In an effort to give students an assignment about the 13 original colonies with real world implications, Katherine Lace’s fifth grade class at Eastside Connections School partnered with the Niles travel service Signal Travel and Tours in March.

The project began with a visit by Signal Travel’s Michelle Boyd, who talked to students about some of the interesting places to visit today in the 13 original colonies.

She then asked the students to create a travel advertisement for the 13 original colonies that would be displayed at Signal Travel.

To do this, Boyd told students they would need to find out what attracted people to the 13 original colonies in the first place and what attracts visitors to those same destinations today.

In assigned pairs, students then picked a colony name from a basket and determined how to tackle the assignment. Over the next month, students spent time working on their project while learning about the different colonial regions.

“The fifth graders had wonderful ideas to showcase the original 13 colonies then and today,” Lace said.

To cap off the project, students wrote a speech about their advertisements and presented it to parents and Boyd April 17.

Boyd said she was impressed with the amount of research the students did for the project.

“They are really good,” she said.