Multicultural activities throughout the year

Saul, Jane D

It is important that early childhood teachers and caregivers provide experiences that implement meaningful multicultural understandings into their curriculum. According to Puckett and Diffily, "We live in a multicultural society and regardless of children's immediate neighborhoods or the ethnic composition of an individual class, today's children are growing up in a world comprised of culturally diverse people" (Teaching Young Children, 1999). Our children should be brought up to treat all races, religions, family backgrounds, and cultures equally with respect and consideration.

Although we often think of multicultural diversity as teaching young children to value and affirm differences in cultures, we also need to accentuate how we are all alike. We should establish a common knowledge that people everywhere have the same needs although they may meet them in different ways. Therefore, the emphasis is that although people may seem different on the surface, they are not so different after all (Saul, 1999). Bringing an awareness of a variety of cultures into the classroom helps children appreciate similarities among cultures as well as differences.

Daycare centers, preschools, and early elementary classrooms are the perfect place to begin. Teachers play a key role in affecting children's long-term beliefs and future aspirations (Boutte, 2000). There are many ways to teach young children about other cultures. We know that children in the preschool years learn best through play. Activities using familiar play materials and experiences that encourage exploration easily get children's attention. We should make an effort to interweave developmentally appropriate multicultural experiences into our curriculum on a daily basis throughout the year.

Too often in past years teachers have taught a "Children Around the World" unit and felt that they had met their obligation of teaching children about people of other lands. Or, they may have even taught thematic units on a particular country-China, or France, for example. Early childhood educators are moving away from this "tourist approach" of teaching multicultural education, or that of merely "visiting" the country, never to discuss it again after going on to another unit. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with exploring individual countries, the information learned should be expanded on and continue to be a part of the curriculum throughout the year.

Our classrooms should reflect a variety of cultures infused in all curriculum topics on a daily basis. Schools accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) mandate that "staff provide books, dolls, toys, wall decorations (photos and pictures), and recordings that reflect diverse images children may not likely see elsewhere (Accreditation Criteria & Procedures of the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs, 1991)." Experiences that reflect diverse cultures should be ongoing activities.

Where to Begin?

Cultural experiences through books can easily be interwoven into existing unit themes throughout the year. For example, ifyou already teach a unit on weather, you might read Umbrella by Taro Yashima. This Caldecott Honor Book is about a little Japanese girl who was born in New York and received an umbrella forher third birthday. The African setting of Bringing the Rain to the Kapiti Plain by V. Aardema is another weather related book that is a beautiful rhythmic story about the end of a drought. Gilberto and the Wind, by Marie Hall Ets, depicts a small Spanish boy who finds the wind as a playmate.

If you teach athematic unit about ducks, farms, or spring, you might read The Story of Ping by Marjorie Flack. This tale of a little duck is a wonderful opportunity to explore houseboats, fishermen, and the way of life on the Yangtze River. The Madeline series, illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans, offers an opportunity to discuss what it's like to be a French child, which might relate to a unit on "Friends," "I'm Special," or "Children Just Like Me." What other books can you work into existing unit themes for mini lessons on far away places? Try Elmer, the Patchwork Elephant by David McKee to learn about African or Indian elephants with a unit on the zoo or friendship. Place on your bookshelf Katy No Pocket, the dilemma of a distressed kangaroo with no pouch, by Emmy Payne. This can be integrated into a discussion of Australia or into aunit theme relating to the zoo, animals that hop, or pockets.

Children in Your Classroom

You might also begin with the diversity ofyour own classroom. Do you have children that represent other cultures? Talk positively about their cultural heritage. Involve their parents to enrich your curriculum. Parents are great resource people! Invite them to share clothing, articles from their country, and types of festivals they observe. Most children feel very proud to have a parent visit the class. You might also get parents to help with a celebration in your classroom as you learn about their customs and holidays. Have a tasting party of foods from other lands.

If you do not have parents representative of various cultures, look toward cultural resources in your community. Every community has visitors that would love to share their experiences or visual items with young children. If you live near a university, check with their foreign student program for volunteers. Taking the class on a field trip to a local Mexican, Italian, or Chinese restaurant might offer opportunities to meet people and taste foods representative of other cultures.

Celebrating Birthdays

Most classes celebrate children's birthdays in some way. Although different countries have different customs, children all around the world love to celebrate this occasion. A wonderful book called Birthdays! Celebrating Life Around the World by Eve B. Feldman presents 25 drawings created by children around the world depicting birthday traditions in their country. American children blow out candles on their birthday, while children in Scotland might expect to find a surprise baked in their cake.

Create a global birthday party in your classroom. Each month you might celebrate birthdays in your classroom as they would be celebrated in a different country. You might break a pinata or wear a crown for Mexico or eat long noodles to celebrate long life as do children in China!

Classroom Displays

Does your classroom reflect a positive, varying image of different cultural groups? Are there pictures of people hanging on the walls representative ofa multicultural community? Photograph-type pictures of children and adults in their current dress help dispel common stereotypes such as all Native Americans wear feathered headdresses and children from Holland wear wooden shoes. Children everywhere dress pretty much the same as children in America-- shorts or jeans, t-shirts, and tennis shoes! We can explain that people of other cultures do sometimes wear their native costumes for certain celebrations, but otherwise may dress very much as we do. Such pictures should be appropriately placed at children's eve level whenever possible.

Pictures are commercially available but can also be cut and mounted from magazines or travel brochures. They may also be printed from the Internet. After doing an Internet search of "Pictures of children in Japan," wonderful snapshots were found on a Japanese family's website. This family was shown in their everyday dress as well as in native costume for a celebration. Typical Japanese architecture was displayed. Children were pictured participating in both traditional Japanese activities such as sitting on floor cushions for a meal and also in a familiar American activity of watching a baseball game at home on TV! The pictures were printed and fashioned into a poster displayed in the classroom. It was entitled "Faces of Japan." Since our school computer contained a Japanese font, we were able to also print out the title in Japanese characters! The children were delighted to see what the words would look like to a Jananese child.

Free posters representing people from various cultures can sometimes be collected from airlines, publishing companies, school supply companies, and travel agents. When you see posters displayed in businesses, such as sports figures in a local sporting good store, ask what they plan to do with them when they are replaced with new ones. They'll often save them for your classroom!

If illustrations of children or adults appear in your classroom bulletin boards, be sure that they are representative of a variety of different cultures. Many commercial multicultural borders are available, but they often depict the stereotype dress. Be sure that the children understand that these costumes are often just for special occasions.

A world map might also be displayed in your room. As you talk about various countries throughout the year, you might locate each one on the map.

Evaluate Your Learning Centers

Review each learning center in your classroom to see if it contains culturally identifiable materials throughout the year. As you introduce different cultures with visuals, manipulatives, and play materials, let them become a permanent part of each center or dispense them on a rotating basis.

Dramatic Play Center

Provide a wide variety of garments for dress-up play representing various cultural groups. You might want to include traditional costumes from around the world, but try to avoid stereotyping cultural dress when using them. Explain that they are worn for special occasions and not on a daily basis. For example, have a Mexican hat, a Japanese kimono, and an Indian shawl in your dramatic play center. Other accessories could include jewelry, scarves, shoes, or belts that may represent many countries. Let the children be creative!

Commercially bought "play" multicultural foods are available from school supply companies. Authentic International foods can often be found locally in grocery stores and some even have labels printed in the foreign language. Use empty cans or boxes of such foods for housekeeping play. Remember to open cans from the bottom, and they appear full on the shelf? Also be sure there are no sharp edges remaining. Cooking utensils such as a Chinese wok or chopsticks can stimulate further multicultural learning.

Dolls should be representative of a broad variety of racial groups, Multiethnic puppets should also be provided. These items are play props that enhance role playing opportunities.

Art Center

There are many multicultural materials currently available as art media-crayons, colored pencils, paint and paper come in a variety of skin tones such as cinnamon, toast, mahogany, and peach. Let children try to match their own skin color with paint. Each child may blend in a small amount of paint on his/her arm to see if it matches, much as women match their make-up at a department store! If it doesn't match, what color should be added? Maybe you are a cinnamon/mahogany combination. It will show that many people have different skin colors, even when they are of the same cultural background. The emphasis should be on the fact that we are all alike in some ways, and we are all different in other ways-but we are all special! Let children make selfportraits choosing their own paint or paper colors.

Art activities representing other countries can also be implemented. Two wonderful teacher resources are Global Art-- Activities, Projects, and Inventions From Around the World by M. Kohl and J. Potter and The Kids' Multicultural Art Book: Art and Craft Experiences From Around the World by Alexandra Terzian. Ideas reach across the continents with paper, paste, and paints. For example, let children make Kufi hats or Calabash bowls to show pride in African heritage. Preparing flying fish kites shows honor for the Boys' Festival held in Japan each May. Bead making has been practiced for centuries in Egypt. Many directions are included for various bead making activities. Exciting creative activities can be offered that explore other cultures.

Early childhood educators are also encouraging the use of fine art in the preschool classroom. An art print from Monet or Degas might be displayed at eye level in the home living area. These can be found on calendars, post cards, and discount stores. Where did the artist live? France? What do we know or want to learn about France? It would be a good opportunity to enhance oral language and creative thinking.

Discuss the print with such questions as, "What colors to you see? What do you think is happening in this picture? Who do you think these people are? What are they doing?" etc. Fine art materials placed around the room should only be available if children are allowed to handle them without fear of damaging. Examples might be African carvings, baskets from Native American basketry, or brass work from Asia.

Language Arts/Library Center

There is an endless number of wonderful books about children of many lands. Folktales, fairy tales, and fables from all over the world encompass all cultures and delight children and adults alike. There are books that help to dispel common misconceptions. Children JustLike Me by Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley is an excellent book that shows children from more than 30 countries in extraordinary photographs as it depicts their clothes, homes, families, and other aspects of their daily activities.

There are other books that convey how much we are all alike. Everybody Eats Bread by J. Powell and Houses by Marcia Fries are just a couple. Add some to your collection and put them in your library center. Travel magazines and brochures can also be placed on your bookshelf and enjoyed by children. If you have a flannel board in this center, there are many flannel board visuals that relate to children of other lands.

Science/Discovery Center

Give lots of things to explore! From what countries might we find seashells? Coconuts? Eucalyptus? Pineapples? Place a Native American basket filled with different types of gourds and squash on the table to examine. Empty spice cans of curry, cinnamon, and cummin offer sensory experiences. Do some science experiments such as dyeing cloth as Native Americans did by boiling plants to make dye: beets = red, spinach = green, blackberries = blue.

Music Center

Commercially made instruments representing many countries can be purchased from school supply distributors. The children can also make shakers, drums, and bell bracelets that can relate to music from other countries. Many wonderful records, tapes, and CDs are available for children to listen to, dance to, or move creatively to!

Math/Manipulative Center

Many math activities can be teacher-- made into file folder or flannel board games using pictures of children from other cultures to match, count, relate one to one correspondence, or use in sequencing activities. Multicultural bulletin board border is a good source for pictures. Stickers are also available depicting children, art, architecture, etc. Stacking dolls from Russia are fun to teach size and sequence. Puzzles are available that show children from different cultures, as well an manipulatives such as Duplo World People by Lego.

Block Center

Add to your block center various wooden, plastic, or bendable people depicting families of other cultures. Plastic or wooden animals from various places around the world are another good choice. You might display one of many available posters that depict houses around the world. Discuss how they may be like some of the houses your children live in. Provide materials to encourage block play building of different types of houses. You can give them straw to glue onto boxes for building straw huts, awning canvas scraps for making Arabic tents, or clay for sculpting adobe huts.

Conclusion

Early childhood educators and caregivers can provide opportunities for young children to have meaningful multicultural experiences as a natural part of their everyday activities. Learning centers can be arranged so that children might engage in playful interactions with a variety of diverse materials (Henniger, 1995). The responsibility for creating a multicultural environment cannot be left to chance. Educators must give serious thought to issues relating to multicultural education and examine every aspect oftheir practices (Boutte, 2000). Addressing multicultural awareness as an integral part of the curriculum will help ensure the understanding of cultures and diversity issues for years to come.

Resources

Allen, J., McNeill, E. & Schmidt, V. (1992). Cultural awareness for children. New York: Addison-- Wesley Publishing.

Burke, B. (1995). Celebrate our similarities-primary. Huntington Beach, CA: Teacher Created Materials, Inc.

Cech, M. (1991). Global child-multicultural resources for young children. New York: Addison Wesley Publishing.

Hall, N. (1999). Creative resources for the anti-bias classroom. Albany, NY: Delmar Publishers. Kindersley, B & Kindersley A. (1995). Childrenjust like me. New York: DK Publishing.

Kohl, M. & Potter, J. (1998). Global art-activities, projects, and inventions from around the world. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House Publishers.

Milord, S. (1992). Hands around the world. Charlotte, VT: Williamson Publishing

Sevaly,K. (1991). International children. Riverside, CA: Teacher's Friend Publications, Inc. Warren, J. & McKinnon E. (1988). Small world

celebrations. Everett, WA: Warren Publishing House.

Whitacre, D. & Radtke, B. (1995). Multicultural crafts from recycled materials. Carthage, IL: Teaching and Learning Company.

References

Boutte, G. (2000). Multiculturalism: moral and

educational implications. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 28 (3), 9-16.

Henniger, M. (1995). Supporting multicultural awareness at learning centers. Dimensions of Ear Childhood. 23 (4). 20-23.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (1991). Accreditation criteria & procedures of the national academy of early childhood programs. Washington, D.C.: Author

Pucket, M. & Diffily, D. (1999). Teaching young children. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.

Saul, B. (1999, Spring). Children around the world. Mississippi Early Childhood Association Newsletter, 3.

-Jane D. Saul is an instructor in child and family studies with the Center for Child Development at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Betsy Saul is a second-grade teacher at Madison Station Elementary School of the Madison County School System, Madison County, Mississippi.

Copyright Caddo Gap Press Summer 2001
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