School Makes Tet a Part of Curriculum : Teachers use the lunar new year as a theme for two weeks while pupils learn about Vietnamese culture. ‘The kids realize that we are all the same,’ the principal says.

In a first-grade classroom, children learn to use chopsticks, while outside on the playground, second-graders practice a traditional Vietnamese dance. In the multipurpose room, three fifth-grade boys don a dragon costume and prance to the beat of a drum.

Peek in any class at Fryberger Elementary School and you’ll see children celebrating Tet--the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.

The lunar calendar’s Year of the Rooster began Saturday, but at Fryberger School, the celebration will continue through this week as children from kindergarten through fifth grade use the traditional holiday to learn more about the Vietnamese culture.

At Fryberger, about a quarter of the 400 pupils are Vietnamese, and for Orange County’s Vietnamese residents, Tet is a deeply ingrained holiday tradition in which families pay tribute to their ancestors and try to attract good luck by passing out money to the young, dressing in their finest clothes and decorating their homes with flowers.

Teachers at Fryberger School used Tet as the theme for two weeks of classroom lessons and activities. This is the sixth year the school has held its annual Tet festival, which is one of three multicultural events held yearly at the school. The other two include a Cinco de Mayo celebration and one planned around an Old West theme.

“One of the criterion for educating children has to do with multicultural activities,” says principal Duane Collier, “and so we try to bring these activities into our curriculum.

“The value of something like this is so immense for the generation of kids that have not yet joined gangs, have not yet developed hatred for people of other colors,” he says.

“We have seen a big difference here in our community since we began doing this six years ago. We used to hear all the (ethnic and racial) slurs you could imagine and they have just disappeared and the kids realize that we are all the same.”

Throughout the two-week celebration, pupils learn Vietnamese dances, listen to Vietnamese folk tales, eat Vietnamese food and paint pictures using a rooster, the symbol of the Lunar New Year.

“Every grade level is involved,” says Ann Hosier, a teacher at the school and coordinator for Fryberger’s three multicultural celebrations. “It creates a lot of excitement, and the kids look forward to it.”

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The school began preparing for its Tet celebration just after Thanksgiving, according to Hosier, who says she has learned a lot about the Vietnamese community through her involvement with the school festival.

“I had no idea about Vietnam,” she says, “and didn’t know any Vietnamese people, but when people started coming to our school I wanted to find out.”

About six years ago, Hosier joined an advisory council, consisting of aides, teachers, school administrators and Vietnamese parents. The group decided to use Tet as a learning opportunity for Fryberger pupils, and Hosier was put in charge of planning the first program.

“I read lots of books, did a lot of library research and talked to people,” she says.

Over the years, Hosier has continued to collect information about Tet and the Vietnamese culture. Just prior to the school’s two-week celebration, Hosier prepared three thick packets of information for the school’s 17 teachers. Included in the packet are reading lists, copies of articles about Tet, lists of commonly used Vietnamese words and suggestions for classroom activities.

For example, in Dale Jordan’s fifth-grade class, children tackled an art project in which they learned to write “Happy New Year” in Vietnamese.

In Nancy King’s first-grade class, children learned to use chopsticks under the helpful tutelage of Be Nguyen, a Fryberger fifth-grader. And in Laurie Teixeira’s special education class for kindergartners and first-graders, kids read a story about the Lunar New Year.

Hosier points out that all Tet activities are designed to be incorporated into the day-to-day curriculum and can be used to teach everything from reading to math. But the most important lesson, Hosier says, is about life.

“It prepares them for life, how to get along with everyone,” she says. “Southern California is very much a mix and we need to be able to understand other people. We feel our multicultural programs promote intercultural understanding and pride, reduce prejudice and develop positive attitudes.”

Thinh Nguyen, a native of Saigon who now works as an aide at Fryberger, agrees. “The school is like a melting pot,” he says. “And we think this is a good way to learn from other groups.”

Nguyen also believes that the festival is a good way for Vietnamese children to learn to value and preserve their culture. “Most are not interested in our culture,” he says, “but this makes the kids so proud.”

That pride is evident in 11-year-old Be Nguyen’s performance of the dragon dance. As leader of the dance, Nguyen gets to wear a colorful dragon head, while two of his classmates, draped in the yellow dragon’s tail, bring up the rear.

Last week, the dragon dancers paraded through each room, and afterward children throughout the school followed the dancers to the multipurpose room for a special program that included skits, songs, poetry readings and martial arts demonstrations.

“Every year, it gets bigger and bigger,” says Ann Hosier. “We started very small, but we add things as we get more information and more knowledge. We bought the dragon head last year and we’ll use it year after year.”

Last week, the school set up five learning centers so that children, in small groups, could come to the multipurpose room throughout the day to sample Vietnamese foods, play games and participate in traditional dances.

Activities this week include an essay and picture contest. Also this week children are encouraged to wear the native dress of Vietnam.

To other schools that might want to plan their own Tet celebration next year, Hosier offers this advice: “Talk to parents, talk to people in the business community and do a lot of research on your own.” Hosier also invites educators to call her for suggestions.

“So far, our program has been very well accepted,” says Hosier, who points out that some of the school events are open to the public. “We are now known as the school that has a good background on Tet.”