AIM

The activity aims at interlinguistic and intercultural comparison among children.

CONNECTIONS TO THE CURRICULUM

- History and anthropology of religion

- Geography and history

- Music

HOW TO

Children and families are involved in creating a class calendar which, in addition to Italian holidays, features those of the countries which other children come from.

 

PHASE 1:

Children, with the help of their parents, collect information about the main (secular and religious) festivals celebrated in their country of origin and they are presented to the class.

A comparison can be made between festivals that take place only in individual countries (for example, Liberation Day in Italy) and holidays celebrated in several countries: eg. the workers' holiday exists in several countries, but in some cases it takes place on a fixed day (eg Italy), while in others it does not (eg. USA); during Christmas, celebrated throughout the Christian world, the "person" who brings gifts has different names (see, for example: map).

PHASE 2:

Teachers and children add the holidays collected in the classroom as "events" to the calendar, also using digital applications (eg google calendar).

For each holiday, children, individually or in small groups and with parents, can share material found on the web regarding each holiday (images, videos from youtube, songs, newspaper articles, ...) or audio / video material or photos of the celebration of the family holiday (photos, videos or audio of family and / or the community to which they belong) in addition to the general information discussed in the first phase (meaning of the holiday, tradition, ...).

To add resource links online on a google calendar on line, it is possible to copy the URL in the "description" space; to load personal material, select "add attachment".

Once complete, the calendar will be consulted daily. Children can learn together about the customs and festivals of different countries, thanks to multimedia support.