It was a quick trip around the world for the students of Pine Valley Elementary School April 10 as they got to experience Greece, Ireland, India, Japan, Peru and the U.S. as part of World Tour Day.

Actually Ireland got a little double duty. The school assembly started off with twin dancers from Colorado Springs' Celtic Steps. My daughter, Alicia, and I, who study at the Bennett School of Irish Dance, set up "Ireland" in another room.

We didn't really know what to expect, just that we would have four different grades visit us---kindergarten, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades---and that we were to give them an overview of the culture of Ireland.

Actually, the reason we were there was that Molly Bennett, our dance instructor in Denver, asked if we could come as we lived in the Springs and she lived in Aurora. She also knew that we could probably carry it off.

So, I dusted off some things we had, like a small Celtic harp, a tin whistle and a bodhran (round Irish drum), found a great music-only video I got from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, looked at the Irish folks tales I had and headed off to the school. I wanted to make Irish soda bread, but I ran out of time, but I made the students a copy of a great recipe from a friend of mine's mother in Chicago.

We set up shop in Room 114, right next to Peru, which was appropriately located in the Spanish room. The 2nd graders had decorated the room for us with shamrocks hanging from the ceiling and a very large paper Irish flag. And one of the parents had made beef-barley soup, making up for my being unable to get the bread done.

In came the first class, the 2nd graders who had decorated the room. We heard a roaring of a plane landing (and later taking off). We started off with asking the students what they knew about Ireland and where it was. Then with the video running ("A Song of Ulster"), I told them a little about Ireland and its history, leading into a folk tale. This was a little hard to choose, as most are rather gruesome or inappropriate for their age group. I settled on "The Thirteenth Son of the King of Erin," having the children add appropriate sound effects for the giants, the sea monster and the beautiful princess (one of the 4th graders added a "Help me, help me" which sounded a bit like Vincent Price in "The Fly"). Depending on the time we had, we watched Colin Dunne and Jean Butler and company dance the finale of "Riverdance" or went directly to Alicia showing her Irish dance dress, made by Molly as well, and she performed either her competition reel or slip jig steps. We had one class try a group dance, but the other three did better learning a jig step.

During lunch, we went around and looked at some of the other "countries." India was all decked out with tasty Indian food and there were projects for making special necklaces and candles (in honor of one of their festival of lights), while incense wafted through the room. Japan boasted the largest fish kite I have ever seen with some Japanese food samples and an origami project. Greece had baklava and an Olympic torch that had been carried in a previous torch relay. Peru had some llamas (not real ones) and some interesting looking dolls and other things. And the smell of popcorn came from the library, where the students learned about the U.S. After the last plane took off and the travelers "landed" back in their classrooms, they all met again to discuss the day and hear Native American drummers. Alicia and I headed up to Denver to dance with others from the Bennett School at University Park Elementary, which was having a cultural heritage day as well.

I think we all had fun, but it was also a bit of a sad time for the staff, as this was the final time for World Tour Day. After this school year, Pine Valley Elementary is scheduled to close.