Written By: Ramlah Abdul Talib
On 21st July every year, schools and public sectors across Singapore will commemorate Racial Harmony Day in celebration of Singapore being a Multiracial Society.
Why is it vital to teach our children to treat all equally?
We have to instil learning in these young children that everyone is born equal, so regardless of race, skin colour, or culture, everyone must be treated the same.
In Appleland Montessori, we have a good mix of children from different ethnicities and it was a special and educative moment for the children. To help provide learning opportunities that involve requesting, commenting, or responding to others, all the teachers and other non- teaching staff lend a helping hand with the celebrations.
Most of the children and teachers came in dressed in other race traditional clothing instead of their own. It shows that this day is about understanding each other’s culture, heritage and beliefs and expressing their love for them. The children’s exposure to different ethnic cultures also promotes inclusivity and harmonious living. Various foods from different ethnic cultures were presented and laid out for the children to see and try. They also got to experience other cultures differences through art, games, traditional clothes, songs, and many more.
The children participated in different activities during the celebration e.g. food tasting, fashion shows, traditional games such as Hopscotch, Congkak, Batu Seremban (5 stones), Capteh, Kuti-Kuti etc from the different ethnic cultures were some of the activities that were available for the children to explore and play.
Our Toddler Class
These young toddlers were given the opportunity to try the Vietnamese Hat and they played with the Batu Serembat (5 Stones).
Our Nursery One
Our young children enjoyed their time together to play traditional games like Congkak, Batu Seremban (5 Stones) and Capteh. They had fun exploring and playing the games together with their peers.
Our Nursery Two
Children were able to discover traditional games such as hopscotch and congkak to learn about different race and culture. They took turns to actively participate and showed harmony by cooperating with friends of other races.
Our Kindergarten One
The children had fun showing off their costume from the different country and they got to experience on how to play with Batu Serembat (5 Stones).
Our Kindergarten Two
The best part of all, the K2 children did a medley and sang “The Racial Harmony Day” song as a whole class.
The objective of this year’s Racial Harmony Day was to build children’s awareness and appreciation of the different races and enabled them to understand that unity is our strength. We hope the younger generation will continue to live in a peaceful multicultural society.
