Elementary school's 'Holidays Around the World' a lesson on global traditions

BY ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer
Thursday, December 06, 2012
12/06/12 at 7:44 AM

Remington Elementary School students have earned a handful of new passport stamps without ever leaving the ground.

With the arrival of the holiday season, the west Tulsa school is incorporating curriculum requirements into a schoolwide lesson about various cultural and religious traditions called "Holidays Around the World."

So far, the students have "visited" Germany, England, Canada, Mexico and Norway and also learned about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

"We are in England - hopefully Bradford, England, because a guy from a boy band I like is from there," giggling sixth-grader MaKayla Tillis said. "It's One Direction. I'm infatuated with England because of Zayn Malik."

There were no boy band members in Remington's sixth-grade classroom, but students were appreciating the differences between their modern entertainment choices and those of their British counterparts by playing a game of charades.

Every other classroom featured a different subject matter and related activity, which was tailored to each grade level.

"We always stress the importance of good attendance, so we wanted to offer something really fun to help our students stay engaged in learning," said Sharon Hatfield, a teacher in Remington's gifted and talented program.

In Jessica White's classroom, second-graders were making construction-paper lanterns as they listened to information about the lantern festival that marks the end of the Chinese New Year.

Lynne Waters' first-graders learned how Norwegians celebrate the return of the sun in mid-January at the conclusion of the six-week period it is below the horizon, called the "Polar Night." They even went outside for a game of shadow tag, but the arrival of some cloud cover cut the game short.

"We had to switch to regular tag after they couldn't see their shadows," Waters laughed.

Fourth-grade teacher Micah Davis read the book "The Shortest Day" to her students before they embarked on an art project to create winter scenes with blue paper, pastels and glitter.

She explained how the Christmas tree is believed to have originated in Germany, and her students laughed when she told them the first trees were decorated with fruit and illuminated by candles.

"They couldn't just run down to Walmart to buy a six-pack of glass ornaments," Davis said.

Third-graders learned the origins of the poinsettia and its association with Christmas, which began in 16th-century Mexico, as well as the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. They made paper poinsettias and dreidels out of candy.

David Cox easily recounted the legend he had heard awhile earlier, about a Mexican child who was too poor to bring a gift to lay at the feet of the baby Jesus on a church altar. An angel told the child to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar, and soon the poinsettias sprouted.

He and his classmates were a little fuzzier on the details of Hanukkah, which they claimed was just other countries' way of celebrating Christmas.

"We read about the Macca- beats!" third-grader Haley Myers said.

Original Print Headline: International education

Andrea Eger 918-581-8470
andrea.eger@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Remington Elementary School students Michael Scott (left), 9; Nicardio Hunt, 9; and Anaiya Scott, 8 (right), watch as teacher Dana Weaver shows them how to make German Christmas tree ornaments during a day in which students were studying holiday cultures around the world. JAMES GIBBARD/Tulsa World

Students Jenna Romines (left), 7, and Ariel Lunsford, 7, hold up a chain of Chinese lanterns their class made. Students have "visited" Germany, England, Canada, Mexico and Norway and also learned about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. JAMES GIBBARD/Tulsa World

Remington Elementary School students Bear Goins (left), 12; Jack Moss, 11; Christian Grove, 12; and Kyler Newberry, 12, consume a model colonial-style house they made of graham crackers and candy. Every classroom at Remington Elementary featured a different subject matter and related activity. JAMES GIBBARD/Tulsa World