Cultural Sharing Sessions
Cultural Sharing
So Many Possibilities!
Our school community reflects many diverse backgrounds, traditions, and customs. This fall, in keeping with our studies around identity, we created fresh opportunities to hear more about one another’s stories and lived experiences. On two mornings in November, we hosted 19 cultural-sharing spaces, where parents, grandparents, and other community connections offered their stories and experiences with multi-age groups of students, from Littles to grade 9.
Topics were as Diverse as our Community
We learned about
- the Scottish traditions of Highland Dancing and the Highland Games
- growing up in places such as Newfoundland, Baffin Island, Brazil, and Morocco
- Filipino and German Christmas Traditions
- the Indian festival of Diwali
- Tibetan yoga
- culture, language and food from countries such as Colombia, The Bahamas, China, and Ireland
- education around the world; and
- family experiences of travel, immigration, and neurodiversity.
We learned about the oldest rainforest in the world, Junkanoo, and mummering, and we sampled coconut treats, granadilla, and scrunchions and toutons.
Thank you to our guest speakers!
These sessions and activities were rich learning experiences for our students and staff, and we are grateful to all who shared their stories and their time with us.
Barbel (parent) shared about German Christmas traditions, and showed us how to make a homemade lantern.
May (parent), shared with us about growing up on Baffin Island, Nunavut. She brought in a polar bear skull to show us!
A similar initiative, more than 20 years ago, inspired these valuable learning sessions. While in our former building on South Street, we hosted a series of Multicultural Fridays. Parents and community members shared with mixed-age groups of students. The focus at the time was on Geography, and folks shared about growing up in countries such as Albania, France, Japan, and Scotland.
If you were part of those sessions, as a student or a presenter, we’d love to hear any memories you have!
Whit-tia shared about the Bahamas. We learned about Junkanoo and sampled traditional coconut tarts!
Maria (parent) shared about Filipino Christmas traditions, like the parol (lantern/star).
