On April 5, 10 students from Joel School traveled to Smith Middle School in Glastonbury to participate in a statewide celebration of languages, the CT COLT (Connecticut Council of Language Teachers) Rhyme Celebration. This year’s gathering was the 26th annual celebration, and featured 196 students from 29 Connecticut schools, performing in 11 different languages. The Joel students, all 3rd graders, performed a group song called “En nuestra Tierra tan linda” (On Our Beautiful Earth), and also had several heritage speakers perform in languages that they speak at home: Tessa Gebauer in Russian and Solange Morales-Toledo and Jadon Cartagena in Spanish.