Local Colors Festival & Celebrating Heritage in Roanoke, Virginia

TOPIC:

OBJECTIVES:

  • Promote cultural awareness using examples from students’ vicinity (Local Colors).
  • Brainstorm ways to share familial/cultural traditions with the community/classroom.

INTRODUCTION

Local Colors Festival is an annual festival in Roanoke, Virginia that invites Roanoke residents to share their heritage and cultural traditions with their community. Established by Pearl Fu, a Chinese American woman looking to expand her community’s cultural awareness, the Local Colors Festival will provide younger students with a new way of exploring other cultures and even brainstorm ways in which they may share their own cultural traditions with their community/classroom. This lesson plan provides an excellent way to discuss the history of migrants coming to what we now know as the United States as Roanoke, VA is the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1. Why would it be important to have a place where people can share their cultures with others in their community?
2. How can students share their familial/cultural tradition with others?