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Understanding the world


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Hi All

We have some money to spend and after evaluating our setting and the children's progress etc. we have decided we need to include lots of activities/resources in relation to different cultures, parts of the world.

Our children's trackers, highlight that they are not achieving as well as they should be in the area 'Understanding the world'. We also have very little in terms of multicultural resources.

We have lots of children interested in animals, so we thought that could lead onto talking about different parts of the world, and where different animals live?

We are a pre-school with children aged 2-4yrs all of which are white British children.

We are due OFSTED anytime and would really like to address this issue before their visit.

Has anyone got any ideas or advice on how we can address this?

Thanks :1b

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We are going to be covering Brazil very soon, we have a child whose mother is Brazilian, and obviously there is the football, so lots of resources out there, cheaply, and we have at least one child who loves and is very knowledgeable about animals so we will be looking at the rain forest and the amazon

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One of the best investments we made was for a set of "Festivals" DVDs which help us explore similarities and differences in cultural and religious festivals.

Most of my families fit the demographic of the local area (95% white British) and therefore don't have exposure to many other cultures or religions so this has been a very useful resource to widen their experience of the world around them.

Last autumn we looked at how different festivals use lights of some kind in their celebrations and the children were able to make links between their own experiences and those of others - even the festivals that they are mainly familiar with e.g., Xmas and Easter were enjoyed and opened up lots of discussion about their personal experiences.

The link his below if it helps

http://www.childseyemedia.com/festivals-p-195.html

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multicultural and male dolls...carefully selected books and stories (be careful not to fall in to stereotypes!....like all people in Africa live in mud huts!) animals from around the world/multicultural people for the playmobile etc materials from around the world...african/indian/carribean designs etc different items for numeral and phonic work (pasta/beads/small elephants etc) different sorts of food for snacks (bagels/garlic bread/fruits from around the world etc etc)

In other words what i'm saying is to try to go for things the children will play with and use rather than to 'DO' a culture. This way it becomes a way of life and real integration rather than them and us!

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We stopped the tokenistic approach to festivals along time ago.

We may look at a world map with the children and choose a country. Or it might be a country that the children have visited.

We then look at the country as a whole, climate, foods, clothing, language or languages spoken, animals and habitats, homes, customs, cooking.

This certainly enables the children to have a better understanding of the world.:)

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We are going to be covering Brazil very soon, we have a child whose mother is Brazilian, and obviously there is the football, so lots of resources out there, cheaply, and we have at least one child who loves and is very knowledgeable about animals so we will be looking at the rain forest and the amazon

What a great idea - I have one (very sweet) 3 year old who is really into football - so much so that is the way he describes/talks about colours i.e. it's red - it's United....it's blue - that's Chelsea! :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Think about what things children have access to in enhanced provision as you'd be surprised what things they come up with spontaneously when given the materials to do so. For example, in the home area provide a variety of foods from around the world and different cooking and dishing up implements. We put out woks, chopstics etc. and children immediately began serving 'Chinese food' and using chopsticks so we went on to explore China and its culture in more detail. As long as children begin to understand this is traditional food and not just something that is cooked at home occasionally then that's an easy way to get it covered.

Also a variety of dolls, puppets, small world people, traditional dress for dressing up box and pattern people is an easy way to spark interest.

Hope that was of some help?! (ps. my first post so forgive me if not ;P)

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Think about what things children have access to in enhanced provision as you'd be surprised what things they come up with spontaneously when given the materials to do so. For example, in the home area provide a variety of foods from around the world and different cooking and dishing up implements. We put out woks, chopstics etc. and children immediately began serving 'Chinese food' and using chopsticks so we went on to explore China and its culture in more detail. As long as children begin to understand this is traditional food and not just something that is cooked at home occasionally then that's an easy way to get it covered.

Also a variety of dolls, puppets, small world people, traditional dress for dressing up box and pattern people is an easy way to spark interest.

Hope that was of some help?! (ps. my first post so forgive me if not ;P)

Welcome to the forum, why not put on another post and introduce yourself!

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  • 4 weeks later...

I know this is a bit late, we have a puppet called Charlie and we do Charlie's Journey, we travel around the world doing different areas of the world, we look at food, animals famous landmarks,celebrations and clothes. we have a range of books posters and equipment and also our parents give us resources to use. the children make passports and book in their lunch bags at the role play airport. Don't forget your local environment. Trips to the local shops, looking at the gardens in the street, local park etc.

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