Lesson Ideas for Early Childhood Students

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English/Literacy

What is diversity? What are some of the ways that people can be different from each other?
All the same: What things make us the same?
What is Harmony Day? What does harmony mean? What are some examples of harmony in nature/in the world?
Family diversity: Who is in your family? Talk about how families are the same and different.
Diverse stories: Read and listen to stories depicting a variety of people, cultures and lifestyles.

Names around the world: What country does your name come from? Does it have a meaning? Stick your name on a world map.
Linguists: Find out how many people in your class/school are bilingual or multilingual.
Roll call: Say “good morning/afternoon” in a different language each week.
Sing a song: Learn a short song in another language.

Painting to music: Listen to a diversity of music styles and paint what you hear with different colours and brushstrokes.
Diverse dancing: Have members of the class demonstrate a dance they have learned.
Movement to music: Listen to a diversity of music styles and show what you hear through movement.
Class collage: Make a collage about the diversity of your class. Be open to the many different ways of doing this.
Self portrait: Mix paint to match, as closely as possible, the colour of your skin, hair and eyes. Paint a picture of your face.
Multilingual songs: Find a traditional song that is sung in a range of languages eg ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. Have a parent or older child teach the song in another language.

Diverse life: How are animals and plants the same? How are they different?
Herb garden: Establish a class herb garden. Where did they originally come from? Think of a dish the class can make with the herbs eg herbed bread.
Animals: What animals have you seen in Australia? How many are native? Where did the others come from?
Plants: Investigate the trees and plants in your school. How many are native? Where did the others come from?
Junk construction: Look at some pictures of buildings inspired by different cultures. Choose one and make your own model.
Inventors: Investigate who invented a range of items children routinely use, and the background of the inventor.

Indigenous visitor: If possible, have an elder from the local Indigenous people come to your school to do a ‘Welcome to Country’ ceremony and/or visit your classroom.
All kinds of visitors: Have people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and experiences visit your classroom to talk about their life and/or help out in the group.
My groups: Talk about all the groups to which you belong eg team, family, friendship group, leisure activity, hobby etc. What things help you to feel you belong?
Diverse mates: Find out the many ways in which your classmates are diverse: hobbies, interests, things they dislike, favourite colour/food/music/movie/TV program/car etc.
We all belong: Place a picture of yourself, together with your classmates, on a big map of Australia with the message ‘Everyone Belongs’.

Dinner last night: Conduct a class survey of what children had for dinner the previous night. Investigate the origins of all the dishes.
Food alphabet: Make a list of foods available in Australia that begin with the letters A to Z. Find out where each food came from.
Exercise around the world: Play a range of world music to exercise to.
Global games: Investigate the origins of the games and sports the children enjoy playing. Have a parent or older child teach a game from another culture.

Survey graph: Survey the class/unit/school about the languages spoken in their homes. Display the name of the language with the number and names of children who speak it.
Bilingual counting: Get a bilingual classmate to teach you how to count to 10 in their other language.
Building shapes: Look at some buildings in your community that have been influenced by other cultures. What shapes can you see in them?
Diverse materials: Use a variety of objects for counting and other maths activities that reflect the diversity of the children in the group.