Several City School District of New Rochelle schools mark Hispanic Heritage Month
through lessons, events and ceremonies. Students in William B. Ward Elementary School teacher Robert Flanz’s class celebrated by exploring music in cultures such as in Peru, Brazil and Mexico. Topics included the indigenous instruments, the feeling a song will convey, the story or significance behind each piece of music, and an appreciation toward discovering music and cultural awareness. The video shared here is the National Dance of Mexico, also known as the Mexican Hat Dance and includes students participating by clapping to the infectious rhythm of the song.
Ann Briscoe’s fifth-grade social studies classes celebrated by reading “Trouble Dolls” by Jimmy Buffett and Savannah Jane Buffett. Worry dolls (also called trouble dolls; in Spanish, muñeca quitapena) are small, handmade dolls from Guatemala. According to legend, Guatemalan children tell their worries to the Worry Dolls, placing them under their pillow when they go to bed. By morning, the dolls have gifted them with the wisdom and knowledge to eliminate their worries. Afterward, students created their own Trouble Dolls.
In addition, kindergarten students from Marie Belinquete’s and Jennifer DeGiacomo’s art classes were inspired by Mexican-born artist Gabriel Dawe, who creates rainbow installations that look like light beams, but are thousands of multicolored threads. Students focused on how Dawe used the colors in the rainbow to create their own masterpieces.