Kids can learn a lot about appreciating the differences that make us all unique. You can create opportunities in the classroom to emphasize and celebrate diversity, offering a safe space where all students can express themselves.
Cultivating an inclusive classroom environment will encourage new connections between classmates (and between you and your students) and help engage students of all backgrounds in learning. By celebrating the diversity within your classroom, you can enrich your students’ learning experiences and help them expand their social circles. There are many ways to incorporate diversity activities in the classroom. Following are some of the examples that embrace cultural diversity in the classroom:
As an educator, plan your lesson and lectures by allowing students to talk and discuss different cultures, for example, a lesson on how do hunters and gatherers live in Canada. Include an activity where they get to talk and discuss their grandparents and old traditions in their culture. This would make students feel part of the classroom and community as a whole. They will be heard and valued in their classrooms, and children will get to learn about each other.
Plan festive activities, for example, making lanterns and mosques colouring pages for Ramadan, drawing or crafting diyas for Diwali, reading about Hanukkah, making a painting for the Chinese New Year and singing Christmas carols at the time of Christmas.
Revise the classroom bookshelf with different festival books and cultural stories.
Celebrate a day of traditional clothing.
Celebrate a day of cultural and traditional foods, for example, organize school potlucks.
Organize an activity where each child shares their traditional recipe.
Use notice boards to show and display the festivals’ collage. The other way is to make a corner which depicts different themes, arts and cultural backgrounds. This way, any student can sit in that corner and get to learn about different cultures throughout the year.
Create an activity where students learn to spell and pronounce other students’ names.
Learn about each country along with its animals and flag colours.
Exploring the music of different countries and cultures is another fun way to celebrate cultural diversity in your classroom, whether in person or online. Have students bring in (or send in digital form) music that represents their cultural heritage. Your students can also bring in or share instruments that are specific to their culture’s music. Celebrate how we can experience and enjoy music from other cultures without necessarily knowing the language or cultural customs. Music is universal!
Celebrate a multicultural day – have students present information on different aspects of their cultures. If your classroom is not particularly diverse, have each student choose an area of the world they’d like to focus on and research. You can also concentrate on the cultures that are represented in the history of your broader area, state, or region. Students can create brochures or posters that highlight various aspects of their diverse backgrounds and the areas their ancestors are from. Have them present these to the class for your multicultural event.
