Friday 12 May 2017

Celebration of Culture Project Group

It has been an extremely busy week for the Celebration of Culture project group.  We have been extremely fortunate to have a number of parents support our project by coming in to run workshops with us, sharing aspects of their culture.

Arifah and Elsa's Nepalese Games Workshop
Arifah shared with us some of the games that the children of Nepal play.  She also gave us some information about Nepal.  We know that it is a landlocked country, the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest is there and that many people in Nepal are very poor so the children usually have to make the games that they play with.




Emma and Michaella's Irish Dancing Workshop
Emma and Michaella shared a power point presentation with us about the history of Irish Dancing, the costumes and techniques. 
 



 Here are a few of the slides from the presentation - 






Emma, who grew up doing Irish Dancing, gave us a great demonstration before we got to have a go ourselves! We weren't sure if we could move our legs that fast but we gave it a good go!!

 



 




Thanks Michaella and Emma for such a fantastic workshop.

Making Filipino Snacks with Issa, Merwina and Dennis
Issa's Mum and Dad also came in this week to show us how to make a traditional Filipino snack called Puto.  Again they shared a fabulous power point presentation which gave us some background information about the Phillipines and this popular treat.






Then it was time for us to get cooking!!

 





The best part was when we got to taste them!!



‘We got to make puto.  There was even a magic box!  They tasted like plain muffins. They were so yummy I want to eat them forever!’  William

‘Puto was very yummy because they tasted like pancakes.’  Jade

Indian Traditions with Deepti
Deepti came to work with us this morning to share some information about cultural traditions in India. We made sure we had our project books with us so that we could make notes. Here are some of the facts that we found out -


Deepti then gave us special bracelets to wear and the girls a bindi before we learnt some Indian dance moves.





 




Celtic Art with Meela and Liz
Last but not least, Liz and Meela lead a workshop looking at the history of Ireland, including Meela's own family tree.  







We had a go at designing our own patterns using the colours of Ireland - orange, white and green before painting them onto wooden cutouts made with a very special machine. When the paint has dried, we are going to make them into necklaces.


 


 

 


Our sincere thanks to all of our parents who have been able to come in and run a workshop for us this week, we are extremely grateful.  We are really looking forward to passing on all our new knowledge and skills to the rest of LC2 at Cultural Day next Friday.