North Broad Elementary experiences global culture (video)

ONEIDA >> North Broad Elementary students got the opportunity to learn about various global cultures at the school's annual Cultural Festival.

Present at the school on Feb. 13 were high school international club students and staff that taught the elementary students about various cultures; China, Brazil, Syria, Mexico, France and the Oneida Indian Nation were all represented at this year's festival. There was an emphasis on language at the various classrooms that housed a representative for each cultural group.


In addition to the rotating classroom presentations, the gym was set up to serve foods from various countries; including crepes, egg rolls and baklava. Students got a chance to try any of these items during times set aside for each group.

Students were directed from classroom to classroom with a passport that they got to mark off each country they visited. Younger students wore paper head dresses that they made in art class.

"This is a fun way to get younger kids to experience other cultures," said sophomore Callaghan Capelle. "It's important for them to learn what life is like for other kids their age in places like Brazil and China."

This is Capelle's second year volunteering as a food server for the festival. Capelle attended North Broad Elementary in primary school, and said although he loves Italian culture the egg rolls are his favorite dish of the day.

"It's important for the kids to understand that not all countries are the same," said Oneida High School student Susan Owens. "New cultures can be interesting."

Owens was born in Mexico and moved to the United States at a young age. For her part of the demonstration, she read the students "If I had a Dragon" in both English and Spanish and taught the students how to say different colors in Spanish.

"Spanish is awesome," said first grader Emilie Jones. "It's way harder to learn and write than English."

"Language is a very important thing," said Owens. Spanish is spoken around the world and fluently by many communities in the United States.

Randy Phillips taught students about the Oneida Indian Nation and gave them some examples of greetings and simple sayings as well as a look at how life was for the native people of Central New York before colonization. He spoke to the students about class roles and different animals the Oneida people used for survival.

"A lot of American history is derived from Native American Culture, even some of our law systems," said Phillips.

The kindergarten and first grade students enjoyed Phillips' story about dream catchers.

"Dream catchers are meant to catch bad dreams so people don't have them anymore," said first grader Charlee Watkins. Phillips explained to the kids that dream catchers caught bad dreams in their web so that the sun could destroy them in the morning.

Oneida High School senior Mirriam Toro gave a presentation to the students on the culture of Syria. She emphasized differences in the monetary systems each country uses, the climate differences and spoke about the countries capital, Damascus, and other landmarks in Syria such as the ancient amphitheater at Bosra.

She ended the presentation and was bombarded with questions about fast food and pets in the country, which to the awe of many of the students present were very different. Students were surprised that Syria didn't have things like Walmart and McDonalds. She then showed the kids how to write their names with Arabic characters.

"People need to know about different countries around the world," said Toro.

"This festival is a great way for students at North Broad to see how other kids their age learn and live in other countries," said Capelle.