Published in the May 27-June 9, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Fourth Graders at Mount Madonna School
We have many fun school-wide events at Mt. Madonna and they include activities from saving the planet to understanding different cultures. It’s good to learn about other cultures so we know what other people are going through and appreciate them. If we learn about them, we can help if they need financial assistance or by helping them build their communities.
We at Mount Madonna School learn about the cultural myths of India every year performing the play “Ramayana” — a theater production where a prince fights a demon to get his wife back. Every lower-grade at our school has a different part to play — such as second graders acting as monkeys in a jungle, third graders stepping lively as the wedding dancers, and we fourth graders performing as palace guards. The costumes have bright colors and shiny fabric and we wear cool hats. The costumes do not look like what we usually wear in America. Different cultures wear different clothes.
We do the Summit for the Planet event, which is an annual walk-a-thon in April around Earth Day. It teaches people not to litter. It’s about being respectful of the Earth and the homes of animals. We want to leave the planet clean for the next generation.
In our fourth grade class we learned about the island nation of Madagascar. Most of us had partners and we could choose a cultural aspect of the country to research. We learned about “tavy,” which is when the people in Madagascar cut down the forest trees, burn them and clear the land to grow rice.
We learn to be respectful of other people and living things. We don’t want to destroy them because we are all connected and we depend on each other.
This column was written by the students in Linda Pope’s fourth-grade class at Mount Madonna School.
