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Open house night is international delight
(by Kathryn A. Burger - April 02, 2008)
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Staff Photos By Ashlee Woodruff
This year’s open house at the
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School had an international theme with each of the school’s 20 classes learning about the history and culture of a foreign country. Above, visitors to the fourth grade wing were greeted by this mural created by Kristin Borghoff’s class.
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Where should the trip begin? China, Holland, Italy, or Ireland? Those were the choices in the kindergarten wing. Visitors to the first grade classrooms could “travel” between Mexico, Japan, Jamaica and India. The second-grade rooms made travel to Germany, Brazil, Australia and France quick and easy – just crisscross the hall. In the third-grade wing, Portugal, Israel, Canada and Thailand were destinations and in the fourth-grade wing, a trip from Greece to Great Britain to Spain to Egypt took just minutes.
The
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School annual open house has always been a cooperative endeavor among students and faculty. Lynn Catanio, a second-grade teacher at the school, said that in addition to learning about the history and culture of the country each class would represent as part of their coursework, the students had the help of Jennifer Harris, the school’s art teacher, and Dina Benaquista, the technology teacher. “They both worked closely with the classroom teachers and students over the past few months on many of the projects created during the students’ research on their class’s country,” Catanio said.
Each class used a variety of ways to illustrate and explain the unique qualities of their country. After doing their research, they translated their knowledge into the inventive and well-crafted drawings and paintings, art projects, murals, and research reports. Several classes created replicas of famous landmarks. Among the large-scale exhibits were the Leaning Tower of Pisa made from pizza boxes by kindergarteners in Jamie Jankowski’s class; a paper mache Arc d’Triomphe (see front page photo) created by students in Jan Wisse’s second grade class; the Taj Mahal made from tables, sheets and drawings made by Patrice Zurbuch’s first-graders; and the Great Wall of China, made from craft paper “boulders” by students in Michelle Coombs’ kindergarten class.
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This display of Pookalam designs graced the wall outside Patrice Zurbuch’s first grade classroom. In India, traditional Pookalams are made from fresh flowers; and though these are made from scraps of tissue paper, they are just as intricate and colorful.
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Some classes wrote reports or stories. Visitors to Camille Giunchi’s fourth-grade classroom were greeted by a large display of collages of notable British subjects that the students had made.
Down the hall, an enormous mural depicting life in Ancient Greece adorned the wall and was flanked by large columns. Several notable structures were depicted and the Ancient Greeks that inhabited the photo all had familiar faces since each costumed figure was topped with a photo of a student.
On the night of the open house, visitors were able to get a glimpse of the work that went into preparing for this popular event. Dina Benaquista, the technology teacher, had taken video of each class as they worked on their projects during the past few months, and created a PowerPoint presentation, set to the song, “It’s a Small World,” which played on a continuous loop in the all-purpose room.
While there were many projects on display in each classroom as well as on hallways bulletin boards, Catanio said the projects all represent what the students have learned and were not created so that there would artwork to display for open house. “It is all driven by the curriculum and the cooperative learning that occurs when faculty and students all work together. The open house is a way for students to show their families and schoolmates what they’ve learned.”
Kathryn A. Burger's e-mail address is burger@northjersey.com.
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