NATCHEZ &045; Poipu Beach, Kauai, Lahaina, Molokai, Wailea, Maui and Makaha are just some of the places Frazier Primary students have been visiting during the past few weeks, learning about Hawaii in their preparation for their &uot;Cruise into Reading&uot; Friday morning.

As part of their Books and Beyond program kick-off the school hosted a &uot;cruise&uot; to Hawaii Friday complete with a limbo, hula dancing, ham and pineapple tasting and leis.

&uot;It is to get the kids excited about the reading program and get parents involved,&uot; Lorraine Franklin, Frazier Primary principal, said.

Through the program, students are encouraged to read 120 books between now and March. Each student that does so receives a gold medal. Last year, the students at the school combined to read more than 85,000 books.

The program and the &uot;cruise&uot; are to &uot;encourage the love of reading,&uot; Lisa Johnson, co-chair of Books and Beyond, said.

Welcomed by the Robert Lewis Middle School band Friday morning, students entered the cafeteria in their best cruise wear, some with grass skirts cut out of paper, sunglasses, flowers in their hair and some boys wearing shirts, also made out of paper and complete with Hawaiian flowers painted on them.

In the library, students played hot potato with a real coconut, something many had never seen before.

In the art room, the children did the limbo, dipping down and crawling on the floor at times to get under the bar.

In the cafeteria was a session of organized chaos as students and their teachers let loose and learned to hula dance.

And do not forget the food. The students sampled some ham and pineapple, food they might eat if on the islands they were studying about.

Not only did the children have a good time, what they felt was an escape for two hours, they also learned things.

Each class chose an island or part of Hawaii to learn about and decorated the outside of their classrooms accordingly.

Sand, seashells, palm trees, waves and even a volcano graced the outside walkways Friday.

In Andrea January’s first grade class, the students sampled Hawaiian bread and learned all about Molokai, an island that was formed by a volcano.

The class did volcano experiments, learned the traditions of the island and even their alphabet.

January said it is a good way for students to learn about something far away and different from Natchez and learning about different cultures is an important part of the benchmarks in social studies.

&uot;It’s a great supplement,&uot; January said about the &uot;cruise&uot; and Hawaiian activities. &uot;They have been loving everything.&uot;