For students in the Mackay School, last week was spent learning about windmills, sampling Gouda cheese and counting to 10 in Dutch — all of which were part of its annual International Week.
Each year, a group of teachers, parents and a number of other volunteers work together to plan a school week full of activities typically based around a focus country, which for this year is the Netherlands. English Language Learners teacher, Carol Bierwas, led this year’s weeklong event.
During the week’s food festival, parents volunteer to bring in foods from various countries across the world. Parents also volunteer on Share-a-Culture Day where they speak to the students about their native country or somewhere they’ve visited outside of the U.S. The school purchases a set of books for literature day, which helps to build the library’s multi-cultural study.
Museum day began with a presentation created by fifth graders to provide information about the Netherlands including weather, currency and location on a map. Students then listened to a brief presentation by Dutch Mackay parent Richard Kaldenhoven and viewed Dutch artifacts from a museum in Newark.
The week culminates in an assembly where groups of students representing a number of different countries perform a song or dance for the entire school.
Fifth grader Jeremy Ong most enjoys the assembly but also enjoys the learning aspect as well.
"I like that we get to learn deeply about each country," he said. "What their religion is, what kind of clothes they wear, stuff like that."
Fourth grader Jordan Abisror thinks it’s a good idea for other schools to have International Week because of all of the new things that he learns. "It gives me an idea of how people in other countries live," he said. "I like to meet the special visitors from that country."
Principal John Fabbo said the purpose of the week is to educate kids about different cultures around the world.
A couple years ago, Fabbo said that all students in Mackay School were surveyed and it was determined that approximately 180 countries were represented somewhere in the family tree.
"It’s giving them another lesson in world culture, in geography," he said. "But it’s also celebrating the differences within the Mackay School because it’s not just the focus country, it’s all countries."
