Cultural Children's Activities

Coffee Can Drum

• Drums are an essential part of many cultures around the world, including Chinese, African, and Native American communities. Using old coffee cans or plastic containers, make drums with your children. Paint them or decorate them with paper, and make drumsticks out of old chopsticks or wooden spoons. While you are making the drums, talk to your child about how drums are used in communication, rituals, religion and music. You may be able to look up a drumbeat native to your own culture and teach it to your child.

Hello Cards

• To help your child better understand that there are many different languages all over the world, you and your child can make "Hello Cards." Use tag board or construction paper, and write the word "hello" in a different language on each of 10 cards. Because the point of the activity is to teach these words to your child, transliterate languages that don't use the Roman alphabet. Decorate each card with pictures or examples of art forms from the countries where those languages are spoken. You can hang the cards up and use a different "hello" each day to help your child practice.

Masks

• Masks are also a common cultural recurring theme. Masks have been popular in China, Japan, Africa, Mexico, Italy, and among Native American tribes. They are even worn at festivals such as Mardi Gras. You can make fitted masks out of papier-mache, or you can simply use a paper plate and cut out holes for eyes, noses and mouths. You can decorate the masks with anything from feathers and pipe cleaners to bits of cloth and paper and recyclables. Consider printing out photos of native masks from different cultures that your child can try to duplicate.

Food

• Food activities are always exciting for kids because they end with something delicious. They are also a great way to engage a group of children or to organize an activity for children and their parents. See if you can get a group of your children's friends and parents together for a cross-cultural picnic. Each guest should bring a dish that is representative of their heritage. The activity is more effective if each family makes their dish together at home and talks about their heritage, but if time is an issue you can buy the food and discuss the culture behind it. Before you all chow down, have each child explain what they brought and tell a little bit about their culture.