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Woodside second-graders celebrate culture
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .The students of Andrea Crum's second-grade Woodside classroom smiled during their Culture Day on Dec. 16. Classmates helped hold up an Adinkra cloth, a West African tradition, that each student helped decorate.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Students Jordan Kosinski (left) and Lily Fairall showed the traditional foods they served on Dec. 16's Culture Day. The second-graders were invited to bring in foods from their country of origin.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Students were invited to bring any artifacts they have from their country of origin for their Dec. 16 Culture Day. Jonathan Winston, who is Irish, brought photos of Ireland from a relative who had recently visited the country.
By SARAH FOOR
In one second-grade Woodside classroom, there are students whose relatives come from India, Puerto Rico, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Croatia and England, among many others. Woodside second-grade students recently learned about their backgrounds through their Culture Day on Dec. 16.
Second-grade teacher Andrea Crum began the program to teach her students about diversity and family pride.
“I wanted to teach the kids to have pride in their own traditions and heritage, but also to teach them that no culture is greater or better than another, just different,” Crum said.
“We’re all different and that is great,” said second-grader Jonathan Winston.
Each second-grader at Woodside was invited to choose one part of their heritage and explore it further. The students worked with technology teacher Amanda Nims to research their country and create a PowerPoint slide showing their name as well as a map and flag of their country of origin.
In Crum’s room, the project went even further. On Dec. 16, her students recited “Pride Poems,” showed off traditional dancing, brought artifacts and cooked traditional foods to share with their classmates.
As well as learning about each other, Crum explored Asia and Africa further by learning to write numbers in Chinese and creating a class Adinkra cloth, a tradition of West Africa.
Crum said she continues to teach the program because every year, each of her students undergoes a personal journey.
“The fact is, at this age, the kids didn’t know their backgrounds until they go ask mom and dad about it. Many kids discovered that their family traditions are actually part of their culture as well. They didn’t know a lot of these things, so it is wonderful to see them discover it,” Crum said.