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Main Circle
When Ali and I met last summer to brainstorm ideas for the Main Circle's social studies curriculum, we had no idea that our modern culture study would be such a great experience. We threw around a few ideas of places to study, and when Ali mentioned Indonesia we were both sure–that's it! Why?
Indonesia is:
- huge – the fourth largest population in the world;
- predominantly Muslim (the largest Muslim country in the world) with large Hindu and Buddhist populations;
- in Asia (balancing last year's culture study of Latin America);
- rich in art (providing a great foundation for our partnership with Annie) and music;
- home to tropical rainforests and other diverse plant and animal life; and
- as the site of 2004's devastating tsunami, a place the children were already wondering about and wanting to revisit.
We started our study with a bang – Laura Cohn, our Indonesia artist-in-residence, joined us to fry some krupas (Indonesian snacks) and share a slide show of Java and Bali. She also burned Indonesian incense and played traditional music for us, creating a multisensory experience. The kids were hooked! We started a chart of things we knew, things we wanted to know, and (with help from Kate in our library collaboration) ideas about how to find the answers to our questions.
Laura Cohn, artist-in-residence, recently helped Main Circle students learn about Indonesian money, dress, food and art.
As our six week study unfolded, we enjoyed Indonesian food and music, pored over art, spoke some Bahasa Indonesia, looked at pictures and videos, read books, asked questions and shared our findings. We consulted experts to deepen our understanding and keep us excited. The children surprised us by spontaneously starting to create a large scale map of Indonesia (following up our earlier exploration of maps and geography), and we followed them into individual research projects.
Our Indonesia culture study drove much of the third and fourth grade curriculum this fall–the study of non-fiction reading and writing, research, library skills, art as a way to understand culture, and social skills such as cultural sensitivity and open-mindedness. Just as importantly, the culture study captured the interest and curiosity of each child. Children arrived for school with articles to share, incorporated Indonesia into their 'free' art and writing, suggested family trips to Indonesia, and talked about what they were learning at the dinner table. Active learning, true engagement, and meaningful connections to the real world–that's SRV curriculum!
