The first cultures in the United States were indigenous peoples from many different ethnic and language groups. Students can create projects about Native American cultures specific to their region, such as building dioramas and model dwellings, basket weaving and traditional crafts, gathering native plants used in cooking and medicine and putting on performances that include traditional dances, music and storytelling.
Explore ancient and living cultures through projects involving folk tales, myths and legends. Some folk tales, such as the Cinderella story, are traditional to several cultural groups. Students can contrast and compare the different versions and present them orally in a story circle. The entire class can create a "Book of Legends and Folk Tales" from different cultures, written and illustrated by students. The entries can be stories from each student's own culture, using traditional cultural references and characters.
Projects on immigration can illustrate what students have learned about America's identity as a "melting pot" of many cultures from different parts of the world, the history and symbolism of the Statue of Liberty and the many reasons why people immigrate to the United States. Students can interview family members to find out about their own cultural heritage, trace their family back to their country of origin and talk about what brought the first family member to this country as an immigrant (if known). Post a large map of the world and use pieces of colored string to connect all the countries represented in your classroom to your city or town.
Expose students to music and song from different cultures such as Caribbean, Asian, Mexican and Irish and African. Ask students to help you collect instruments to display in the classroom, such as an Irish whistle, African drum or a Caribbean steel drum. Then play a collection of music samples or song fragments and see if the students can identify the country of origin. Teach folk dances that students can perform in costume for other classes. Students can also prepare a play or puppet show to dramatize traditional stories and legends.
People around the world eat different foods, according to what has historically been available to them, for instance, corn in Mexico and potatoes in Peru. Some eat according to religious beliefs or taboos, such as the Jewish restriction on the consumption of pork. All cultures have unique ways of preparing and seasoning foods. Students can learn the most important basic foods of various cultures (such as curry, rice, lentils and pickles in India and Nepal), and bring in samples of these foods for display and tasting. Explore different eating utensils and table manners. Have students present a traditional meal from one culture and talk about each dish.
Students can use clay, paper mache, basket-weaving materials, wood, paper, string and other basic materials to create traditional crafts, masks and toys from around the world. They can learn and play traditional children's games from ancient and current world cultures and pick their favorites for a series of exhibition games between classrooms.
Cultures demonstrate their uniqueness in their customs and festivals -- how birthdays are celebrated, how guests are treated in the home and how they celebrate festive occasions. Harvest festivals, Independence Day celebrations, Christmas customs and New Year celebrations are all rich opportunities for students to participate in the preparation of special foods, rituals, music-making and song, traditional dances and crafts.