Liberty students share their diverse cultures with classmates

Sometimes cleaning a messy room is a holiday tradition, and sometimes "liking to eat" is reason enough for celebration - at least when you're in third grade at EJ Blott Elementary School.

This is according to the 8- and 9-year-old students in Carla Collins' class who last week took to the front of the classroom to teach their peers and family members about their cultural festivities. Collins said this year was particularly exciting with students from Sierra Leone, Palestine and India sharing information about Eid Al-Fitr, or the feast that ends the Muslim fast during Ramadan, and Holi, or a Hindu festival of colors.

"It was so different with the diversity, when you make it personal, they'll remember it," Collins said.

Tribune Chronicle photos / Margaret Thompson Wearing a traditional African dress, Adama Seray-Wurie tells her classmates at E.J. Blott Elementary School in Liberty about holiday traditions in other cultures. The Sierra Leone native said she interviewed her father about the holiday and explained wearing a hijab.

The first student to present was Moawya Adhami who came to the school a few months ago, able to speak only Arabic. Collins spent time working with Adhami's mother to translate what he was telling her about the holiday of Eid Al-Fitr.

"We don't eat until it is dark," he explained to his class.

His progress in picking up English has been amazing, Collins said.

"He told me he gives his mother gifts (for Eid Al-Fitr), so I asked what kind of gifts and he told me he gives her money. I asked him how do you give your mom money? Then when I called her on the phone she said yes he does, that it is tradition for the men to give women money," she said. "I mean there are things I'm learning."

Wearing a traditional African dress, Adama Seray-Wurie also taught her class about Eid Al-Fitr. The Sierra Leone native said she interviewed her father about the holiday and explained wearing a hijab.

"I think it is important for them to know what the holidays mean," said mother Larissa May, whose daughter Shaferra May spoke about Thanksgiving.

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Liberty students share their diverse cultures with classmates