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Hello All!
I am looking for multicultural activities that I can use in the classroom (any grade level). Activities can be 15-20 minutes in length. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Davida
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Davida, I found this: http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/24727/multicultural-education-activities
and this: http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2706
When I taught 2nd grade we did a unit on food around the world and discussed how other people might perceive food that we eat as being gross. It's always a plus when you have children of different nationalities in your classroom. They can ask grandparents to share recipes of food they would eat, or photos of typical clothing they would wear. We put together a powerpoint and the students shared what they learned about their culture or the culture of the country they had chosen.
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Davida,
This is a great question and when I read your post I started to think about what kind of multicultural activities I did as a student back when I was in Elementary and Middle School. The two activities I mainly remember were my world passport and my multicultural paper book. The world passport was fun because each student got to pick a popsicle stick with a different place from around the world and they had to do research on that place and make a passport (each passports cover had a specific stamp) with pictures, descriptive words, and full sentences about that places history. The multicultural paper book was fun because that was where we got to explain where we were from and our cultural background and then we had to present it to the class and my favorite things about this was learning how my friends were so different from me, but also so similar.
Have you come up with any ideas since you posted this? I would love to hear other activities too.
Sarah Ramstrom
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I love the idea of having passports to be stamped as you "visit" other countries.
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Hello Sarah!
Thank you for your suggestion. I love passports and I think they are a fantastic way to get students engaged when it comes to learning about new cultures. I think this could work great in a science classroom if it were tweaked to have students learning about a scientist or scientific idea/practice that came from certain countries or cultures!
The book is another great idea and I think I would have students add another component to it. I would have them discover important scientific findings or scientists (past or present) from their ancestors' countries.
Thanks for the suggestions!
I did find two activities. The first is incorporating myths/legends when teaching astronomy. There are myths from many cultures about the sun, moon, stars, and planets.
The second activity uses Mexican jumping beans and two children's books to teach about the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly. The two books are: Lucas and His Loco Beans, and A Monarch Butterfly's Life.
I have uploaded both activities in case you are interested in using them.
Davida
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Davida,
I very much enjoy the idea of using passports in the classroom for a multitude of ideas, but I can honestly say that I have never thought about intertwining multicultural learning in science. I think it is a great way for students to take a "trip" to different parts of the world and incorporating this as well to the other subjects. I recall doing something like this in elementary school and it was unforgettable because we sat in an "airplane" and took a trip. If we were to bring this much fun into our classrooms, our students would be so motivated and engaged, reducing the amount of misconduct. At the same time learning not only about different countries, but how they too have left their footprint in the history of science.
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