On a cold wintery day, Everett’s dad, Chris, and mom, Gretchen, shared their family tradition of having summer outdoor movie nights. At their house, they have to set up a very large screen and use a projector to view the movies. Everett helps his dad put the stakes in the ground to hold the screen up. During the summer, they must wait until the sun goes down so that the movie is visible on the screen. This is a special event because it is not just Everett’s immediate family but they invite cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. To decide the movie, they narrow the choice to a couple unseen movies and then decide together. Another special treat is that they have a big popcorn machine to make delicious snacks to share.
In our classroom, we watched two episodes of Bluey and were mesmerized by the popcorn machine. We learned that Everett’s favorite movie is “The Greatest Showman.” Since we couldn’t watch the movie, we listened and danced to a song from the movie! Everett led the class in the choreography for the song. The sharing of family traditions helps the children build individual identities within the classroom community and develop an understanding of people’s characteristics, habits, and living patterns.