This was by far my favorite inquiry of the (entire) year!
We decided to make our Who We Are
unit of inquiry all year long. Being in an international school has a lot of
benefits, but one of my favorites is having the opportunity to learn from each
other. We do many of the things the same, but plenty differently as well. We
were able to hit so many IB attitudes and learner profiles such as tolerance,
open-mindedness, empathy, appreciation, curiosity, respect, caring, and the
list goes and on. With all the problems going on today I wanted the students to
learn about each other and establish the attitudes just mentioned.
Each month of the year was aimed at
teaching us about a different culture. I had an AMAZING group of parents who
were always welcome during each activity, both to teach about their own, or
learn about each other’s. We were lucky to average between 4-8 parents per
lesson. It was great to see other parents coming in to learn about each other’s
cultures with tons of excitement. I believe it really helped to show the kids
we are all life-long enthusiastic learners!
Each month I would meet with that months
cultures volunteers, (for example, Japan) most often they were born in the
country, but a few who had been living in others and participated as well. We
would plan together and let them decide what they wanted to share.
It worked out that we had a culture
activity almost EVERY WEEK throughout the year. It was amazing to see the
parent involvement and their motivation to help. I think they enjoyed it as
much as I did!
We also created our own world passports. This way we could keep track of all the countries we have "visited" and learned about. They loved getting a stamp in their passport, and really helped them to become more internationally minded and tolerant of other cultures.
Here is each culture we celebrated and a short list of
events/topics we learned about.
* All projects consisted of a read aloud in the countries mother
tongue, and a slide show of personal pictures of the families and them in
places they enjoy.
Japan
- Visit to local and famous Meiji Jingu Shrine
- Rotations of traditional games
- Making our own Omikoshi (previous post)
- Sumo practice
- Cooking Japanese snacks
The United States
- History of America and 4th of July
- Thanksgiving
- American snacks - Popcorn!
- Making Flat Stanley and sending them to our families back home
- American Symbols and presidents
- Native Americans and their influence on America
England
- England landmarks and Paddington Bear
- Trying Marmalade and Marmite
- Creating the English skyline and adding buildings from around the world
- Made English shortbread cookies
- British tea party with kids favorite animals and parents
Turkey
- Hennah
- Traditional Turkish folk dance
- Turkish crafts and Trojan horse/ Ottoman Empire
- Making a “fes” hat
- Hacivat and Karagoz which is a famous Turkish shadow play
- Cooking cookies
- Turkish wedding celebrations and dances
Germany
- Creating German Castles
- Reading German books
- Playing German board games
- Making Gingerbread houses (and taking a few bites to eat as well!)
Azerbaijan
- Creating Azerbaijan’s flag
- Planting and observing our own Wheat plant, and holidays revolved around it
- Learning about musical rocks
- Dying eggs and an egg hitting game
- Making traditional cookies
- Dressing up in traditional clothes
- Playing common children’s games from Azerbaijan
Mexico
- We were able to attend the Mexican Embassy and view their cactus garden
- Learn about foods and items that come from Mexico
- Create paper versions of traditional Mexican textiles
Myanmar
- We got to learn games native to Myanmar
- Try on Tanaka
- Virtual field trip to several cities and marketplaces
Kenya
- Created Kenyan banana leaf art
- Virtual field trip to Kibera slum and Awasi (upcountry)
- Created Masai houses and learned about their jumping dance
- Made Sukuma Wiki - Kenya food
France
- Virtual field trip of Paris and Riviera
- Created French monuments
- Made and ate homemade crepes (delicious!!!)
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