Topic

Diversity Cards

What Stimulates: Compassion, curiosity, empathy, self-awareness, questioning

Preparation and materials:

- Scissors (1 adult pair and 1 child pair)

- Magazines/newspapers that can be clipped

Recommended ages:

3 to 5 years

5 to 8 years

Why is this activity important?

This activity helps children reflect on the wider world and people's different ways of life, our interconnectedness and interdependence with others. As your child grows, this activity will help them understand similarities with others as well as appreciate differences. It helps them to reflect on the aspects that unite human beings and those that define us more specifically as well. It develops our respect for each other, unites us in our sense of belonging and develops our sense of empathy and compassion as children, learning to understand each other's lives with a kind, curious and open heart.

How can you do that:

FOR AGES 3-5 AND 5-8 YEARS:

  1. Find a space to sit with your child and explain that you will learn about people from different places. Together, cut out several images of people in different places and arrange them to look at. You can draw your own pictures, or even find family photos from different times.
  2. From the set of images, ask your child to choose one and look at it. Share what you see and follow the natural flow of the conversation.
  3. Talk about where the photos are from, what the photo is about, and how the people in those places can live. Compare the different images with the child's context.

Below are some questions that can be adapted according to the age of the child:

  • What foods do you see here? Do we all eat the same kind of food?
  • Do we all live in the same kind of house/wear the same kind of clothes/play the same kind of games/pray the same way? How are we different?
  • What kind of games do you see here? What games do you like to play? Why do you think children are happy when they play?
  • Let the child look at the photos for as long as they like.

Tips on how to do this activity in a group

Create or find your own images. Encourage each child to choose a picture and talk about it as a group.

If you are working with a diverse group of children, ask and encourage them to share experiences of their culture and religious and spiritual traditions. If you have time, invite parents/guardians to come and talk to the group about their religious or spiritual traditions. Celebrate the group's diversity by inviting children to show the group foods used in religious activities, teach games, and share how they pray. Have a World Traditions Day and invite all children to wear their traditional clothes or bring something that is traditional from their culture, ethnicity or religious or spiritual tradition!

Activity: Diversity Cards

We live in a plural and diverse world. Children should be encouraged to explore the diversity of the world we live in while learning about and appreciating cultural, ethnic, social and religious differences and similarities with others. It is in the encounter with the other that we open space to challenge stereotypes and prejudices in relation to the other and learn to respect who they are and live in different ways.

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