Im doing a multicultural theme with my pre-school kids. Does anyone have suggestions of activities we can do?
I teach a 4 year old pre-school group. We are studying the 5 continents of the world throughout term 3. Does anyone have any art and craft ideas, group time ideas, cooking ideas, games, interest areas ideas or anything at all?? Thanks!
Books:
Whoever You Are by Mem Fox
Can You Say Peace? by Karen Katz
Talk Peace by Sam Williams
Apple Pie Fourth of July by Janet Wong
World history, Story telling
There is a bear from Bear My Heart that allows you to record your voice and design bear shirts. You should record phrases for the bears in different languages. Plus, you could use the bears for separation anxiety, as well as an educational tool. I taught my daughter ALOT with this bear. The site is BearMyHeart.com. It’s really cool. Good luck!
I did something similar with a group of preschoolers. Every couple of weeks, they got a "letter" from a child from elsewhere in the world. These were created by the teachers, of course. In the letter, the child said "hello" in his/her native language and described his/her family, home, neighborhood, school, pets, transportation, holidays/traditions, and hobbies. The letters included photos to provide visual information, and sometimes included other small "gifts", and a CD of music from that country.
The letter was read at group time, and a sticker placed on a world map to represent our new friend’s home. The photos were displayed on the board near the map. A good resource for getting started with a unit like this is the Dorling Kindersley book, "Children Just Like Me".
The children took an imaginary airplane ride to visit our friend’s country country, and the activities during the next two weeks centered around that country.
For example, when our children received a letter from a friend in China, they learned to use chopsticks; looked at samples of Chinese calligraphy and imitated using black paint; made simple kites; played Eagel & Chicks, a traditional Chinese game; heard folktales at story time; made paper lanterns; learned to count to 10 in Chinese; learned to fold paper fans; brought vegetables from home, helped wash and cut them, watched a teacher stir fry them, and ate them at snack with soy sauce and rice; etc. We also ran a slide show of additional pictures on the computer, and children enjoyed viewing and discussing those.
At the end of the two weeks, the children helped write a "thank you note" to our new friend, describing the things that they learned and did during the unit. On the following Monday, they would receive a letter from a new friend, and begin again.
The letters and photos were compiled into a book that the children could look at later. The kids really seemed to enjoy these activities!
I would be happy to share more activities, if you can tell me more about what you are looking for!