Activity Set: Our Wonderful World of Cultures
Core Principles for Teaching Culture
Before diving into activities, it's crucial to approach cultural teaching with respect and accuracy. The goal is to foster curiosity, appreciation, and a sense of connection—not just to learn "fun facts." For young children, always connect new cultures back to their own lived experience.
🌏 Activity 1: "My Home, Your Home" (Exploring Homes & Daily Life)
This activity helps children understand how basic human needs like shelter, food, and clothing are met differently around the world, while celebrating their own unique home context.
Main Activity: "A Home for Every Climate"
Explore: Show pictures or simple videos of different types of homes from various cultures—a stilt house in Bangladesh, a yurt in Mongolia, an adobe house in the Peruvian Andes, a modern apartment in Tokyo, and a traditional Newari home in Kathmandu.
Discuss: Ask guiding questions: "Why do you think this house is on stilts?" (floods), "Why are the walls so thick here?" (hot days, cold nights). Connect it to Kathmandu: "Have you seen houses with carved wooden windows? What are they called?" (Newari architecture).
Create: Provide craft materials (clay, cardboard, paper, natural items). Let children choose a type of home to build a simple model of, or draw their own house and label its special features.
Follow-up Activity: "A Day in the Life"
Use simple story cards or pictures showing daily routines of children from other places (e.g., a child helping fish in Senegal, a child practicing calligraphy in China, a child going to a market in Mexico). Compare and contrast with their own day: "Do you also help your family? How? Do you go to a bazaar? What do you see there?"
🍛 Activity 2: "Festival of Flavors & Stories" (Exploring Food & Celebrations)
Food and festivals are joyful, sensory entry points to culture. This activity moves beyond "foreign food day" to explore meaning and tradition.
Main Activity: "The Story on Your Plate"
Share a Story: Read a picture book like "Dumpling Day" or "What's Cooking, Jamela?" or a local story about food ("The Story of Yomari" during Yomari Punhi).
Taste and Map: If possible, offer a small, safe taste of a simple food from a different culture (e.g., flatbread like roti or naan, a type of bean, a fruit). Use a large world map or globe to place a sticker where the food is commonly eaten.
Create a Class "Festival Passport": For every major Nepali festival (Dashain, Tihar, Holi) and a few global ones (Diwali, Lunar New Year, Thanksgiving), create a passport page. Children can draw a symbol of the festival, a food eaten, and how people greet each other (e.g., "Shubh Deepawali," "Happy Thanksgiving").
Adaptation for Kathmandu: Create a "Newari Baji" Collage. Provide pictures or real (safe) items from a typical Newari platter—baji (beaten rice), ayela (lentil patties), choila (spiced meat), etc. Children glue them to a paper plate and discuss when this meal is shared (feasts, family gatherings).
🎨 Activity 3: "Hands Around the World" (Exploring Art, Music & Language)
This activity focuses on expressive culture—how people create beauty, music, and communicate.
Main Activity: "Global Greetings Gallery"
Learn to Say Hello: Teach children how to say "hello" in 4-5 languages, including local ones. Practice the words and the accompanying gestures (bow, handshake, namaste, waving).
Nepali: Namaste (with palms together)
Newari: Jwajalapaa (with slight bow)
Japanese: Konnichiwa (with bow)
Spanish: Hola (with wave)
American Sign Language: The sign for "hello"
Create Greeting Cards: Children choose a greeting, write it (or trace it), and decorate a card for a friend or family member, explaining what it means.
Follow-up Activity: "Rhythm and Pattern"
Music: Listen to short clips of distinctive music—Scottish bagpipes, West African drumming, Indonesian gamelan, and Nepali folk music like Damphu or Madal rhythms. Let children move to the beat.
Art: Study traditional patterns—Polish paper cuttings (Wycinanki), Native American weaving patterns, Maori koru designs, and Nepali mandalas or thangka art borders. Provide tools for children to create their own patterned art inspired by these styles.
📚 Activity 4: "We Are All Storytellers" (A Culminating Project)
This project-based activity helps children synthesize what they've learned by becoming creators and sharers of culture.
The Activity: "Our Class Culture Book"
Each child (or small group) contributes a page to a class book titled "All About Us: The Children of [Your School's Name]."Page Prompts: "My name means...", "A food my family loves is...", "A festival we celebrate is...", "A special tradition in my home is...", "How I say 'I love you' to my family is...".
Process: Children can draw, use photos (with permission), or write with teacher help. Include pages about the local Kathmandu/Newari culture as part of "our" culture.
Share: Bind the book and place it in the class library. Host a reading for parents. This validates every child's background as a valued part of the whole class culture.
✨ Key Tips for Facilitators
Start Local, Then Expand: Always begin with the child's own culture (Kathmandu, their ethnic group, their family traditions) before exploring others. This builds identity and a frame of reference.
Use Authentic Resources: Seek out books, music, and artifacts created by members of the culture. Avoid simplified or stereotypical representations.
Invite Community Sharing: If possible, invite parents, grandparents, or community members to share a song, story, or craft from their heritage.
Emphasize Similarities and Differences: Use a "windows and mirrors" approach. Some activities should be "mirrors" where children see themselves reflected. Others should be "windows" into new experiences. The goal is to appreciate both what we share and what makes each culture unique.
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