Sayville Elementary Students Transform into Travel Agents

The “travel agents” who stood ready to inform customers about countries they should visit welcomed visitors to the Panerello Paradise Travel Agency.

The Lincoln Avenue social studies expo transformed Mrs. Mary Panarello’s third grade classroom into a travel agency for the purpose of presenting the Sayville students’ research projects to invited family and guests.

The students had spent weeks preparing, using print and technology resources, as they researched different countries. Each student created an informational brochure using Microsoft Publisher and wrote a persuasive essay intended to convince parents and guests to visit his or her country. During the expo, parents would be asked to vote for the three places where they would most “book a trip” based upon the most convincing presentations and essays. After, Mrs. Panarello would award three “Employee-of-the-Month” certificates to the students who “booked” the most trips to their country. “As the date approached,” Mrs. Panerello said, “the children got really into the persuasive writing part of the project.”

 On the day of the expo, the Panarello Paradise Travel Agents were well prepared and happy to offer insights and information to make their country most appealing, and the customers truly enjoyed the colorful brochures as they learned interesting facts about each country. 

“The event was great!” add Mrs. Panerello. “The attendance was amazing. The parents were impressed with the knowledge the children had acquired about their countries. One parent even said, ‘I would have done better in school as a kid if learning was this fun.’”

Congratulations to all the students for their memorable presentations, but especially to the Employees-of-the Month: Isabella Graziano - New Zealand, Jose Jaimes - Argentina, and Rylie Mullaney - Germany for their winning powers of persuasion.