Hello everyone. I am happy to be guest blogging for Heather. My name is Patty and I’m from 2nd in Line.
Today, I would like to share a little bit about a tradition at my school. It is called Multicultural Day.
Multicultural Day is a big event for my little school. My town isn’t as diverse as some communities. but we strive to learn many things about other cultures. One way we do this is by celebrating Multicultural Day each year.
On this day, we invite people from other countries to visit our school for the entire day. You might be asking, “Where do you find these people?” It’s really not that hard, once you start talking to people. Many friends know someone who is either from another country or who has visited a country many times.
We also tap into the exchange students at our high school. There is usually about 10 or more students who live here for the entire year and who are more than willing to help us out.
This year, we had guests from China, Japan, Mexico, Germany, and Uganda.
One of the things we try to do is to decorate our doors to represent the country that will present in our room.
We look for their country’s flag, a map, any symbols, plants, words, or even pictures of their native costumes.
| We like to find books that tell us about these countries too. |
Passports are made for each student. They board imaginary planes and take off for a place somewhere around the world. When they enter each country they get their passports stamped to make it feel official.
They get to spend about 30 minutes in each country. The speakers share things about their schools, language, dress, and foods. Sometimes they are able to bring a treat from their country so the students can sample it. (Some of our larger grocery stores sell foods from other countries, so this isn’t that hard to do.)
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| Trying to work with chopsticks can be hard! |
| Trying new foods like sushi is easy for some. . . and not for others. |
The guests can show pictures of their communities back home on the big screens in the room so everyone can see it. It’s fun to listen to the students try to count to ten in many languages. Sometimes a song is taught to them, or maybe a dance.
| This is a great time to learn more about maps. |
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| This is one of the foods grown in Uganda. |
Each guest gets a certificate to thank them for their service to our school.
No matter what they get to experience. . . they have a lot of fun all the while they are gaining a new respect for other people in other countries.
You can read about a previous year’s Multicultural Days, by clicking HERE.
If you ever want to do a special day like this for your classes, feel free to ask me questions about it. I am happy to share with you.
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