Lou MacNarin School

Project Leaders: Stacey McQueen, Kim Downey, Heather DeWare, Julie Roy

Town: Dieppe

School Name: Lou MacNarin School

Project Name: Under One Sky

This is what we want to accomplish:

We are looking at organizing a night of celebration of our community diversity. We want to have students focus on learning from members of our community who have various cultural backgrounds. We want to top it off by looking at the beautiful stars that unite us under one sky.

On a Friday evening in November, 2018, our school will become a place to celebrate our multiculturalism. We want students to get to know and explore various cultures within our community by learning directly from community members with hands-on activities. We also want to provide an opportunity for our diverse student population to develop a sense of belonging by showcasing multicultural activities. We would like students and their families to share their favorite or most meaningful traditions.

On that evening, we want to have students rotating to 4 different cultural centers set up at various locations within the school. Students would have personal itineraries to guide them on their cultural journey for the evening. Having a personal itinerary and working with various groups of classmates throughout the evening will encourage and establish connectedness to their peer groups through meaningful experiences.

The evening program will include:

• Learning centers where students can become cultural explorers by engaging with:

o Various ethnic foods o Multicultural dances, celebrations o Traditional dress o International art form exploration (ex: origami, Ukranian egg painting, calligraphy, etc.) o Star gazing outdoors with our telescope o Story telling – First Nation/Acadian Oral Histories/constellations … o Harvesting from our school-based community garden

This event will be an evening of celebrating heritage, culture, individuality and creativity showcased by our diverse community members. It will promote children’s natural curiosity by enabling them to have a personalized learning journey.