Preschool classrooms are typically a rich blend of varying cultures from around the world. Explore the international backgrounds of your specific students by using child-centered cultural activities. Invite each child to learn about her own heritage by asking parents to send in a brief note or statement explaining where in the world the child's family hales from. Use the Internet, with the students, to look for information that relates to each international culture in the class. Print out what you find and share the background with all of the students. As an added activity, encourage parents to send in a special artifact of the student's culture. This may be something brought to America by a distant family member, items used in the celebration of holidays or any other culture-specific object.
A preschool classroom party is a special event and cause for celebration. Turn this fun time into an internationally themed festival that highlights one specific region or many different world cultures. Prepare, or ask parents to prepare, foods from different places that represent a diverse cultural menu. Decorate the classroom with posters of different places across the planet or items from other cultures. Stage multicultural games and activities such as learning how to say hello in different languages, folk games from around the world or counting in different countries.
Explore the arts of different people through fun preschool craft making activities. Consult an expert in the culture for realistic art ideas or look for an international project resource book or kids' website such as the Around the World Crafts page of MakingFriends or the foreign affairs section of Disney's Family Fun. Another alternative is to invite a parent with a particular cultural craft expertise in to create a project with the class. Make the crafting experience fun by adding international background music to the mix and holding a post-project international art show in the classroom or in school hallways.
Music can be an excellent teaching tool with the preschool child. Play on the young student's developing senses by designing a fun international music lesson. Explore different cultures and regions through their distinct brands of music. Play a CD from a specific place such as China, Mexico or Russia or introduce culturally specific instruments. For example, bring in or rent traditional African instruments such as a parchment-head drum, bamboo flute or zither for a musical cultural exploration. Encourage the children to try out the instruments, when age appropriate, and discuss how different cultures and countries create different types of music.