CALUMET - For the students of C-L-K Elementary School, learning about another culture involves more than sitting in a classroom reading books. It also involves marching through the halls of the school wearing colorful masks and chanting in Spanish.
Anita Levy, C-L-K Elementary Spanish teacher, said students were taking part in a ceremony Wednesday meant to simulate part of Carnival, called vejigante, as it's practiced in Puerto Rico.
Levy said after showing a DVD about Puerto Rican culture to the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students, they wanted to do something based on what they saw.
"They were intrigued by Carnival," she said.
Part of the Carnival celebration involves people dressing as vejigante, which is a clown character whose look is determined by the imagination of the wearer. In Puerto Rico, the costume involves colorful robes and handmade masks, limited only by the imaginations of their makers.
The C-L-K students made masks for their parade through the school building halls with the help of art teacher Debra Mues.
As they marched through the halls, the students chanted in Spanish, with some students calling out and others answering back.
Vejigante derives from the Spanish words for bladder and giant. In Puerto Rico, marchers carry brightly painted inflated cow bladders. The C-L-K students passed on the cow bladders for their parade.
Mues said students in each grade had different themes for their masks. The different grades used different media, also. Younger students made masks out of thin cardboard, and the older students made them out of papier-mache.
Mues especially enjoyed the project because it involved cooperation between two different classes.
"This is a cross-cultural and cross-curricular project," she said. "This was like a walking art show."
Levy said since this was the first time the students performed the vejigante march, there were a few bugs to work out if it's done again next year.
"I think there's room for improvement," she said.
However, the students chanted well, Levy said.
"They were really into it," she said. "They actually were saying it pretty good."
Kurt Hauglie can be reached at khauglie @mininggazette.com.
