REBECCA CARRASCO

PHOTO WEARING COSTUMES from around the world are, from left, first row: second-graders Emily Becnel and Courtney Dornier; second row: second-graders Tracy Allen and Kierra Moody; and third row: cafeteria manager Tess Berthelot, and second-grade teachers Jane Babin and Kathy Dufresne. (Staff Photo by Rebecca Carrasco) PAULINA – Students of Chanel Interparochial School visited 10 countries recently for their annual World Trade Day, and they discovered it is a small world after all. The students were given the opportunity to travel, complete with passports, to different countries without leaving school. “It was a multicultural experience for them,” said principal Cassie Bourgeois, “some of the students, faculty, and staff wore native costumes, decorated the classrooms with ornaments from their chosen country, spoke and sang songs in different languages and ate foreign cuisine.” “We have a multicultural faculty and student body,” she said. “Next year we will be adding the Middle Eastern countries and Vietnam to our list because we have new students from those countries.” “Each homeroom, pre-k through eighth grade, selected a different country,” Bourgeois explained. “Some classes worked together, for instance all the pre-K did Mexico and tied it into Our Lady of Guadalupe. Half the students went to the other pre-K classrooms and visited, while the others half stayed and welcomed students.” Pre-kindergarten teacher Audrey Martin said her students made Mexican handicrafts which have spiritual significance. “The pre-K students made the Eye of God from weaving yarn and wooden sticks which the Mexicans believed brought good health,” Martin said. “They also made a Worry Doll out of wooden doll pins which resemble clothes pins without the spring. The Mexicans would put the Worry Doll under their pillow at night and believed that all their worries would go away. They also made ponchos and tissue flowers, which Mexican children sell to make money.” The World Trade Day offers holistic learning for students. The teachers’ curriculum guide integrates the different disciplines, including social studies, language arts, math, science and computer technology. In turn, students are exposed to a variety of information and hands-on activities about the different countries they are studing, explained Bourgeois. The sixth-grade classes had Germany and Donna Waguespack said they had a guest speaker. “Willi Kammerer is from Kassel, Germany, and has visited St. James Parish since 1976,” she said. “He talked to the class on how the Deutschmarks demoninations goes from a small to a large, and as it gets larger, it changes color. He also talked about how German students learn English as a first language after their own.” Waguespack added that it is required that students should learn another language after English which can be either Russian, Italian or French. Students at Chanel are also exposed to different languages, first- through third-graders learn Spainish from a video on the computer said Bourgeois. So it seemed natural for Mrs. Montz’s third-grade class to have sung the Italian song “That’s Amore” for their principal. In Jeffrey Holley’s seventh-grade classroom, there stood Big Ben – a replica which looked real and nearly reached the ceiling. Holley explained he took no credit for the work his students did in making the clock or other decorations which transformed a science teacher’s classroom into one right out of English history. He explained how some of his students dressed as old-style footmen which contrasted with the new style of footmen which can be seen standing in front of Buckingham Palace today. The eighth-grade classes did France and Nova Scotia, and they tied this to Louisiana’s Acadian culture; the fifth grades did Africa and tied this to African-American culture; the fourth grade did Spain relating this to Hispanic culture; and the kindergardeners and first-graders did the countries of Switzerland, the land of the midnight sun, and Holland, where tulips and children in native costumes were plentiful. With the school being a multicultural micocosm, Bourgeois concluded: “It was a joint project that the whole school could be involved in.”