Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Friday, May 22, 2009

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Northern Elementary kids put on quite a show at their Multicultural Fair.

With banners, colorful flags and creative costumes, Northern Elementary hosted its very own parade of nations around the bus circle in celebration of its first-ever Multicultural Fair. 

The catchy tune “Walk Like an Egyptian” set the pace for one group of masked kids as they fell in line behind schoolmates touting France, Guatemala, Ireland and others. 

Friday’s fair also featured displays and presentations from students in Early Start through fourth-grade. All of the students got to take a tour around the world via five-minute stops in nearly two dozen themed classrooms, and each kid carried a passport with fast facts and questions about the various countries. 

“The population of the school is becoming more diverse. We have refugee children from Africa, a child from Albania and Haitian students,” said ESL teacher Jamie Wright. “We thought (the fair) would be a good way to teach students about diversity. It’s also a good way for the kids to teach their classroom about themselves and where they came from.” 

In the Japan display, for instance, students had created a cherry blossom tree with pink handprints on the wall; they also made fans, Zen gardens and origami butterflies. Around the corner in Africa, youngsters set up a tiny village of cardboard huts. 

Fourth-grader Daysha Jones said her class studied Mexico. “We colored flags and made posters about their sports and the climate,” she said. 

Her teacher, Shea Poff, said laptops came in handy for researching land forms and animals, too. The kids also learned songs in Spanish and made a map of Mexico. 

The May 22 event was the culmination of two weeks of activities throughout the school exploring and celebrating diversity. 

“We were trying to provide an experience to learn about customs and cultures,” Poff said.