Celebration of Cultures

As this has been a successful part of the curriculum at Mt. Stuart for so many years, the goal of the 5th grade instructors is to incorporate digital technology into the Celebration of Cultures Unit. A WebQuest has been introduced to enable the students to use the World Wide Web when researching their country of origin.

With the addition of digital photography equipment and software training, students would be able to learn practical technological skills as they represent their own culture and personal identity. The equipment & software would radically transform this unit and bring it into the Digital Age! The unit concludes with a community celebration, in which the families and neighbors of the students come to admire their work. Food, music and dance are part of the celebration.

In the New Celebration of Cultures Unit, students would be doing all of the following:

• Creating digital photo collages (using MultiMedia Lab V).
• Word processing their Interview Scripts and Descriptive Snapshot writing (using Tool Factory Word Processor).
• Creating a personal Coat of Arms using digital photography, clip art, and drawing (using MultiMedia Lab V).
• Utilizing the camera's Video capability for the Interview portion of the project (using MultiMedia Lab V).
• Narrating their word-processed writing for publication on the Web (MultiMedia Lab V).
• Creating a Class website on which to post and display the student’s Legacy Books and other artifacts. (Tool Factory Home Page)
• Compiling a class cookbook with various multicultural recipes (Tool Factory Database).

Since this unit integrates aspects of Technology, Writing, Multicultural Studies, Art & Design, Communication Skills, Reading and Research, the students are challenged in many ways. They are also able to "show off" their individual strengths in different areas. It is a unit that every child can succeed at to some degree. Tools such as Cameras and Software would be invaluable to these 5th graders as they pursue the goals of the Celebration of Cultures Unit.