a half weeks left of school. It's pretty wild," she added.
A few miles away, students at Grandview High School made the most of the unexpected day off — sledding and snowboarding on school grounds.
"It's a really steep hill. It's a good hill," Grandview High School student Eva Rust said.
The students summed up the morning with a smile.
"Ooh, Christmas movie in May," said one high schooler.
While the snow day disrupted AP testing and some finals, districts said those will be rescheduled.
For seniors who had already wrapped up their exams, the timing couldn't have been better.
"I'm all lucky. I'm all done with my finals, I'm just preparing to go off to college," senior Tommy Rust said. “We’re trying to have fun. We made a jump down there. We were sledding down it, snowboarding down it. No school, no finals. It's nice.”
Fellow senior Marina Aguirre said she embraced the unexpected break.
“We had finals today, and I wanted to get it over with. But I was like, I'm gonna make the most of it. So I came out sledding," Aguirre said.
The snow day raised questions from some families across the Denver metro, since road conditions were not as bad as anticipated.
Denver7 reached out to several metro school districts to find out.
We heard back from Denver Public Schools, who told us it factored in the heavy, wet snow and its potential impacts to power, which could create dangerously cold conditions for learning if a campus were to lose power.
Temperatures are expected to warm back up within a few days.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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