Fourth graders' research projects take guests on a world tour

Visitors to Colonial Elementary School recently took a “Trip Around The World,” as fourth graders from Mrs. Heiduk's and Ms. O’Neill’s classes shared their research on different countries. 

“I picked Cuba, because I like the culture and the language in Cuba,” said CES fourth grader Hannah Stephens. 

Fourth grader Benjamin Fu chose to research the United Arab Emirates. 

“I picked the UAE, because I just went there, and it was really fun,” he said. “There were so many awesome places, food, and people.”

Michael Kuneck let fate help him decide what country to explore. 

“I picked Poland, because I just grabbed a random book,” he said. “I learned it’s home to the world’s biggest castle.” 

The students kicked off their informational writing unit in January. Once they chose their countries, they learned about putting facts into their own words, tips for organizing their research, and how to put together a simple bibliography.

“I think it was really helpful that we had a graphic organizer,” added Hannah. “The research tools that our teachers gave us made it really easy to find all of the facts that we needed.”

In the end, the students created a five paragraph essay, a visual slideshow, a book, a poster board flag, and a short speech to introduce their country.  

“It was really fun,” said CES fourth grader Josephine Cavanaugh who did her project on Australia, ”Because you get to learn this information, and then you get to share the information with other people.”

The fourth graders will continue to build on their English Language Arts skills as they move on to opinion writing.