By Prerna Nankani
Countries that were represented included China, Switzerland, South Korea, South Africa, Mexico, India and Italy. Each class spent the week enjoying an exciting carousel of activities and finding out about different countries, including the food, traditional clothing, art and craft, music, the flags and where to find them on a map of the world.
International Week was launched in style and the journey started with the children being taken on a tour around the world from the pretend airport that the teachers had constructed. A friendly crew of teachers dressed as flight attendants conducted security checks, passport checks and also baggage checks. Every child had a special passport and at the end of every journey their passport was stamped with a flag of the country they visited. They also were given a coloured bead for each country and this was threaded onto their special bracelets. We had activities such as fan making, weaving warrior soldiers, Swiss watch craft, pizza making, rangoli patterns with coloured rice, making sombreros, creating a sunset desert scene with a cactus plant, making folding fans, tasting rice crackers, dressing-up in qi pao, painting with chopsticks and counting pom-poms using chopsticks. The children also had a chance to show off their moves while learning some Bollywood dancing.
The International Week festivities continued on Friday where children had the opportunity to come to school in national dress - clothes that represented their country or the country they have been learning about in class. The children and staff proudly paraded to the national anthem of their country. It was a fantastic way to celebrate our wonderfully diverse school community through music. The celebrations ended with our International Food Festival and the children had a chance to share and taste some delicious food from around the world. Overall the International week was a great success and the children learnt fascinating facts about different countries and also learnt that wonderful things can happen when we celebrate our differences.