Using religious holidays is a great way to foster creativity into the classroom while being neutral toward religious beliefs. Teachers can use Christmas as a platform to present how different faiths celebrate the festivities in December. Buddhists have Bodhi Day, Jews celebrate Hanukkah, and Muslims have the Hajj.
Teachers can instruct students to draw a world religion written on a piece of paper from a jar. Students can prepare a class presentation in which they explain the traditions and their origins, while comparing and contrasting them to the student’s own traditions and observances. The student body will likely represent several different religions. By sharing their own traditions, students will feel more engaged.
Teachers can present lessons based on how various religions regard the afterlife and the state of the dead. A good idea would be to examine how Mexican Catholics honor the dead on Dia de Muertos -- the Day of the Dead. Students can make and decorate Mexican sugar skulls -- objects that are placed on altars by the faithful. They can also make paper mache skeleton dolls.
To really make the exercise fun, teachers can buy or make dulce de calabaza (translated to “pumpkin candy”). Pumpkin is used as a main ingredient in many dishes consumed on this holiday. The candy is actually a soft pumpkin cookie cooked in brown sugar with hints of lime.
Various religious groups have mythologies that explain how we came to exist. Teachers can engage students by showing similarities between the Christian concept of creation and how it is explained according to Greek mythology. An example of this can be illustrated by comparing the Christian belief that God made mankind from dust to Greek mythology's explanation that man grew out from the ground. Teachers can choose common themes between the Bible and Greek myth, and have students do a "compare and contrast" presentation in class. This lesson will help students develop presentation and research skills before entering high school.
All religions have one or more gods and some follow messengers of a higher power. If students can understand how various religions worship their deity they will have more insight into these faiths. Most students should be familiar with baseball cards and how each player is pictured on the front of the card with their stats on the back. Teachers can instruct students to create classroom collector cards depicting all the different gods of various faiths. This will also give the teacher an opportunity to explain why no student was assigned to create Islam’s Muhammad — as it is considered blasphemy for Muslims to depict his image.