Fiesta adds fun

Derrick Miller
The Duncan Banner

May 16, 2008 11:33 am

— It wasn’t a traditional Cinco de Mayo celebration. For one thing, it took place on May 8.
But Thursday’s fiesta for the Emerson Elementary School’s first-grade students was a celebration, nonetheless. It was a recognition for their hard work with the Accelerated Reader program.
First-grade teacher Ashlie Knapp said the fiesta was a reward for the most of the first-grade students.
“It’s a way of celebrating the kids who met their AR goal,” Knapp said.
The program featured a feast of nachos with toppings including cheese, taco meat, salsa and guacamole. A taco-shaped cake, which was made by a parent, was also part of the festivities.
Adding to the fun of the event was an arts and crafts project, making maracas from empty soft drink cans. For the art project, students colored Mexican flags, cut them out and pasted them on their cans. They added beans to the cans and sealed off the openings with cotton balls, popsicle sticks and lots of glue.
While some students were getting their food, others were coloring their flags. This ensured everyone had something to do.
The event wasn’t all food and games, though.
Knapp said the celebration also gave students an idea of what Cinco de Mayo is about. She said the occasion was a way to tie reading in with a tradition from another culture.
Before the program took place, students watched a film about Cinco de Mayo. They were later reminded about the maracas seen in the film, which served as a segue to the art project.
The fiesta does more then just tie tradition to reaching a goal. Knapp said the celebration was a way for students to realize how important reading is and to boost the students’ interests in reading. She said this will help them later in their lives.
“The more you read, the better you read,” she said.
With this thought in mind, encouraging students to read has become one of the main focuses for the first-grade teachers at Emerson, she said.
“It’s a nice reward for the kids who worked hard,” Knapp said.

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