Sharing Web Resources

The name of the organization that I chose (I'm not sure if this is an appropriate organization) is Earlychildhood NEWS  (http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/). I chose this website because I receive their newsletters and they offer enlightening articles. I originally was introduced to it through purchasing various items from the website.


One current issue/trend from the newsletter from the website that caught my attention is Ask the Expert: Teaching Culture Through the Arts by Anna Reyner Art Therapist. This article talks about incorporating culture through different themes such as: seasons, life-cycle, and vacation.
 
                                             

"One good way to incorporate multicultural learning into the classroom is to follow cultures by seasons. Take winter, for example, when many cultural holidays and celebrations occur. A teacher can easily teach and compare a wide variety of winter holidays by having the classroom create ritual objects for display and study. For example, the African winter holiday of Kwanzaa can be contrasted with the Judaic winter holiday of Chanukah. Both cultures use a candleholder to celebrate these holidays, but their candleholders look different and have different meanings. A classroom can create both a Chanukah "menorah" and a Kwanzaa "kinara" and talk about the differences and similarities between the two."

                                             


I thought this information was interesting because most children know about Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Mothers day! So these are easy topics to use to implement culture into the classroom through an array of pictures, items, or stories of how different countries celebrate such holidays. I think it would be creative to, also, show students how various cultures celebrate birthdays!