Uniondale Union Free School District’s Walnut Street Elementary School recently celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month in a week packed with exciting cultural lessons. The month-long celebration from September 15-October 15 was the perfect opportunity for educators to shine a light on the community’s diversity and the particular contributions of Hispanic Americans to our country’s history, culture and achievement.
“The Uniondale School District is one of great cultural diversity. It is important that we bring that diversity alive to our scholars. Hispanic Heritage Month gives us the opportunity to share with our scholars the substantial contributions made by the Hispanic community,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Monique Darrisaw-Akil.
To kick off the celebration, kindergarteners were treated to a feast of pupusas—the national dish of El Salvador. Composed of a thick tortilla stuffed with savory options such as beef or pork, the scholars dug in as they learned about cultural meals. First graders learned about the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, widely known for her self-portraits. Following Frida’s art style, the scholars created self-portrait retablos. Retablos, also called ‘Laminas’ in Spanish, are paintings made on a sheet of tin that emerged in the Mexican community to express accounts of events.
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Scholars in the upper grades also participated in the cultural celebration. 5th-grade art scholars studied Honduran self-taught landscape painter José Antonio Velásquez. Scholars enrolled in Foreign Language in Elementary School (FLES) tackled a research project. FLES scholars each selected a Spanish-speaking country and were tasked with discovering the meaning of the nation’s flag.
For more information about the Uniondale Union Free School District, please visit the District’s website at https://district.uniondaleschools.org, and ‘like’ our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/uniondalek12.
