Bonita Canyon students get worldly

Bonita Canyon Elementary School’s soccer field became a globe-trotting landscape as students set up their booths for World Cultures Day on Thursday.

Since March, the entire sixth-grade class studied a variety of countries, including Argentina, Canada, Egypt, France, India, Japan and South Africa for their booths.

The day was open for parents and other students of the Irvine school to explore the countries.

“We want to teach acceptance and acknowledgment of other cultures,” sixth-grade teacher Lauren Pipp said. “We see our students become teachers as they share everything they’ve learned with the people who visit their booth.”

For the project, the class divided into 18 groups of four or five students and researched the traditional clothing, food, holidays, monuments, games, flags and other aspects of their assigned country.

Students of the Japan booth studied the popularity of baseball in the country. They decided to set up a pitcher’s mound and a small soccer net by their booth. Group member George Bilder squatted in front of the net, ready to catch the baseballs their visitors would throw.

“Some of my favorite baseball players are from Japan, like Masahiro Tanaka and Ichiro Suzuki,” George said. “It’s an American sport, but it’s cool that baseball is big in Japan so we wanted to work that into our project.”

Across the field, students of Egypt’s booth created paper pyramids to hang from their tent while the Germany station set up a 6-foot long replica of the Berlin Wall for their fellow classmates to paint their names on.

Before the World Cultures Day assignment, each sixth-grade student began an individual research project on the culture they identify with. The World Cultures Day project then gave student groups a choice between two countries they could study. The countries were ones that the students were not familiar with.

“We want the students to celebrate where they come from while also learning about something new to them,” Pipp said.

Student Luke Curtis, who studied Argentina, describes the project as an experience that opened his mind.

“It’s helped me appreciate not just the culture I studied, but the world,” Luke said. “People come from different backgrounds but when we learn about them we can find a way to interact with each other and the rest of society.”

World Cultures Day concluded with performances from outside groups, Adaa Indian and Bollywood Dance Academy, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Martial Artist Gracie Bara, Native American Hoop Dancer Tara Kingi and singer Aviella Winder.