Mwebaza in Colorado Schools and Beyond!
This school year, we’ve been co-teaching lessons for our cross-cultural education program with the help of our Colorado partner school teachers! It’s been a whirlwind of self-discovery, growth, and insight with every grade level. As the semester wraps down, we want to share what we’ve been doing in Colorado schools!
Watercolor Skies Stretch from Uganda to Colorado
Students from Preschool - 5th (Colorado) and Baby Class to P7 (Uganda) participated in “Sue’s Sky” lessons that encouraged each one to foster a sense of identity and self-awareness. These hands-on learning activities grant students the ability to form meaningful relationships and share personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings. By learning about themselves and then sharing what they learned, they can better build connections based on mutual understanding and trust.
Children’s book author and St. Vrain Valley Coordinator of Educational Equity & Family Engagement, Lulu Buck, traveled to Uganda this summer with Mwebaza to teach her “Sue’s Sky” lesson where she read her book about accepting and celebrating all of the unique experiences, cultures, and ways of life that make each of us different.
Buck came back and is now teaching these same lessons in Colorado with our partner school teachers here. Since July, she and Hillari Hansen, Mwebaza’s School Development Director, have taught “Sue’s Sky” lessons to all students at four Ugandan partner schools, Niwot Elementary, and Eagle Crest. They will complete the lessons at our three other Colorado partner schools during this next semester.
Sharing Who We Are Builds Self-Awareness
After reading Sue’s Sky, older students shared facts about themselves that they wanted others to know and accept, then painted skies with colors and images corresponding to their identities. Students in preschool - 2nd grade in Colorado (baby class - P2 in Uganda) shared some of the emotions they felt and attributed colors to these emotions. Skies became gorgeous displays of pinks, blues, greens, purples, and more!
Students in 3rd - 5th grade in Colorado and P3 - P7 in Uganda shared unique and lesser-known facts about themselves on the back of their artwork and painted colorful skies on the front. Some students shared that they speak Spanish at home, that they feel anxious, and that they love roller skating and building with their dad.
Fried Plantains Meet Hershey’s Syrup
At our five Colorado elementary partner schools, Hillari Hansen co-leads Mwebaza clubs where students can dive deeper into learning about Ugandan partner schools, their students, and daily life. Clubs learn about Ugandan culture and history through music, books, videos, games, and food. This year, club students prepared and cooked plantains - a common Ugandan staple.
With the help of teachers and parent volunteers, Mwebaza Clubs at all five schools taught kids about Matoke, a Ugandan dish made from cooked bananas. They peeled plantains, cut them in half, and, with the help of an adult, fried them in a skillet. Afterward, they coated the fried plantains in chocolate sauce and proceeded to dig in. Reviews were mixed, some students loved the dish while others said it tasted like a potato coated in smothered in chocolate. We appreciated their candor.
We love seeing students’ perspectives of Ugandans and the continent of Africa change as they learn more about the diverse, beautiful cultures, landscapes, and experiences. We remain grateful to all of the teachers, staff, administrators, parents, and students who participate in our club activities and help us co-teach curriculum in all of our partner schools. We couldn’t do any of this without you!