Madison, News, RSS Facebook, RSS General, Schools
 By  GreggParker Published 
1:39 pm Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Global cultures featured in Columbia’s ‘epic night’

Students from Columbia Elementary School may never travel to Morocco or Beijing, yet they had an international overview of exotic locales with “‘Epic Night Around the World.”

The cultural fair brought “awareness to our diverse population here at Columbia and to celebrate our differences,” fifth-grade teacher Lisa Grice said. Principal Nelson Brown asked Grice to spearhead the event, in which all Columbia teachers participated.

Each grade chose a country to represent. Then, each grade level completed a unit of study on that country. “Our parents and students contributed by volunteering their time, food, costumes and a variety of resources to make our ‘Epic Night Around the World’ a great and enjoyable success,” Grice said.

Africa was the country of choice for kindergartners. First-graders chose to present customs of Mexico. Other featured countries were England by second grade; Italy, third; China, fourth; Turkey, fifth; Brazil, sixth; and Morocco, exceptional unit.

“Our classes and hallways were transformed with artifacts from each country,” Grice said. Visitors enjoyed music, videos, literature, arts and crafts, food, clothing and games. Individuals served as representatives from each country.

By studying cultural diversity, the Columbia students expanded their understanding of technology, reading, writing, music, math and science, Grice said.

Other event organizers were Karen Jump, Cindy Perry, Sage Murine, Mary Dunn, Colleen Johnson, Chantel Callendar, Becky Coudert, Sara Clark and Tonya Porter.

Columbia student Caitlyn Turner liked “the variety of cultural food items and seeing the different examples of toys. I learned that some people from England added dry yeast to their bread to improve the taste.”

Matthew Dennison enjoyed distributing passports to visitors at the cultural fair. “As children ‘traveled’ around the globe, they got their passports stamped by a representative from that country. Africa had really hard donuts but they tasted really good,” he said.

Also on The Madison Record
Southern Showcase cross country meet this weekend
Events, Madison County Record, News, ...
Bob Labbe 
September 9, 2025
HUNTSVILLE- Representatives from the City of Huntsville, local sponsoring businesses and local schools cross country programs met with the news media ...
2025 MADISON BOWL: Bob Jones crushs Jets in rivalry tilt
Madison County Record, News, Schools, ...
Caleb Odom 
September 6, 2025
Check out more photos by clicking here . MADISON - James Clemens was no match for the juggernaut that is Bob Jones this year as the Jets fell 54-7 in ...
Ranae Bartlett ready to step into mayor’s role
A: Main, Madison County Record, News, ...
2025 Madison Election
Bartlett captured over 56% of the vote in three-candidate race
Staff Reports 
September 3, 2025
MADISON - Ranae Bartlett already has an advantage as she prepares to take on her new role as Madison’s new mayor. Serving in both leadership positions...
Wroblewski is only returning city council member as voters reject incumbents
A: Main, Madison County Record, News, ...
Madison voters select new leadership for city
Staff Reports 
September 3, 2025
MADISON - Madison voters rejected the only contested incumbents in city council races last Tuesday, ushering in new leadership for the city. John Seif...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *