Sonja White took her pupils on an incredible trip to Mexico while they were still in class as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. Instead of transporting the young children to Mexico, the passionate teacher organized a very realistic imaginary vacation for her kids, which included laminated passports and boarding permits.
White posted the video, which is currently going viral with over 2.5 million views, on TikTok. The mock trip began with the kids lining up at the passport office to have their pictures taken.
“Come along with first graders to Mexico. Here we’re taking passport pictures. I’m going to laminate some boarding passes, and I’m going to laminate some sombreros and make them our placemats,” White said in a voiceover in the video, according to Romper.
The pupils prepared their carry-on bags for the trip while White transformed her classroom into a plane. She directed the kids to form a queue outside the classroom to board their “nonstop flight to Mexico” with their boarding cards in hand. She worked as a TSA agent outside the classroom, checking their faces on their passports to “make sure they are who they say they are.”
Another teacher assisted White by closing the airplane doors once everyone was seated and ready for take-off, which White mimicked by playing a video of a plane taking off from YouTube on a television screen in front of the class.
On their 15-minute journey, she took on the role of a flight attendant, handing out chips and drinks, which Romper assumes she paid for herself because teachers in the country must pay for all of their own classroom supplies.
Despite a little bumpy landing, the class touched down safely in Mexico, where they received a stamp on their passports as well as their paychecks because it was payday. Payday meant that “everything from here on out, they will have to pay me for,” including gifts at the gift store for family members and meals at a restaurant given by some of the moms.
The outlet noted that this wasn’t the first time White went all out for her students. In August, she made headlines when she shared her students’ job interviews for classroom jobs on TikTok. She also gave them the farmer’s market experience in one of her videos and many more.
Her comments were flooded with praise for her great work.