This activity teaches students to show respect to everyone, no matter what their culture is. Instruct the students to find someone in the classroom they do not know and start talking to them about respect for 10 minutes. After everyone is finished, ask the students to talk about what they discussed. Students may learn that while it's respectful to make eye contact in America, people of other cultures find it offensive.
In this activity, students write poems about themselves to let their peers find out more about them. Instruct your students to write a poem with each line beginning with "I am." Encourage them to write about their ethnicity, family traditions and hobbies. When everyone is finished, ask your students to share their poems in front of the class.
In this activity, students will discover how everyone has had different experiences. Ask your students to stand in a circle. Tell them that you will call out different things that may or may not apply to them. Instruct them to run to the middle and jump in the air if the item does apply to them. For example, you can ask students if they have ever been to Asia or if they have ever been on a boat. At the end of the activity, students may find out that they have a lot in common with some of their classmates.
This activity teaches students about the different types of food in the world. Ask your students to cook a dish from their native countries and bring it to school the next day. Give students a couple minutes to talk about what it took to make their dishes. Let students try all the dishes brought in.