Toddlers learn to understand that all people are unique as they start to differentiate between themselves and everyone else. This individualism is part of growing up. Tape a big piece of butcher paper to a wall in your toddler classroom, and have each child dip their palms in red, yellow and green paint, then press them to the tree to make leaves. Talk to them about how each individual leaf on a tree is different, but that they also have many similarities.
A miniature passport, made from blue construction paper with printer paper pages, keeps toddlers engaged as your class learns about different countries. Take a picture of each child and paste it inside the cover of their passport. As you learn about how children live in different countries throughout the world, provide your students with cut-out stamps to glue into their passports for each one.
One way to build diversity into your toddler classroom is to introduce customs from other cultures and teach your students about them as you use them everyday. For instance, Native American cultures have a tradition of using a talking stick or stone to help with listening. Decorate your own talking stick or stone and teach your students that the person holding it has the floor. Even nap time can become a diversity lesson as you talk to your students about the custom of siestas in Latin American countries.
One way to help your young students understand diversity is to have a diverse range of toys available for play time. Make sure you provide black, Hispanic and Asian dolls, as well as Caucasian. Ethnic costumes for the dolls is another idea. During coloring time, talk to your students about how many crayons represent skin tones. There are many games available with cultural or ethnic stories behind them that your students can learn as they play. Another idea is to provide musical instruments from different countries for them to play.