cultural activity for 4-5 year olds

hi,
i've been asked by my assessor to plan a cultural activity for her to observe nxt monday. with no resourses at hand i'm a little stuck on ideas atm. any help would be welcomed the activity will be with 4-5 year olds so would need to be fairly basic. i want something that will involve everyone, a lot of the group don't like to talk either!

[Ruthierhyme]

Hiya sounds fun !

How about Salt dough starfish, or playdough ?

Easy addons for texture could include sand, buttons, glitter ..

The cultural aspect could be how some people keep marine tanks with Star and other fish in .. do the Children have fish at home that they care for or maybe know of someone that has ?

Types of aquarium or tank setups that you could talk about, cold water, warm tropical, outdoor ponds - rock pools and swimming pools .. could look at conservation work/pools as well + places that sell, breed and display fish.

There is huge potential for relaxed math in this activity as well, shape, counting, colour, symmetry.

If you've time you could 'promote culture by having a few Rocks sat on sand somewhere so that the children can put their Starfish onto them once finished.

Image search for Starfish
Wikipedia Star fish article

We've just had to be very very firm here and separate our boy & all our girl Guppies ... and the zillion teeny weeny babies lol .. fish on the mind !!


Hth xx

hmmm that sounds good.....but i was thinking its more along the lines of christianity, chinese, judaism that kind of thing? or am i looking at it from the wrong angle!

What about reading Handa's Surprise and having the different food for the children to look at and feel and then maybe draw or paint a picture of the fruit? they could make the fruit out of playdough. You could turn it into a talking and listening activity, asking questions like what does it feel like? Have you eaten it before? etc. Or... how about cutting the fruit and maybe getting the kids to taste and describe it, checking for allergies of course lol!

Sorry, just realised you said some of the children don't talk, maybe have half taste and the ones that aren't vocal to draw the fruit?

[Ruthierhyme]

Originally Posted by lsp

hmmm that sounds good.....but i was thinking its more along the lines of christianity, chinese, judaism that kind of thing? or am i looking at it from the wrong angle!

Just a different perspective, what may be cultural or multicultural for one isn't necessarily culture for another knowing why the focus is on a specific cultural aspect of an activity and what that is, is what gives it its scope.

The activity could reach all of the beliefs you mention by asking the children how and what access to fish / keeping they have.

Christianity has many references to fish (maybe some Children attend sunday school & have talked about these references) & Japanese religions have strong connections with Koi, Chinese dragon boat festival has orgins with the river fish .. the good thing about 'open ended activities is that the Children have the opportunity to lead with the information input - so that while the activity may be extremely well planned before hand, it can still go any which way

xx

Hi, have yoou looked at the topics and themes forum, might be something on there to help you!

[Ruthierhyme]

Hiya, not sure if its a bit late now but Shadow Puppets from China & India are popular cultural activities & might be better as a more focused activity. Haven't looked too deeply at the origins and background but this page & brief Introduction to Shadow puppetry from ChinaTheatreWorks.org looks good.

The stories and plays enacted by the puppets & their puppeteers were/are based around religious issues, Regal & majestic struggles, fairy tales and myth ..

Indian Puppets

Image search for Shadow Puppet

Use straws and black paper and let the children cut out their own shaped puppet parts .. glue / tape a straw to the back of the pieces.

For some 'take home Theatres, prepare A4 or A3 sized sheets of greaseproof paper and glue 3 of the edges to a backing sheet of white paper. Once dried the children should be able to slot their black puppet between the 2 sheets and wiggle it about ! This would also work well for anyone doing Incy wincy Spider rhymes !!

Use a torch & shine it onto the back of the white paper sheet to illuminate the puppet outline. Include an information note about the cultural aspect for parents, any religious topics that may of been discussed and a tip that the children may be on the look out for torches at home lol

There doesn't seem to be any other festivals to link an activity to for Monday although the first day of Summer is on Saturday/Sunday and Midsummer Solstice is a Pagan observance ...

What about in the role play area and having dressing up clothes from various cultures or using foods from different cultures.

Could always do a food tasting activity of various cultured foods.

Or playing with different ethnic dolls or dolls house people with the children.

Hope this gives you some ideas to go off.

Thanks

hi there thanks these all seem like great ideas.....need to knuckle down and get sum work done lol.......will let u know how i get on :-)