The smell of Tres Leches, Spanish Rice, and soup filled the room as students gathered to celebrate Hispanic culture through food, language, and learning. As part of the seniors’ Spanish end of year project, each student researched a Spanish-speaking country and created a presentation to share key facts, traditions, and history.
Senior Violet Waniewski is a student of Mrs. Ruiz’s Spanish classes. “I enjoyed getting to see what kinds of dishes my friends made from their assigned countries,” Waniewski said.
Mrs. Ruiz was inspired to make this end of year project after collaborating with fellow teacher Mrs. Tabon after the pandemic had ended to help keep up students’ engagement during the last unit of their school year.
“I wanted to do something with travel and food and Mrs. Tobon wanted to do a deep dive into the Spanish speaking countries so we combined our ideas to make it into a Journey of Exploration to a Spanish speaking country,” Mrs. Ruiz stated.
Cameron Addauci is a senior in Mrs. Ruiz’s 3rd period Spanish V class.
“Making the project was a lot of fun and I had fun participating in the mini party we had. My friend Bella made a cake and it was fun to try that along with other foods,” Adduci told The Prowl, when speaking on his opinion and participation in the project.
Ruiz expressed hope for students to develop a, “love for travel and a curiosity about the products, practices and perspectives of the people from other countries along with the knowledge of our similarities and differences.”
Throughout his experience with this project. “I learned a lot about each culture and learned about how each culture is unique and different,” Adduci said.
“It is important because it allows students to learn about other countries that they may have no knowledge about,” Ruiz said. “It also provides an opportunity to travel virtually for students who have not had an opportunity to travel to another country.”
This celebration was an opportunity to allow students to use creativity and independence for their final project. Not only was this a fun activity to end the year, but the students got to learn about cultures through experience. This activity showcases how students can learn through other teaching methods. They all looked forward to this special class celebration and it was a unifying way to end the year in Spanish class.
