Teach your students about different cultures by having them make crafts in preparation for different world holidays. For instance, to teach about the Chinese New Year, show your students how to make paper dragons. For Thanksgiving, have your students make turkeys or Native American costumes. Use paint, crayons, feathers, beans, paper and markers to make the crafts artistic. During every craft session, explain each holiday and discuss the significance of these items within each culture.
Visit ancient Egypt with your class through crafts. Numerous elements of ancient Egypt, for instance, lend themselves to crafts, such as pharaohs, tombs, pyramids and hieroglyphics. Have students work as a group to create and decorate a life-sized paper sarcophagus, the decorative coffin in which pharaohs were placed after they were mummified. Use large pieces of construction paper to make it life-sized. Look at art books to capture the look of an authentic sarcophagus, and get the students talking about the burial rituals of the ancient Egyptians.
Make something useful. Teach children about the important role of weaving, knitting, sewing and other textile work in different cultures. When students understand how so many cultures hand made their clothes and textiles for centuries, they will gain an appreciation for the time, effort and skills involved in sustaining daily life without modern technological conveniences. Have students compare how their own clothes are made today compared to centuries ago. In a unit, for instance, on pioneer life in America, lead students in making cardboard looms. Poke six holes in a row along the edge short edge of cardboard. Use a needle and string to thread the holes. Weave yarn through the threaded string.
Use food to teach your students about social studies. Make, for instance, an edible temple from Greek and Roman times. Use icing, cookies, graham crackers, pirouette cookies or bake a cake. Use the baked cake as the foundation. Ice the cake. Insert the pirouette cookies along the sides of the cake to form columns. Use icing to glue more crackers along the top of the temple. Make the work as historically accurate as you can and discuss the architecture of the time.