Students bring the world to HOB

Wearing a black-striped dress with a perfectly positioned beret atop her head, Donna Snyder looked the part of a French schoolgirl. When she sang Frere Jacques for her classmates, it was hard to tell she's not French.

"My mom-mom helped me learn French," the third-grader said.

Donna shared knowledge about the Eiffel Tower and Paris as part of a cultural day celebration May 4 at H.O. Brittingham Elementary School.

Brightly decorated trifolds representing 13 countries formed a circle for students and parents to peruse and learn about new cultures. Students prepared speeches to read, similar to a living wax museum, as groups moved from one station to another.

Teacher Alfredo Rodriguez started the event several years ago to celebrate the diversity of the school's students.

"Kids learn about their culture and those of everyone else," he said.

Third-graders Paula Campos, Yasli Morales and Lupita Galvez learned more about Mexican culture through their project. A brightly colored Mexican flag and a big sombrero provided talking points for their presentation.

The girls said they never knew how popular bull fighting was before researching for their project.

"They have a lot of bulls over there," Paula said. "It's a little scary but people really like it."

The girls also learned about the importance of Mexico's Dia de los Muertos – the day of the dead.

"I didn't know about how big a celebration that is," said Yasli.

Pulling a 100 peso note out of a tiny, leather purse on display, Lupita admired the purse's workmanship and said she could probably buy a pair of boots with the Mexican money.

At the other end of the cafeteria, classmates Michael Firth and Jace Jennings used Mario and Luigi dolls of the popular Mario Brothers videogame to attract students to their display.

"I like Venice the best. You have to take boats everywhere," Michael said.

A smorgasbord of international food from assorted countries awaited participants and observers following the presentations.

Emmanuel Tull and Blake Gipko tried jerk chicken, Asian rice and empanadas.

"I've tried empanadas but not like this," Emmanuel said before taking a satisfied bite.

The boys don't have a connection to Brazil but chose the country for their demonstration because they said it looked interesting.

Now they know Brazil's population is 200 million people and the capital is Brasilia.

"I would like to live there someday," Emmanuel said.

Blake said he definitely would like to visit. Particularly since it's a skimboard destination.

"It's a really good skimboarding spot," he said.