ROCKINGHAM — Students from West Rockingham Elementary School traveled the world in just one day as the school held its first Cultural Festival on Wednesday.
The festival intends to highlight arts-based learning by celebrating ethnic and cultural diversity within the local community, offering students a chance to travel the world in one school day and allowing them to infuse creativity through academics, fine arts, athletics and food.
Each class was required to select a country from an assigned continent and then decorate a booth with artifacts and products displays that represent their country.
“The purpose was to bring different cultures to different classrooms through the curriculum,” said West Rockingham Elementary Principal Willette Surgeon. “We want them to be exposed to different cultures through Common Core.”
Surgeon said the all-day event, however, was the brainchild of Dr. Sara Beth Dew, an art teacher at the school.
“Every classroom had a different country that they researched such as where it is, culture, food, animals, clothing, famous people from that country and how what they have affects the United States,” said Surgeon.
Every room had a booth outside representing that country with two student ambassadors who explained their country to visitors, telling them what they had learned. When viewing booths, the students received passports to be stamped as they arrived at each booth, thus traveling the world in one school day.
Booths were on display during the morning, where Surgeon said 50 parents also came to be a part of the celebration. The afternoon, however, was full of scheduled performances and demonstrations of taekwondo, Egyptian belly dancing and Zumba.
Master James Jeter Sr., of American Tae Kwon Do at the Hive Recreation Center in Rockingham, studied martial arts in Japan before moving back to the United States. On Wednesday he brought along two of his students, Tristan Bullard and Mitchell Newton, for a demonstration.
Taekwondo is a Korean form of martial arts that according to Jeter has only been around since 1955 and is made up of a lot of different styles. The name means flying hands and feet.
Bullard and Newton each performed a kata, a detailed choreographed pattern of movements practiced either solo or in pairs. They each followed that up with a demonstration of breaking a pine board using a technique called the “palm-hand strike.”
Students and parents familiar with their ethnicity were encouraged to come dressed in a manner that represented their background, said Surgeon, and many did just that. Students of different ethnic backgrounds also could be see adorning colorful sombreros.
“Our students were able to travel the world in one day,” said Surgeon, “through music, dance, food and different games that related to that country they were studying.”
Reach reporter Matt Harrelson at 910-817-2674, follow him on Twitter @mattyharrelson and listen to him at 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays on G104.3 FM.
