PHOTO GALLERY: Heritage Feast Gives a Taste of the World

Nearly 100 students at Woodview School sampled food from around the world during their Heritage Feast.

Students studied their ancestry and created projects based on what they learned, said fourth-grade teacher Jacquie Duginske.

"The Heritage Feast is a culminating activity in which each student brings in a traditional dish from one country of their ancestry," she said.

Heritage Feast was held Nov. 15 in the cafeteria, which was packed with a wide variety of food from Mexico, Spain, Italy and more.

"It was great for the students to pick one country and learn about it specifically," said Duginske. "The kids were really excited for this day to try all of the different foods."

She thanked the parents as well for helping to make the foods and serving it to the kids.

Students Ashley Reese, 10, and Kennedy Stoffel, 9, both of Grayslake, said the project was fun.

"Our older brothers did this when they were in fourth grade, and I really wanted to do it too," said Ashley, who studied Italy. "I learned that the most popular sport in Italy is football, or soccer to us. And their population is 61 million."

Hanging in the hallways were student-made posters giving details of their countries.

"It was a lot of fun because we did work in our classroom learning about the country, and then our parents did a lot, too, to serve all this food," said Kennedy, who brought in a Black Forest cake from Germany. "I learned about Germany, like that they have a king and a queen who wears a crown. That is why I'm wearing this crown!"