Dallas ISD's Mockingbird Elementary School is taking students on a trip far away this week without leaving school grounds.
"This week the kids get to learn about a different country," Principal Margaret Huff said. "They decided to choose Ghana."
The hallways are decorated to show the landscape of Ghana and the trades the West African country is known for, like gold and cocoa.
"I just want them to have that experience that they may not get living here in Dallas," Huff said.
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Students are tasting traditional foods like "red red," a tomato-based black-eyed pea dish. They're also shopping in a market to buy Ghana-inspired crafts they made with replica Cedi, the Ghanaian currency.
"I was born in Ghana. I came (to the United States) when I was three," Huff said. "I think experiences are really important in how we narrate our experience and how we shine a positive light of Africa."
Huff hopes the immersive Ghana experience her students are getting now will stick with them in the future.
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"I think learning about a country that may not look like them exposes them to different parts of the world and the needs in different parts of the world and how they can advocate and how they can make a difference in the future...and even right now," Huff said. "I really wanted them to have that memory and something that makes elementary school magical."
Huff said the staff and parents at Mockingbird Elementary spent months planning and preparing for this week, a precursor to their studies for the upcoming Black History Month.
