Respecting Cultural Differences

Respecting cultural differences includes learning about the holiday celebrations of others. 

Respecting Cultural Differences
Grade Level: K-5

 

Character Skills
  • Respect
SEL Skills
  • Relationship Skills
Academic Skills
  • Curiosity and Passion

Definitions

Respect 
  • Follow the Golden Rule.
  • Be accepting of differences.
  • Be courteous to others.
  • Deal peacefully with anger, insults, and disagreements.
  • Be considerate of others’ feelings.
Relationship Skills

Interpersonal and social skills to guide appropriate behavior and create positive relationships and meaningful connections. 

Curiosity and Passion

Enthusiastic to understand more about themselves, others, and the world around them.

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Students will learn about different holiday traditions and celebrate the similarities and differences between them.

Materials/Preparation
  • Paper with a Venn diagram on it – one paper per two students
  • Video
Instructions
  • Watch “Holidays Around the World”
  • Ask students to share their thoughts about the video.
    • What celebrations from the video looked similar to yours?
    • What looked different than your celebrations?
    • What new things would you like to try at your next family celebration?
  • Have students pair off and give each pair a Venn diagram.
  • Ask students to write their name above one of the circles.
  • Explain that a Venn diagram is designed to show how two things are the same in some aspects and different in others. This Venn diagram is going to be about how you and your partner celebrate holidays.
  • Have students discuss family celebrations with their partner. You may need to help students along by asking some of these questions.
    • What do you eat when you celebrate?
    • Who celebrates with you?
    • When do you celebrate?
    • Do you travel or go somewhere else to celebrate?
    • Are there parades or festivals?
    • Are there presents? Who receives presents and who gives presents?
    • Do you make anything special to celebrate?
    • Do you wear a certain outfit to celebrate?
  • The outer part of each circle should list the things that one student does and the other student does not. The overlapping circles list things they both do.
      • For example, my family wraps presents, but my partner’s family hides presents. In my circle, I would write “wraps presents” and my partner would write “hides presents” in their circle.
      • Both of our families make birthday cakes, so we would write “make a cake” in the middle, overlapping part of our circles.
  • In a large group, ask the pairs to share some similar and different ways they celebrate.
  • After each pair, ask the large group to raise their hand if they heard any similarities to their celebrations.
Journal Prompts
  • Why it is important to learn about different holidays?
  • How can you respect the celebrations that look different than your own?

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