Traveling The World On A Thursday

By Eliza Hallabeck

For fifth grade students in Gina Swanson and Dina Mastroni’s cluster at Reed Intermediate School, Thursday, December 22, was a trip around the world.

With the divider between the cluster’s two classrooms opened, students stood around the perimeter of the area dressed in varying costumes, ready to explain their most recent project.

Ms Swanson explained students at the school have completed the project for the past seven years, and this year students began researching the week of Thanksgiving.

The students were charged with studying a country’s holidays, landmarks, traditions, and more.

For the project, students are divided into teams to pick a country, research it, write an essay, give presentations, create display boards, and spend a month working to prepare for exhibit day, according to Ms Swanson.

Logan Flynn and Vincent Genovese worked together to study Russia. “We took a month, and we learned a lot of stuff about the Kremlin and the Golden Gates, all the different republics, and the different holidays they have,” said Vincent.

New Year is the biggest Russian holiday, according to Logan, and Vincent said it was his favorite holiday to study. Logan, however, said his favorite Russian holiday event is Pancake Week.

“Because it’s a whole week with pancakes,” said Logan.

Maud Dewit and Allyson Kenny studied the Netherlands.

“We found out that it is really old-fashioned,” said Maud. “There are a lot of popular things, and a lot of people go there for their exports and imports.”

The exports and imports, Allyson explained, are “very interesting, like the cheese is about as big as a beach ball and it is always covered in yellow wax to keep it salty and fresh.”

Both girls wore Maud’s parents’ shoes, wooden clogs, for the day. Maud said she is Dutch, so the shoes, while too big for the two girls, were comfortably worn in.

“They are used for gardening,” Maud explained, “so if you trip on a rock or step on thorns, it won’t hurt.”

At another booth, Robert Disibio, Ryan Nolin, and Aidan Coleman shared information they learned about Ireland with visitors and other students.

“One thing that I found out is they are very big on Guinness [a lager],” said Robert. “It’s one of their biggest exports.”

Robert said he also learned about the sport hurling, which he found interesting.

Aidan said he learned that on Christmas it is tradition in Ireland to leave Santa Claus a bottle of Guinness; “It’s very popular there,” he noted.

Studying Ireland for Aidan, who said his mother’s side of his family is Irish, helped him learn much more about Irish history.

Near the boys, Claire Dubois and Lisa Price stood in kimonos, one authentic and one homemade, ready to discuss what they learned about Japan.

“My favorite thing that I learned about Japan was about their flag,” Claire said, “and how the red circle on the Japanese flag symbolizes the sun. The word Japan means the land of sun, and the white background symbolizes honesty and purity.”

The tourist attractions in Japan drew Lisa’s attention, she said, because there were so many to focus on.

Cole Latte and Ethan Ledina wore chef hats and aprons to discuss their study of Italy, while other students brought props collected from home and abroad to school to help emphasize their projects.

Many countries were represented by the students on Thursday, from Costa Rica to Norway.