Incorporate a multicultural perspective into every component of the daily curriculum. When you restrict exposure of multicultural ideas to a designated unit of study or a limited time frame, children gain little insight into other cultures. Let your classroom curriculum reflect the real world diversity that flourishes outside of the children's school.
Collect a large assortment of books that portray multicultural characters to incorporate into your curriculum and class reading center. Share a multicultural book during story time and introduce an activity specific to the culture in the story. For example, read "Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding" by Lenore Look. Let the children decorate a paper bag to resemble a dragon's head. Add a bedsheet or a blanket and demonstrate how to pretend to be a Chinese dragon.
Guide your children in exploring how different cultures celebrate life events and let them compile a class book about the traditions associated with certain events. For example, compare the traditions and customs associated with weddings in several cultures. Explain that, although each culture celebrates weddings, birthdays or the birth of a child differently, all cultures recognize the significance of these occasions.
Blend multicultural music into the daily curriculum to emphasize that all cultures enjoy music. Opportunities abound during the school day to introduce your children to samples of music from other cultures. For example, let music set the tone for story time, an art activity or clean-up time in the afternoon. Encourage the children to describe how the music sounds and to identify musical instruments.
Let your children share and compare the different names that children in other cultures use for family members, such as mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandmother and grandfather. Instruct your children to bring home notes to their parents that invite them to share and compare the different names used in their culture to designate family members. For example, children from a Japanese family may refer to their mother as "okaasan" and their father as "otoosan." Children from an Indian family may refer to their mother as "maa" and their father as "pitajee." Additional share and compare topics include how the family celebrates birthdays and holidays.