UN Day - White Lodge Preschool 2015

White Lodge preschool is a wonderful environment for Elise. It is truly multi-cultural. Their core value is 'accepting difference' and Ross and I love the fact that every week, Elise is learning something different about another culture, country, type of food, group of people or landmark.

This week they have been learning about Niagara Falls for example and pouring water down a plastic mini waterfall. Last week they made chipatti and in a week's time they will be celebrating Diwali! It never ends.

UN Day is no exception and the school really goes all out on this event. It is held annually at the American School in their gymnasium and parents and teachers volunteer to host stands for the many different countries the students originate from. The stands showcase national costumes, share cultural artefacts and customs and offer tray upon tray of delicious local foods. Our scones were on the UK stand of course!

This year, there were stands for UK, USA, India, Japan, Switzerland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, China, Bulgaria, Germany, France... the list goes on. It is an incredible event that never disappoints.

Here are some photos from the event:

The day started off with a clash and a bang with a traditional Lion Dance

We were greeted by a character bringing good luck... must research who he is!

Here is the stand representing Japan - a teacher hands out origami shapes and animals to the children

The school's Mandarin teachers treat us to a traditional Mongolian dance

Uncle Mo, the resident musician, plays the sitar for us all

The South Africa stall was my favourite!

Elise's 'passport' showing all the 'countries' she visited on the day!

A very special day which was lots of fun and we all learned a great deal!

Love and hugs

Rebecca and Elise x

UN Day and Elise's Cultural Background

Elise's preschool is celebrating UN Day this weekend with a big festival. No doubt I'll post something on that too...

But for now I thought I'd share Elise's 'story' so far. I offered to read a story to Elise's class the other day and her teacher, Miss Lisa, suggested I might like to talk about something relevant to where Elise is from.

Ok I thought - how about we do some little collages, covering the significant places in Elise's life, and share those with her class.

Elise is English, was born in Australia and now lives in Singapore. I thought that might provide some interesting topics for us to chat about in her classroom!

So the topics I looked at:

• What children like to do in each of these countries
• What foods the children like to eat / are 'native'
• How the weather affects life in each place
• Which animals are native

Here's what we came up with (please forgive the stereotypes - I was talking to a group of 3 and 4 year olds):

England is often wet and so children play outside in their wellies a lot. It also sometimes snows in England! Not many of the children in Elise's class had seen snow before - awwww! Children like to eat bangers and mash, strawberries and orchard fruits like apples in England. England has rolling fields and a queen, who lives in Buckingham Palace and she has many guards who look after her:

Australia is a hot place with plenty of desert. People spend a lot of time on the beach and swimming in the sea. There are many culturally interesting factors about Australia - aboriginal culture being one of them. Elise's class had just recently done a project about aborigine art so they connected with that picture. There are many animals that live only in Australia such as the kangaroo, koala and echidna. Avocados and oranges are grown here:

Singapore is hot, humid and tropical and it has tropical rainstorms. Children love the water parks as a way to cool down! It is a city and has many wonderful sights, such as the big wheel (The Singapore Flyer), Gardens by the Bay and the Merlion. Cuisine includes lots of rice and noodles... and smelly durians! Native animals include monkeys, the pangolin and sea otters:

The children enjoyed spotting the different fruits and animals and talking about different ways to play. It was a fun way to spend time with Elise's class and share some interesting stuff about her with her friends!

Love and hugs
Rebecca and Elise x