With vibrant costumes, an attentive audience and a flair for performing, all grade levels at Collegeville Elementary School took part in a festive Multicultural Day celebration on Friday, May 17.
Prior to the dancing and music, family members of Collegeville students joined in for a special luncheon on the campus.
A dual language immersive school, the students at Collegeville learn both English and Spanish, using the two languages throughout their school day. The program for Friday’s performances listed song names in both English and Spanish as well.
“The goal is honestly incorporated throughout the school year, it’s simply integral to what our school is, which is embracing multiculturalism, especially as it pertains to Spanish-speaking countries,” Principal Dr. George Megenney explained of the day. “The kids get it (multiculturalism) from the time they start in August all the way through the end of the school year and this is just an expression of joy and celebrating all that they have learned over the course of the school year.”
He said the day is the result of a collaboration between the teachers and the school’s K-5 music teacher, Diana Ayala, helping create the program for the nearly 160 Collegeville students to learn and share with the audience of family members and fellow students.
“We had a taco lunch for all visitors and the kids, of course, that also took quite a bit of preparation and organization to pull that all off,” Megenney added. “The crowd is pretty big; I think we had a bigger turnout than last year.”
Performances started about 12:20 p.m., with the Transitional Kindergarten/Kindergarten classes taking center stage on the school blacktop first. They performed La Raspa/The Scrape. First graders were joined by Dr. Megenney for Danza de los viejitos/Dance of the Old Folks, and then used colorful flags in their Costa Rica song.
For the second graders, they performed El torito pinto/The Painted Bull and El toro mambo/The Mambo Bull. With bright streamers in hand, the third graders delighted the crowd with De colores/Of Colors and also did a recitation of In Lak’ech.
The skirts were swirling and dancers twirling when the fourth graders took their turn performing, as they presented Los machetes/The Machetes and then used tapping sticks for Cielito lindo/Lovely Little Sky.
Rounding out the program were the fifth grade students, performing Latin America and wowing the crowd with a loud finale that included some popping plastic balls that sent out confetti into the audience.
After each group performed, signs requesting applause/aplausos were carried around in front of the audience, and teachers for the individual grade levels arranged the student performers so parents could get a photo after their dance was complete.
