CULTURAL AWARENESS

Since our children were born, they take part of the society where we live. they participate in all the activities of their families and they learn them and this is the way these activities last in all the generations that live in an area. Every task they do allows them to know their customs and carries them out. the habits and customs of our children are originated in their families. traditions are a main feature of our community. Every social group has different customs in each activity they do (communicate, feed, marry, make parties, etc…) all of them are typical of a certain place while time goes by.

The current Spanish educational law, at childhood education and primary education levels, establish among their aims “The education for the cultural awareness”. Specifically this aim:  knowing the parties and celebrations of their environment like a seed of the custom and tradition.  is mainly established in the area of the “environment knowledge” in the curriculum that develops childhood education.

The cultural awareness activities are usually developed as curricular activities (inside the scholar schedule – from 9 a.m to 14 p.m). But sometimes, they are conducted as extracurricular activities (in the afternoon and are taught by teachers that not belong to our school). From the school, we try to give importance to the tradition and children participation on it.

The activities we develop for that are: Knowledge of different musical instruments of the area. For this purpose, a musicologist visits us to explain all of them. This allows us an interaction.

Learning of typical dances of the area. In our area, they are called jotas.

Recognizing typical costumes of the area.

Knowledge of the history of our community and celebration of their special date, ours is 23 rd April. For that purpose, we organize many activities, so that children can know:  Shield and flag

 The names of the nine provinces that form our “Autonomous Community –Castilla and León- and their position inside Spain.

 The history of our community: Villalar de los Comuneros ( our famous village)

Knowledge of the history of our city: The train and the train´s museum.

Practicing traditional games Bowling Boules Petanque Spinning Bottle caps…

Knowledge of the typical craft in our area: Earthenware water jar Ceramic for cooking

Knowledge of typical food: lamb and vegetable stew

Knowledge the architecture of our city and village: San Juan de Baños Basílica.

Palencia: Cathedral Otero´s Christ

Knowledge legends, tales, idioms and typical words of the area. All of these aspects produce that children show an acceptance attitude and respect for their customs.

Likewise, in our school, we are aware of the cultural and social values from children from other countries.  We work different words for greeting in several languages.  Typical customs of the country where the child comes from.