Cultural Celebrations

Learning about classmates' cultures builds respect, reduces prejudice, and helps all children feel valued for their heritage.

Objectives

Materials

Instructions

Invite families to share cultural traditions with the class. Send home invitations: 'We're celebrating our diverse classroom! Would you be willing to share a tradition, food, song, game, or story from your culture?'

Prepare children to be respectful learners: 'We're going to learn about traditions that might be different from ours. Our job is to listen with curiosity, ask respectful questions, and appreciate what we learn!'

Host family presentations or child presentations about their cultures. Create a safe, appreciative atmosphere. After each sharing: 'What did you learn? What was interesting or new? What questions do you have?'

For families unable to visit, provide options: send items to display, write descriptions of traditions, or have children present about their own culture.

Create a Cultural Celebrations display that honors all represented cultures. Include a world map showing where different traditions originate.

Discuss similarities across cultures: 'Many cultures have special foods, holiday celebrations, and ways of showing love. We're more alike than different!'

Educator tip

Be proactive about including children from less visible cultures. Not all cultural differences are visible—religion, family structure, regional differences all count as cultural diversity.

Assessment

Assess against Early Learning Goals (ELGs). Document evidence of 'expected' or 'exceeding' descriptors. Note: independent application of skills, ability to explain reasoning, and capacity to build on prior learning. Observe respectful behaviour during presentations, quality of questions asked, and expressed appreciation for cultural diversity.

More from EYFS Champions of Character