South Grove Elementary School recently held its seventh annual Multicultural Explore-A-Rama, consisting of cultural share workshops for students in kindergarten through the third grade. Facilitated by teachers, support staff, and most notably, South Grove fifth-grade students, the event featured more than 40 different workshops.
Fifth graders were asked to indicate multiple areas of interests (games, food, music, etc.) to engage them in a variety of workshop experiences. Orientation sessions prepared them before they began developing their presentations on their own time. According to enrichment specialist Michele Webb, there was an exciting buzz as students scheduled “working play dates” after school. Google Slide presentations, board games, coloring books, and trifold boards were created while traditional dances, songs and stories were practiced. Grandparents were also involved in conversations about cultural traditions and to share recipes.
While some students presented workshops related to their personal cultural heritage, many others developed workshops related to a culture not necessarily from their own ancestry, but rather interest. Many subjects were developed through their participation in the elementary World Language Program.
Asian New Years, Caribbean Cinderella, Cuban Baseball, Italian Carnival, Korean Board Games, Native American Pottery, Origami, Tangrams and Turkish Dessert were among the workshops that filled the building and kept participants captivated throughout the daylong event. While the younger students learned a lot about various cultures, Webb said it was the fifth-grade presenters who reaped the greatest benefit from the leadership experience.
Explore-A-Rama is designed to promote an awareness of and an appreciation for different cultures.
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