Cultures of our Community
Thriving Diversity Around Us
As we head into October, our new concept of the month is community; all the aspects encompassing what community is and how we are involved in our world as well as the society around us. To first learn this idea, the children had to understand what diversity is; because our community comprises of different people! Looking at the two beautiful artwork
Left Artwork: Hyunseo Lee, North London Collegiate School Jeju, Seoul, South Korea Right Artwork: Mia Gonzalez, Parrish Community High School , Parrish, Florida
we held group discussions about what they saw, the similarities, and differences between the people illustrated in the artwork. The children came to the conclusion that while everyone in the art was different, it didn't make them any less unique or important. Solidifying this concept of respect was not difficult as the students were fully aware of their own differences in comparison with their peers.
In focusing more on the second artwork, the students discussed the different types of food eaten in various cultures. To relate this idea to our learning, the students shared the typical foods eaten in their families to show the ways in which we are culturally different or similar.
The little children listened to a book about kids similar to them and how our differences can initially make us feel like an outlier, but when we begin to understand how those differences represent our strengths, we contribute to a community of love and respect for ourselves and those around us!
To demonstrate our understanding of diversity and culture, we engaged in fun games of charades and "Guess Who" where we had to respectfully describe different cultural beliefs, clothing, food, and ethnicities. Connecting these fun games to our learning allowed the children to reflect on their learning to become more cognizant of the ways in which we perceive the culture that surrounds us!
Blooming Diversity & Culture Beyond AYTEF!
While Monday was heavily focused on exploring our AYTEF community, on Wednesday we extended our knowledge across the world. With the respect that thrives at AYTEF, it is important that the children learn to apply this respect to other cultures because as they grow, they will have to navigate diversity outside of their own community. Learning more about our world helps to develop welcoming hearts and educated minds, therefore, the children were given the task to pick one country outside of the United States to research. Doing this research enriched them in other cultures and showed them just how much diversity is around us. They had a blast learning about other countries and how its people live, and while there were many differences, they were shocked to discover many commonalities between them and the countries of their choosing. Check out their amazing work!
Doing this research sets us up to develop the empathy and respect for this month as we will explore concepts such as community, service and giving back to others in our world!