Maternelle Read Around the World Celebrates Language, Culture, and Community

On May 7, we welcomed current and future families to our first-ever Maternelle Read Around the World Night, an evening celebrating culture, language, and the joy of reading together.

Parent volunteers shared stories in their native languages, allowing students to hear and experience storytelling from around the globe. Before each reading, volunteers introduced their home countries on a world map and shared a little about their culture and language. Students listened to stories in Telugu, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Korean, Arabic, Malagasy, Russian, Hebrew, and Thai.

Throughout the evening, students rotated through different reading stations and collected passport stamps from each country they “visited,” turning the experience into a journey around the world. The event concluded with milk and cookies.

At French International, we are proud to represent more than 40 countries and over 50 languages within our community. Events like Read Around the World highlight and reinforce the importance of language as a bridge to understanding and empathy.

As we prepare students to become globally minded learners and leaders, we strive to nurture curiosity about the world from an early age. Students learn that every language and culture has stories worth sharing, and listening to those stories helps us better understand one another.