November 7 was designated International Day at West End Primary. The festival, which featured foods from all seven continents, was the brainchild of social studies and science co-ordinator Yvonne Cooper. Each class in the school was responsible for one country, and the students were required to dress in native attire for the festival. Close to 150 guests visited the school to sample the food items. Three students from Mrs. Sukdeo's Primary 6 class report on the day's activities.

Zakiyyah Showers

For International Day, Friday, November 7, every class in this school had to choose a country to study, and my class chose India. I did research about India and I learned about the Diwali Festival, from an excellent presentation on the Festival of Lights in India and around the world. Some recipes I learned about were Gujia, Malpua. The girls in my class had to wear a sari. A sari is an Indian Dress. The boys had to wear a cricket uniform or if they didn't have that, they had to wear their school clothes. Indians like cricket, that's why the boys wore cricket uniforms.

All the classes had to make food. Our teacher, Mrs. Sukdeo, brought in our food. All the information about the countries and all the foods were in the assembly hall. Once school started, all the classes went into the assembly hall. After that, different classes were assigned to different areas. There was a story teller, African dancers and Scottish dancers.

When I tasted the food, it was amazing. One teacher did Bermuda and she made some delicious fish chowder. I had two cups of it. Then I visited Israel and had potato cakes served with applesauce and it was good. The Jamaican stall was good. I had dumpling and jerk chicken. I tasted other delicious foods too. I went to China and got a fortune cookie.

I really, really liked all the foods and all the displays and also the story about Israel.

Ashley Simons

On International Day, November 7, 2008, P6 Sukdeo was in India … Let me tell you what International Day is at West End. It's when you take out a day to be in another country, eat the foods prepared and look at all the work that everyone else in other classes has learned about their countries.

In art class, children had to make decorations. In my class, we watched a movie called 'Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic'. It was about four children and their dog. The characters spoke in Hindi, but the subtitles were in English, so we had to read the movie too.

One of the fun parts of International Day was that I wore a real sari given to me by an Indian friend that works with my Mom. I also wore a real bindi on my forehead and lots of make-up on my face. International Day was a fun day here at West End Primary School.

Oreoluwa Bademosi

On International Day our class was representing India. India is located in Asia. Most women wear saris. Wealthy women wear saris made of silk but most women wore saris made of cotton.

The girls in our class had to wear saris and it was a privilege to wear something Indian for one day. When women get married, they put something in the middle of their forehead. It is called a bindi. Our teacher provided some for the girls in our class and they came all the way from India. I hope I get the chance to wear a sari again!

When we went downstairs for lunch, all the teachers provided food from their special countries. Mrs. Sukdeo provided Basmati rice, Nan bread, Dahl, butter chicken, jeelabi, mmmm delicious. I also tried some Mexican food provided by Primary 4 Simons. I had a taco but tried something new. Instead of having meat with the taco, I had beans with it. It was mmmm good! The Jamaican food was very spicy, especially the jerk chicken and the patties. I think I'm going to find the recipe and try to make the chicken because it tasted nice.