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When I heard that my daughter’s elementary school, Park Day in Oakland, was planning a Jewish Cultures Day on Friday, March 16, I was thrilled. I envisioned loaves of poppy seed challah from Semifreddi’s and a colorful Purim carnival.

Little did I know how complex — and dare I say tricky? — planning a Jewish Cultures Day for kids could be. First, you get a handful of Jewish parents together to plan this out, and well, you can only imagine the rest. Fourth-grade teacher and Park parent Bob Rollins told me that about 15 years ago, “Somebody had the idea that if you had seven years of seven different cultures days, then at some point during your kid’s time here, his or her culture will be celebrated.”

Of course, Rollins adds, not every culture gets covered during a child’s years at Park Day: “We don’t have Armenian Day or Kurdish Day. But we are always reexamining the format and might make some changes.”

So, what does it mean to teach elementary school kids in Oakland about Jewish culture?

“This is not an academic course on Jewish culture,” Rollins said. Instead, it’s a fun-filled, educational day packed with Jewish fairy tales and folk dancing.

Rollins makes it clear that “we’re not just going to eat bagels and watch Woody Allen movies. We’re going beyond the surface.”

Although kids will learn what yarmulkes are, this won’t be a day of religion. When I probe more, Rollins says: “Where do you draw the line? How do you draw the line? My Orthodox cousin doesn’t even think there is a line. We could spend years debating it. For our purposes, we’re OK with the line being fuzzy.”

Every week for the past two months, more than a dozen Jewish Park Day parents have been planning for Cultures Day at the school, which now goes from kindergarten to eighth grade. Until last year, the school went up to sixth grade — which explains the seven-year period to learn about different cultures.

So, as you can see, Jewish lessons for a teenager might need to be modified for the 5-year-old crowd. But the message is clear: This is a day of celebrating.

One thing I love about Park Day’s curriculum is that it’s proactive about addressing political issues and world events. But Rollins tells me that the school has “consciously and deliberately stayed away from trying to just touch on these issues, especially during a one-day special occasion.”

“This day is not about policy,” he said. “On Cultures Day we de-emphasize the political policies of the nations that encompass the different cultures.

“One way is to look especially at the children who identify with the celebrated culture,” he continued. “Do we want a young kid of Irish descent to come into European Cultures Day and that day learn about the IRA bombings, the conflict between Catholics and Protestants, the fear of terrorism and violence experienced by so many in places like Belfast and London? No.”

In other words, this day is really about embracing Jewish values like tikkun olam and tzedakah.

Personally, I’m grateful Jewish Cultures Day also acknowledges the diversity of the local Jewish community in a mock-museum set up on the school grounds with profiles of Jews of all colors. If you’ve followed this column, then you know that my 6-year-old daughter is biracial (her father, who is not in our lives, is African American, and I’m white).

Although there was talk about having a presentation on the Holocaust, or an in-depth discussion about what it means to be a multicultural Jew, Toni Fitzpatrick, one of the Jewish Cultures Day coordinators and a Park parent, tells me these programs could be “too long” and “too expensive.”

Of course, they might also be inappropriate for the younger set.

For me, the highlight of the day will be reading to the first-graders. I’ve volunteered to read Jewish stories to my daughter’s class, otherwise known as “the Chipmunks.” Since they’re such animal lovers, I think I just might start with the story of Noah’s Ark.