The students at Dunkirk Elementary School 3 made culture come to life at its recent culture day.
The school has celebrated the day in the past but this year decided to hold a living, multicultural wax museum for parents and the community to enjoy.
The entire school participated with students preparing skits, reports and decorating the classrooms for a particular country.
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Multicultural Day was celebrated at Dunkirk's School No. 3 recently.
"This has been a very large group project put together by our ELA staff. It is a multicultural wax museum. The students have prepared skits and did research and writing, studying cultures across the world," School 3 Principal Daniel Genovese said.
Parents were able to make their way from class to class and learn about countries as close as the USA and Canada and as far away as Egypt, Great Britain and Brazil.
First-grade teacher Gena Graves' class portrayed Italy with costumes, decorations and even some singing and dancing.
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OBSERVER Photos by Nicole Gugino
Top: Dunkirk Elementary School 3 held its annual multicultural day recently in the form of a living multicultural wax museum. Here, first-graders in Gena Graves’ class portray gondoliers from Italy and describe the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Above: Fifth-graders from Ange DiCara’s class dress in sombreros and ponchos to celebrate Mexico’s culture.
Students dressed as gondoliers told the audience a gondola is a boat and others explained soccer and how the leaning tower of Pisa actually leans.
There were also pizza chefs with hats and samples of the Italian treat. Students also sang three songs about pizza. The presentation on Italy wrapped up with some dancing for the celebration of Carnevale.
Next, fourth-grade teacher Cindy Krzakala's class presented Greece with reports on geography, climate, schools, economy, religion and ancient architecture. The students used posters and clay figures to go with their reports and each student wore a crown of olive branches made of pipe cleaners and paper, like in ancient Greece.
Fifth-grade teacher Ange DiCara's class wrapped up the day with a presentation on the culture of Mexico. Tour guides showed guests through Mexican culture beginning with transportation and volcanoes. Then guests visited a restaurant where menus were passed around and snacks handed out. Another tour guide showed an exhibit of Mexican art including tissue paper crafts which hung from the ceiling. The presentation ended with a Salsa dance from students.
Reading Teacher and Organizer of the event Corinne Rukavina said the event was a success.
"We had a great turnout. Between 250 and 300 people attended the event, including parents, board members, and the superintendent. Every year we have a multicultural celebration; however, this is the first year we had a living wax museum. Everyone put forth so much effort and dedication to the project!," she said. "We are planning on doing it again next year, and hope that it will be even bigger and better than it was this year! I look forward to seeing what we can do with this project next year!"
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