What is Harmony Day and how does Spunky Monkeys Early Learning and Preschool get involved?
Firstly Harmony Day is a national day celebrated all over Australia, on March 21st, and symbolises the diversity that we have here in Australia. The day’s message is that everyone belongs, with aim to help people understand cultural and religious diversity, and be able to help others develop a sense of belonging to their community.
Some facts about Australia:
- around 45 per cent of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent who was
- we identify with about 300 ancestries
- since 1945, more than 7.5 million people have migrated to Australia
- apart from English, the most common languages spoken in Australia are Mandarin, Italian, Arabic, Cantonese, Greek, Vietnamese, Tagalog/Filipino, Spanish and Hindi
- More than 60 Indigenous languages are spoken in Australia.
Resource:?http://www.harmony.gov.au/about/
What does the colour orange mean to Harmony Day?
Traditionally orange can represent communication socially and conversations that have a meaningful significants. To show support for diversity within Australia people are encouraged to wear orange on the 21st?March.
How does Spunky Monkeys Early Learning Centre and Preschool get involved?
At our centres we encourage children to wear orange for the day. During the daily program we may listen culturally diverse music and speak about the different cultures that we have within our service. We may speak about our families, who make up our families, and how all our families are different. Some activities we may do at the centre is painting of self-portraits, sing songs in different languages, and research where the children’s names from and place them on a world map. We may do cooking experiences like making an orange cake. In some of our rooms we sing a morning song, which now the children will be learning in another language.
