CULTURAL DAY

At our centre we decided to have a cultural day introducing the children to different cultures. After Samoan week we decided that we should include other cultures in our planning for the month. Parents helped bring in different traditional food adding their own taste from their countries Te Whāriki states “Children develop familiarity with a variety of types of music, art, dance, and drama as expressions of feeling, mood, situation, occasion, and culture” (Ministry, 1996, p. 80). Our day started off with the children deciding that they needed a stage before they can start to learn different forms of music. Since we have a deck we all decided that the deck would be a good stage and the rest of the five houses of the centre would be able to see us.

I decided to ask the children which would they like to learn first the Hindi song, the Poi song and dance. By Facilitating their learning and asking them which one they would like to learn first gave them a freedom of choice I also believe that this made them aware that I respect their choices. Using facilitating as a teaching technique helps to carefully observe and provide the appropriate timing which insures that all learning that is provided is appropriate to children’s needs, interest and strengths (MacNaughton and Williams, 2004).

The children decided that they would like to learn a Hindi song first. With learning the song they had to dance and clap their hands as this was the way Indians sang their songs. The children enjoyed singing in Hindi and found it very funny to say the words. Through singing children start developing listening, concentration and language skills. They learn to identify different types of music and memorize the sounds.  Children learn the right way to pronounce the words which they have learned through music “We remember always that the emphasis is on enjoyable experience not on a performance inseparable from standards” (Somerset, 2000, p.44)