Culture Fair! A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!

Welcome to EXTREME CULTURE FAIR.

 Although I have taught 20 years, I am at a new school this year. The school is very diverse and the willingness of the families to share their culture and traditions is unbelievable. Another great thing is that there is an acceptance of differences. We celebrate holidays and traditions from around the world and no one complains.  The students, teachers, and parents learn so much from one another. This sharing of cultures can not be found in a textbook or on the internet. It is authentic. Each year the 5th and 6th grade students team up to do a Culture Fair.  I had heard about the school's Culture Fair but this was my first year to experience it and Oh My Word.  Two students pair up to present a country complete with items from their country, clothing, books, food, drinks, food and more food. Students also prepare a Powerpoint presentation for their country. Students set up a table in the gym, decorate it, show maps, artifacts, foods, and even dress in the traditional clothing of the country. The parents play such an important role because they cook or provide the food and drink for our ENTIRE school to sample. Parents assist other families by sharing their artifacts and clothing. Each class comes to visit and learns about the country through the displays and the explanations from the 5th and 6th students.  Students are allowed to sample foods from every country. Most countries had 3 or 4 traditional foods to share and many had the country's popular drinks to sample.  My first grade class loved this as much as I did. There were foods I had never heard of, and the 5th and 6th graders could tell me all about them. It was an amazing day.  I have never seen anything like this to this extent. Bravo for the parental support, the students hard work, and the 5th and 6th grade teachers for providing a day that is truly an experience that will last a lifetime.

Check out some of the pictures below.

   

                      

Risky Business! Not this Lemonade Stand!

Open for business.  My first grade class could hardly wait to say that after a week of preparation.  It all started when reading in our Social Studies book about goods and services.  One of the students noticed a lemonade stand in one of the pictures and commented, "we could have a lemonade stand."  And that one little comment snowballed into a week long project culminating with a real lemonade stand in our classroom.  I had one condition, they had to do everything to run the business.  We started with a KWL chart.  What did we know about running a lemonade stand?  The class generated 2 1/2 pages of questions we needed to answer or learn about before we could have our stand.  After discussing each question, brainstorming ideas, and answers, they would take a vote to decide on each issue.  They decided to have 2 sizes; medium and large, 2 kinds of lemonade; pink and regular, the cost would  be 50 cents and 1 dollar, and the money would be donated to the charity they voted on, which was the Humane Society. It was so interesting to sit and listen to them discuss ideas, but sometimes difficult to keep my mouth shut and not intervene.  The hardest decision was figuring out the cost of the lemonade.  They started out with $10 a cup! WOW! I thought these kids have no idea what things cost.  Here we are working on money and they really have no concept of pricing.  But think about it, when do kids nowadays see money.  They see debit cards and credit cards.  They came down in cost to $5 and I could not stay silent any longer.  I asked them what a drink would cost at McDonald's or Burger King, but they had no idea.  I had to tell them.  Then they came up with $1.86 and other odd amounts.  I'm thinking it is going to be a nightmare when they have to make change on every single sale. I made a comment about them having to count the money and making change and luckily one wonderful child shouted out, " How about 50 cents and $1?" We voted on the cost including the $10, $1.86 and a few others.  I crossed my fingers and sighed when they chose the 50 cents and $1.00. After a day and a half of discussing, debating, and voting, we were ready to get started. They had decided to form 4 committees; advertising, supply, stand design and build, and scheduling. Everything we did over the next few days tied to our curriculum.  Students wrote letters and sent emails to get the lemonade donated. They learned about advertising  by deciding what was important to include on the signs they created, and the fliers they made on the computer. They created lists of items needed, created jobs, made schedules, practiced counting money and making change, measured water and lemonade and wrote thank you notes to every class for attending.  We were ready! The other first grade class came first to be our practice class.  After they left, you should have heard the comments.  "Can we sit down now?!" "This is hard work?"  I just smiled and said, that was only the first class, you have 12 more classes and 3 1/2 more hours to work!  Boy were they tired, but they loved it!  They were so proud of themselves.  The big 6th graders gave them so many compliments. Here were these tiny 1st graders hustling and bustling and selling tons of lemonade.  When it was over and all the money counted, they made a WHOPPING $284 for the Humane Society.  They felt so good inside and so did I.  This was a true community service project tied to our curriculum and initiated by the students. I'm so proud.