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Geneva's Wood School students getting a world of culture

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Photo by Terry Mayer

Woods School fourth-graders work on the head of what will become a 20-foot-long parade dragon as part of their Chinese cultural studies. Students also will study Ireland and Greece this school year as the multicultural experiences are blended into the curriculum, from 4-year-old kindergarten all the way up to eighth grade. For more photos, go online to Facebook.com/WalworthCountyToday.

GENEVA TOWNSHIP — Getting children’s attention and keeping them engaged are arguably the most difficult tasks teachers face in an elementary school classroom.

However, instructors at Woods School often encourage their students -- in 4-year-old kindergarten through eighth grade -- to daydream about faraway places, people and things.

(Read all of this week's stories from Walworth County Sunday HERE. )

That’s because the school, located just off Wisconsin Highway 50 on Snake Road, incorporates multicultural studies into the curriculum several weeks every school year.

From Jan. 23 through Jan. 27, youngsters’ thoughts drifted nearly 7,000 miles and 14 hours away for a celebration of the Chinese New Year.

The curriculum included reading, hands-on crafts and other projects, educational videos, music and art experiences, guest speakers, games and sports. The week of activities concluded with a Chinese lunch.

Parent teacher organization president Monica Goebel is one of those who have supported such efforts from the beginning.

“We’ve traditionally done the cultural lunches before, but this year we wanted to beef it up and add to the education experiences,” Goebel said. “We’ve sent all of the information home to parents with the idea of encouraging them to enrich what activities the kids are doing at school.”

Read the rest of the story HERE.