Teaching Children About World Cultures

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Teaching Kids About World Cultures

We’ve been very fortunate in the last couple years to have been able to experience many different cultures, and meet many different kinds of people. Carnival is celebrated in many places, including the city in Germany we just came from.

In Germany, Carnival is called “Fasching” and it’s a wild and crazy time downtown. People dress up in costumes, there are big parades, and then spend days eating, drinking, and celebrating.

Sadly, I don’t have my own Fasching pictures to share with you, because it was so crazy that I never did carry my DSLR downtown. Luckily, someone caught a video of the parade!

They are yelling “Hellau!” in the video, which is the “fool’s shout” and just what they say as they are celebrating. This is the last big hurrah before lent, so they really go crazy!

The kids remember the fun they had in Germany for Carnival season! They also remember the fun we had checking out the Carnival masks in Venice. We started our lesson today by trying on the (often out of reach, very treasured) Venetian masks we picked up on our trip there.

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And then we set out to make our own! All you need is paper, decorations, and straw to hook on for a handle, and you have yourself a mask!

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It’s funny how a simple activity like this one will get the kids talking, and remembering. It’s been a year since our last Fasching in Germany, and two years since Venice, but they still remember the little things, like how the rain in Italy filled up their boots, and how they yelled HELLAU! to get candy from the parade.

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After we were done with our Carnival masks, the kids danced around with them for a while, and we talked about how the festival is celebrated all over the world, in Brazil, and in New Orleans (much closer to our new home!)

Learning about world cultures is such an important part of any Geography study! Its hard to get a good idea of the place you are learning about if you don’t have a good sense of the people who live there. If you’re studying along with us this month, why don’t you see if your local library has any of these books?

Books to teach world cultures

Books about World Cultures for Kids

These DK books are my favorite for giving the kids a glimpse of what life is like for kids around the world. They are perfect because they are packed full of pictures, and little tidbits of information. Most importantly, they feature children, instead of adults, so even the littlest child can relate to them!

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3 Comments

  1. What a lovely look at Carnival celebrations from another culture. Very interesting, and I love the masks. We use My Father’s World curriculum, so will be taking another look at other cultures in a couple of years. I am definitely keeping a track of fun craft ideas we may be able to use when we get there.
    Thanks for the linky. If you have a chance, I would love for you to stop by Tots and Me and share on my Toddler Idea Tuesday linky.

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