Kindergarten Class Explore Diversity at Gill Elementary
GILL—Six-year-olds Carlie Mackenzie-Kempf and Hailey R. Wheeler moved small wooden dolls through the three stories of the wooden dollhouse that sits on a table in their kindergarten classroom at Gill Elementary School. Some of the dolls had white faces, some yellow, others brown or orange. All were part of the family play the girls enjoyed.
The girls were aware that some of the dolls represented people who speak English, while others represented people from other cultures who don't speak English. "If everybody speaks the same, it'd be kind of boring," Carlie said. "It's good to learn about different languages," Hailey added.
The dollhouse and the doll families are one of the ways children are learning about other cultures at the Gill school which has 135 students in kindergarten through grade six; only about 10 are non-Caucasian.
Multi-cultural education is important because "we live in a world that is multi cultural," said Principal Rita J. Detweiler who can sometimes be heard speaking Spanish to students or even reading to them in that language. "Regardless of whether you live in a city neighborhood…or a rural area, it's important to understand other groups with whom you don't usually have contact. Our job is to educate children about the world. For children to be able to relate to anyone, they have to understand some of the cultural and racial differences we have."
Kindergarten should be a year of learning that lays the foundation for life, said Kelly L. Gobeil, a kindergarten teacher at Gill Elementary School . "In kindergarten it is important to develop early academic expectations but also to foster appropriate social expectations and behaviors," she noted.
To help foster social and multicultural diversity development in kindergarten, Gobeil obtained last fall the wooden dollhouse and a set of four families of dollhouse dolls with $320 provided by The Gill-Montague Education Fund.
"In kindergarten it is important to develop early academic expectations but also to foster appropriate social expectations and behaviors," Gobeil said. Through the use of the dollhouse and dolls, students are able to role play and begin "trying on life."
By using multicultural dolls, the 14 students in the class are exposed to the idea that people have different cultures, customs, families, traditions and ethnicities.
"Also through role playing, students will increase their communication and language skills and build a foundation in problem-solving strategies," Gobeil said. Modeling is done by both teachers and peers.
The use of the dollhouse can be integrated into the Houghton Mifflin reading curriculum in which, for example, one theme is families.
The Gill school is located in rural Franklin County , set on more than 12 bucolic acres that abut a nature preserve. Here multicultural education is especially important, Gobeil said. "I can't even imagine the culture shock some students might experience just going on to high school never mind the working world or college," she said. "In kindergarten we continue to work on social expectations and behaviors, we work on learning to work together and problem solve. I think that part of this process is learning to value other people, their opinions and beliefs."
During Gobeil's first outdoor duty at the Gill school last year, she noticed that there is little diversity in the student population. "It made me start thinking of ways that I could bring a different view of the world to the kids in my class," she said. "I wanted to get them to start to realize that there is a bigger world out there, that we are not all the same, that we do not have the same beliefs, traditions and family make-ups, and we do not all look the same. But it was important for them to realize that it is wonderful that we are all different."
Gobeil needed an age-appropriate way for the students in her class to explore these issues. That's when the idea of the dollhouse—which will be used for years to come-- for role playing and pretend play came up. "A child's imagination is endless, and so the possibilities for exploring these issues became endless too," she said.
© 2009 The Republican Company All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission
Life-skills class a block party
"Courtesy of The Republican." MONTAGUE—Gas is selling for $1 a gallon at the gas station in Sunrise City. Too bad for motorists it's a fictional place created by sixth, seventh and eighth graders in Rachel Kent's Life Skills class here at Great Falls Middle School. Tyler J. Douglas, 12, a sixth grader, said he set the price low at his station, built of Legos, because he hears a lot of people gripe about the price of gas, and he didn't want "people to be mad." The gas station was one of 16 sites the eight students built with Legos as part of their Life Skills class. Students in the class are taught social studies, math, science and language arts based on the grade level of each. "Because the frameworks and curriculum are not life-skills based, and often abstract, I wanted to be able to teach with materials that are hands-on and which the students enjoy using," said teacher Rachel Kent. "I found Legos to be very popular and something the students at all developmental levels can use." Kent purchased the popular building toys with a grant from the Gill-Montague Education Fund and with special education funds. Georgia K. Nichols, the daughter of the Turners Falls High School French teacher Janik Kerr Nichols, donated some of her Legos to help the class. The Lego project included building the town and writing about the ways each building is used, sorting the blocks by color and size, demonstrating structure strength and making oral presentations about the project. It also fostered cooperation. It's "easier to get things done" by cooperating, observed Daniel J. Girard, 13, a seventh grader. Sunrise City was displayed in the school library and included a police station, library, gas station, farm, animal hospital, town hall, grocery store, post office, fire station and school. The students modeled their town after the Town of Montague, where many of them live, but they added things they'd like to have in their hometown like a hospital, movie theater, toy store and airport. Dallas A. Broga, 14, an eighth grader, added the airport. He'd like to travel to different states and different continents someday, but for now he'd be happy "to go to Miami, Florida, for the winter because it would be warm down there." He said he thought the Lego town project was complicated at first, but in the end he learned a lot about what services a town provides. "It's important to have all these things," said Brandon M. Wegiel, 13, an eighth grader. "They make life better." Kelsie L. Deschaine, 12, a seventh grader, said all the services in Sunrise City are important to any town. "We need everything," she said. "Otherwise we'd live in a cardboard box," Brandon added. Kent said last year her Life Skills class did the town project with cardboard boxes and paint, but it was difficult to get the right size box for each building and to detail each cardboard building.
Created on 07/20/2007 08:33 PM
Updated on 03/13/2010 12:26 PM
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