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From the FREEP
Exploring Culture through Central America
Exploring a culture involves understanding the values, traditions, norms, customs, arts, history and folklore that a group of people shares. To study an abstract concept such as culture with elementary school students can be a very exciting and an eventful journey.
The SRV staff and student community have undertaken this journey over the last four weeks. At each grade level, teachers have been introducing the concept of culture through content and skills in developmentally appropriate ways to the students, using Central America as the thematic vehicle. The Central America culture study has enabled the students to construct meaning through personal, academic, pluralistic and global perspectives.
Children construct meaning and interpret culture differently across grades. The preschool emphasis on culture has been to better understand their own selves, families and neighborhoods, while the Kindergartners and the Primary Circle have been expanding their horizons by developing a greater appreciation of their selves, community, geography and the lives of people different from them. By exploring the influence of Central American topography and climate on vegetation, natural resources and the people's lives, the students are developing understanding on how, in the current global economy, many foods that they eat and see so frequently at the grocery store are exports from Guatemala, Belize and Costa Rica.
The children at these grade levels have also been reading Central American folktales and listening to personal narratives of some recent visitors to the school. This has enabled the children to compare and contrast the lives of children in Central America with their own. For example, Kindergartners were fascinated to learn that according to the Mayan tradition, children as young as eight years old learn to weave textiles.
Learning experiences in Main Circle and Oldest Group have been driven by the students' curiosity to discover what differentiates the countries within Central America and how belief systems like religion, political ideals and conflict impact indigenous cultures. These children had an opportunity to interact with a group of middle school students from Francisco Pota Orlich Sarchi School, Costa Rica. The Costa Rican students visited SRV and shared with our students their native dress, some native dances, and they ate a meal together. The children experienced the difference in cultural norms and traditions first hand and also developed skills to transcend language and cultural barriers to conduct meaningful conversations. These conversations about their lives and environment led all the students to realize that differences exist among people across the world and that these cultural and philosophical differences are positive and socially enriching.
The Central American culture study has been a real collaborative effort on the part of the SRV staff. Emerging as a theme from the social studies curriculum, this study of culture has spanned across disciplines and curriculum. The teachers have been weaving the theme into their literacy, math, science and service learning lessons. For example, in science and computers, children have been studying the migration patterns of neo-tropical birds and have specifically identified the countries in Central America these birds migrate to during the winter season. In music, they have been learning and practicing songs and dances, as well as exploring instruments like maracas, tortugas and the chirimillas, from Ecuador, Guatemala, and other countries in Central America.
Our partnership with Raices Culturales Latinoamericanas (RCL), a Central and Latin American consortium for cultural learning, has further deepened and enriched the learning experiences of the students. Through RCL, we were fortunate to have many visitors on campus over the last few weeks. The middle school students from Costa Rica; Sabina, a Mayan weaver from Guatemala who demonstrated traditional back strap weaving skills for the children; Genero, also a Guatemalan of Mayan descent who shared information through his expertise on the marimba; and Yolanda, a native Guatemalan who shared information about traditional motifs and patterns on Guatemalan textiles.
We also dedicated a round of minicourses (once weekly 'electives' that kindergartners through 6th graders participate in) to the Central American culture study. Courses like Backstrap Weaving, Cooking with Indigenous Foods from Central America, Mayan Crafts, Traditional Clothing, Hats and Jewelry, Exploring the Cloud Forest School (Costa Rica), Making a Model Central American Village, or Making Miniature Costa Rican Oxcarts, gave the children hands-on opportunities and authentic experiences within which to deepen their knowledge of the theme.
We invite you to celebrate this exciting unit of study by joining us when the children showcase their work at a Special Assembly and Exhibition on Friday, December 16, 2005 in Grace at 10:45 a.m.
