February 10, 2009

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Carriage Crest Third Graders Plan Parade, Celebrate Cultural Diversity

Carriage Crest Third Graders incorporated all they learned about a specific country with a project that resulted in a colorful, creative cultural parade, engaging the rest of the school in the learning experience.

A part of the Kent School District's social studies curriculum, "Story Path," children study “episodes” by hands-on, interactive learning, according to Carriage Crest's Instructional Coach, Susan Fish.

Some of the questions that were raised and researched in this unit of study included:  Why do communities have parades?  What makes people of various cultures special? Students explored the cultural diversity of their community by creating a story about parades and becoming the parade planners in their story.

In this particular Story Path, "Celebrating Diversity: The Parade," students utilized this concept by "parading" through each classroom, bay, library, and the main office, sharing their hand-made floats representing each country the student had studied. 

Children also dressed in the clothing of their country which added a wonderful element to the event; one student actually added music to his float.  They worked together to design and plan the parade, as well as develop the characters in the parade.

"As planners, students learn how to overcome objections to the parade route.  It was clear from the children's faces that they were totally engaged in this 'episode,' becoming part of the story and knowledgeable about their countries.  Many proud parents came to see the parade and enjoyed the colorful floats, take photographs, and feel proud of their child's accomplishments!" said Fish.

 

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"Third Grade Cultural Parade"

 

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