Friday, May 09, 2008

Fav. Foto Friday - Folkmoot Edition, part deux

As if last Friday's international celebration were not enough, the whole week following Folkmoot, the gym is transformed into an international bazaar called the "Learning Gallery."All the countries represented that year have a display;
here's the Native American one:
It centers around a beautiful backdrop, painted by the art teacher (on a single bedsheet), in a postcard-style tribute to that country/culture. The artwork that each child made is also part of the display. There's a variety of cultural items on display as well. And finally, each area has an engaging learning activity (or two) for that country/culture.

Each child is given a "passport" (complete with school photo on their personal info page) and invited to explore every country they can (they're listed in the passport).You can visit India:

Play with cars in homage to Detroit:
Try to guess the English equivalent of certain Australian words:
Take a stroll through New York:
Color your very own flag of China:[Elle's class got to go through with their "4th grade reading buddies"]

Make paper butterflies in Chile:Or, you can head over to Russia:
Where you can challenge a buddy to a game of chess:
Once you've had lots of fun at a particular country, you go to get your passport stamped for that country. You earn your stamp by sharing something you learned about or did in that country.
[Third graders and older must share 3 things.]
Then, it's off to another country, like England, for a little futbol.
You can also simply admire the wonderful artwork created by your school-mates; like these carnival dancers from Brazil:Russian artist inspired found object art:
or Greek pottery:

Banners from countries made in previous years, but not featured in the current year, are used to decorate the hallways. I know I said it before, but it bears repeating...
I LOVE this school!!!

4 comments:

Debbie said...

Hey Mama? Is this a public school? It is definitely awesome!

So many exciting and creative ideas to teach the children!

MamaMo said...

YES! It IS a public school - and that's exactly why we live where we live.

foolery said...

We have a public school that we absolutely love, too (although it's not in the same league with yours from a cultural and artistic standpoint). Sure makes life worth while every morning, doesn't it?

Ok, Where Was I? said...

This is fabulous. And for a public school?! I love the passports. What a great experience.