Dressed in pink, red and blue T-shirts and waving streamers above their heads, a group of primary school students – ages 3 to 6 years old – sang and danced to “Dancing Queen” as part of the International Culture Day 2011 at Arborland Montessori Children’s Academy. The group’s performance to the song by Swedish band ABBA represented Western Europe.
The annual event aims to educate the students about other countries and cultures. Each classroom – with students of various grade levels – studied a different region and learned about the languages and landmarks from that region, and then gave a performance representing the area they studied. Each student was also responsible for learning about one country within their class’s region.
Friday’s performances were the culmination of a week-long celebration, said Arborland principal, Dr. Sueling Chen, who wore a traditional Japanese Kimono as she hosted the show.
In front of an over-sized backdrop that depicted a world map – with brown continents and blue oceans – students informed other classes of their region’s population, location and capitols. Another primary class did a Mexican hat dance to “El Jarabe Tapatio,” with the boys wearing colorful Mexican ponchos and the girls in traditional dresses. Some third through fifth grade students performed an Egyptian folk dance to “Bent El-Sultan.” The girls wore belly dancing hip skirts with gold tassels and the boys wore sultan’s hats. A class of first and second graders representing South America wore black pants and black shirts with puffy striped sleeves as they danced to “Mais Que Nada.”
Third grader Raymond Hufnagel’s class studied Africa and performed the Egyptian folk dance. Hufnagel chose to study Libya. Unaware of the country’s conflict, the most interesting fact about the Libya is its population of 6.4 million people, he said.
For Hufnagel, the best part of the day was watching his little brother perform in the South American dance. “I learned the song my little brother’s class danced to. It gets it stuck in my head a lot,” Hufnagel said.
Another third grader who participated in the cultural event was Emma Suh. She performed in the South American routine. “South America is the world’s fourth largest continent, and it has 13 countries,” Suh said to the audience before her class danced.
The day ended with each class retreating to their room, where they ate ethnic foods from the region they studied. Afterward, each student “traveled” to the other classrooms with their mock “passport” in hand. They got a stamp for every “country” they visited.
“They really enjoy it because when they go to the classrooms that represent different countries or continents, the teacher of that class serves as an immigration officer and asks them questions [about the country] before they give their passport a stamp,” Chen said. “It gives them the opportunity to look, think and understand, and to keep learning about different cultures as they day goes on.”
Story by Amy Dempsey/FullertonStories.com
Photos courtesy of Arborland Montessori Children’s Academy
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