This has been a multi-cultural week in 2nd grade! Students are learning all about how people around the world express themselves through art, literature, music, dance, and food. We are learning about how our cultures may be different, but also how they are connected to one another.

Tuesday: Today was a Latin American theme.  During reading, I read another Cinderella story aloud from around the world; Adelita: A Mexica Cinderella Story by Tomi dePaola.  We compared the story elements (beginning, middle, end, characters, setting, problem and solution) with The Rough Faced Girl by and Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe.  After, we broke into groups to watch a short video on the iPads, read informational and literary texts about Mexico and other Latin American cultures, and make tissue paper flowers.   The video, Buster Goes to the Dominican Republic, showed the children what people in the Dominican Republic do for fun, about the foods that they eat, and what the schools are like.  Tissue paper flowers are a traditional craft that children do for Day of the Dead and other celebrations.  For snack, we made quesadillas with both corn and flour tortillas.  We also listened to Latin music to complete the experience.

Wednesday: Today, one of our student’s parents came in to share Japanese culture with us.  Her father read The Crane Maiden in Japanese while her mother translated the story in English for us.  Students were able to make connections to the character traits from the Cinderella stories and identify the author’s message.  After finding Japan on the map, we broke into groups to make sushi, origami, and explore Japan on the iPads.  We listened to Japanese children’s music.  The student shared a special silk kimono that her grandmother sent to her from Japan and some of the students took turns trying it on.  Her parents even wrote each student’s name in Japanese.  We are so lucky to have had them come in and share their culture and knowledge with us.

Thursday: Italy was our focus as we explored the region of Europe.  For read aloud, we read The legend of Old Belfona by Tomi dePaola which is a European tale. During independent reading, students read informational books about some of the different countries in Europe; England, France, Sweden, and Italy. During our groups, students also watched, Postcards From Buster: Ciao, Buster Part 1 and Part 2 to learn about Venice, Italy and made decorations from Sweden; woven hearts. For snack we enjoyed some Swedish ginger cookies and sliced a baguette, some mozzarella cheese, and Genoa salami. Mmmm!

Friday: Today was Fabulous Friday at BES and students continued to read various books from and about other countries.  For read aloud, I read The King of Capri by Jeanette Winterson.  The students learned that paying attention to the character traits in the story can also help us understand the author’s message. At snack time, we tasted food from India; Spiced Rice with Raisins, Palak Paneer, and Naan bread.