Where Are You From?

At Dawn and Dusk we like to celebrate diversity. Maple Tree spent the last week of September learning about each other and our different cultural backgrounds. We asked each child in our group to bring in items that represent their heritage, and we got to travel the world without leaving Dawn & Dusk!

Language is a big part of culture and our Dawn and Dusk educators discovered that there are many other languages our amazing children can speak, other than English.
French, Polish, Cree, Inuktitut, Spanish, Punjabi, Chinese and Hebrew are just some of the languages they can speak.

After learning about the languages they can speak, they began to share different cultural items they brought in and shared a few things about them. 

One child was super excited to show off their Qipao dress.

 From ribbon skirts to handmade jewelry, we got to see so many unique cultural items that encouraged them to be proud of who they are and where their families have come from.

This is a Pysanka egg and it was decorated using wax and dye which is a traditional Ukrainian method and has beautiful results.

"These are earrings my auntie made! She used real rabbit" said one child excitedly as they passed them around for everyone to feel. Some children in the group talked about how soft the fur was, and asked about how the earrings were made.

We even had an educator bring in some items from India, showing off their maang tikka, a pair of earrings and  bangle bracelets that some children tried on.

The amount of children in Maple Tree that wanted to share their culture with us was so beautiful. We learned a lot about their backgrounds and what was important to them in their family. 

We got to see so many interesting things like a clover that came all the way from Ireland, a wooden flute that came from Croatia and so much more.

 Maple Tree educators loved being able to not only connect with the children, but also help them be able to connect with other children as well. It was so fun to encourage these connections by sharing our cultures with each other.  We would love to continue to learn about the children in our group, as well as their families and we hope you continue to share with us!

​​-Leah