Santa Rosa students ‘tour the world’

Santa Rosa Elementary School students and their families visited North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa and Antarctica in a ‘Tour of the World’ Thursday evening.

The highlight of the night, and the entire week as well, was the blow-up earth balloon, 20 feet high from north to south poles and 22 feet at the equator. “It’s a challenge when you order a 17-foot earth, and they send you a 20-foot one,” said Santa Rosa principal Rick Abel, “but we managed.”

Santa Rosa’s PTO paid for the earth balloon, and students have been touring it, inside and out, all week. Once inside, the landmasses are reversed, but that didn’t stop students from finding the countries where their families originated, naming islands or continents and even locating Maricopa.

Each visitor was given a passport when they arrived for the evening. It took seven or more passport stamps to visit the earth balloon, which was located in the multi-purpose room at the school.

The ‘tour’ visited Maricopa and Arizona, as well as countries located on each of the continents and in the Pacific Islands. Student artwork and individual projects were on display throughout the school.

Preschoolers presented Maricopa, and the four kindergarten classes offered information on Arizona. Other grade levels covered the Pacific Islands (first grade), South America (second grade), Europe (third grade), Asia (fourth grade) and Africa (fifth grade).

The fifth grade band and fourth grade choir provided music of the world outside in the large ramada. A ‘nations of the world’ presentation was offered twice during the evening.

Photos by Joyce Hollis