May 14, 2015 By Suzanne Elliott 3 min read

It was a mini United Nations conference at McMurray Elementary School in Peters Township.

Rather than discussing global conflicts and issues taking place, 300 sixth-grade students learned about the cultures from different countries May 8 at the school’s annual Spanning the Globe program, a day-long celebration of the world and its different cultures that coincides with 12 weeks of study of either French, German or Spanish.

“It’s an amazing opportunity for children to share with other children,” said Blair Stoehr, the school principal, adding that planning for the event begins in January. “It’s their celebration of a year’s worth of work.”

Clad in native attire from the country they studied, different groups of students, holding the flag of the country they represented, entered the school gymnasium while music from that nation played in the background and their classmates clapped and cheered. Countries represented at the Spanning the Globe festivities included Greece, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, India, France, Germany, China, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, Russia and the United States.

Each group of students was greeted in the language of the nation they represented. They were also told related facts – for example, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people in the world than any other language. English was third.

“I think they like it best when they can come together like this,” said Jennifer Goldbach, who teaches math at the school, as she watched the opening festivities.

Once the opening ceremony was completed, groups of students went to a homeroom for a presentation on that group’s country. In many cases, a volunteer who was from that particular nation was on hand to greet the students and tell them about life in their native country.

“The presenters were my favorite part,” said Cassidy McCormick. “I liked hearing about their culture. We got to see things they brought from their countries, like currency.”

“India was my favorite to learn about,” Nathan Daniels said. “They told us a lot about the culture, different food and different gestures that are important in India.”

“The presenter for Mexico let us make quesadillas, but I think if I could visit any country that I learned about, I would visit France. I am learning French right now and I really like it,” said Jillian Spernak.

When the room presentations were completed, the students returned to the gym, which had been transformed into a food festival by parent volunteers.

Each student was given a passport to visit the tables and encouraged to sample a food item from every country, said Stoehr, adding that they are required to get their passports stamped as proof they visited a table.

When the food was finished, there was a tug-of-war between the nations followed up by popsicles and discussions about the day.