Around the world in one afternoon

Leyton Elementary students took a trip around the world without leaving Gurley, or even the gymnasium, this week as fourth grade students educated their schoolmates on the history, culture and cuisine of a handful of foreign countries in the school's annual culture fair.

"It was a lot of work," 10-year-old Riley Golden said.

Throughout Monday afternoon, students and parents were allowed into the gym to visit the culture fair. Fourth graders lined the walls dressed in costumes representing countries they researched. On a table beside each of them was a poster board containing facts about the country, as well as various items and samples of food that originate from there.

Riley said while it took about two months to create his poster board, he had been research his chosen country, Italy, for nearly four months.

"Researching everything that would be on this board," he said.

Riley said he chose Italy because it is the home country of his favorite artist, Leonardo da Vinci. He also thought the cuisine would include foods like pizza.

"But I discovered many other foods that are different from pizza," he said. "We have anchovies, olives, they have pits, mozzarella cheese and then we have strawberry-flavored gelatto and pistachio-flavored gelatto. We also have teramisu, which is like coffee cake, but tastes different."

Riley said he has sampled all of the foods at his table, with the exception of the anchovies.

"I hate anchovies," he said. "All the adults that came by, they went for the anchovies."

Fourth grader Kaleb Borges, 10, chose to research China for the culture fair. He said he liked how the country had a short name like is as well as its overall shape.

"It is shaped like a chicken," Kaleb said.

Kaleb said he learned a lot through the project, especially in creating the food for the fair.

"Me and my mom made it," he said. "We have bubble tea, also known as pearl milk tea, and shrimp fried rice. Both of them are very good."

As each student visited the represented countries, the fourth graders stamped their "passports" so they had a record of where they had been.

Leyton Elementary School does a similar assignment in sixth grade that tasks students with delving into more thorough research of a foreign country. Riley said he wants to work with Italy again.

"If I can," he said. "It's my favorite."