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Planning a multicultural festival is a great way highlight the cultural diversity of your community through music, dance, art, storytelling and more. Want to plan one at your school? Read below to find out how!
Form a Multicultural Festival Committee
The committee should be comprised of teachers, school counselors, an administrator, and parents.
Assign Duties to Committee Members
Committees work best when people are assigned duties in their area of expertise. If there is an artist in the group, assign that person duties like making flyers and signs. The administrator can be responsible for making the call home alerting parents of the festival.
Involve Community Stakeholders
If your school is low on funds, then this is a must! You would be surprised at what community members are willing to donate. Many are willing to donate supplies, money, and even their time!
Draft a letter on school letterhead describing the event (location, purpose, time & date). Bring the letter to various community vendors & businesses at least two months in advance. Click here for a sample donation letter.
Before you visit the business with your letter, call in advance to find out the name of the manager and what days and times they will be available.
Calling ahead of time ensures that you will be able to talk to someone when you bring the letter.
Publicize, Publicize, Publicize
Publicizing your event is a great opportunity to get the students involved. If you have a Student Council at your school, have the Student Council advisor present this festival to them.
Get them involved in making flyers and announcing to the school. The president may be in charge of making the morning announcements. Draft an announcement that can be read daily.
If the school has a website or a social media page (like Facebook, Twitter, Remind 101) put out a social media blast about the festival. Flood your school and community with information.
Pick Countries & Assign One to Each Classroom
The world is a big place! Count the number of classrooms you have in your school, and pick the countries you will assign to each classroom. You may choose to combine smaller classes together.
Each classroom will be responsible for making a class flag and cultural dress. Students will enjoy being creative and making their own attire. Teachers can be as elaborate or simple as they choose based on their comfort level. Oriental Trading Company has several materials that are perfect for multicultural activities!
This will make your social studies teachers very happy because it will align with their standards. ELA teachers could even assign a writing assignment about the country that could align with their standards.
Assign Duties to Classroom Teachers
Announcing your event and assigning duties should be presented in a faculty meeting, followed up by an email.
Have a spokesperson (counselor or administrator) explain the details of the Multicultural Festival to teachers during a faculty meeting. This allows for questions and suggestions.
Explain to everyone the purpose of the festival and at that time, assign countries to each classroom. Have each classroom responsible for researching their country’s flag, music, traditional dress & cultural norms.
Plan a Multicultural March & Feast
On the day of the festival, plan for a march around the school.
The multicultural march will allow each class to see what the rest of the school has been working on. Have someone in charge of playing It’s a Small World on the loudspeaker or PA system as the students march around the school.
Assign someone the duty of taking pictures of each country on display. After the march, have students and teachers return to their classrooms to enjoy a feast of multicultural foods.
Want to propose a Multicultural Festival at your school? Print this pdf and give to your administrator or counselor to get the ball rolling.
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