Teaching Diversity in Preschool Pre-K and Kindergarten

Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten tips for celebrating diversity in the classroom.

Diversity in the Classroom

What is a diverse classroom?
A diverse classroom is one in which both the students and the teacher are accepting of all people, regardless of their race, culture, or religion. This acceptance is evidenced by the books that are read, the activities that are completed, and the lessons that are taught.

Multicultural Books

Teaching Diversity

What is the best way to incorporate multiculturalism into the classroom?
You can incorporate diversity into your classroom by making a conscious effort to include books in your curriculum and classroom library that feature diverse characters as much as possible.

Studying Christmas Around the World is not diverse, this method is exclusive and/or signals out one culture, religion, or minority group as being different.

When diversity is taught as a separate unit, it is confined to one or two weeks of our students lives and will have little, if any impact on their understanding and acceptance of other cultures in the long run. As a rule of thumb, steer clear of “multicultural units” and focus instead on incorporating diverse literature into your daily routine. Use those “teachable moments” to discuss differences and similarities as they arise during your large group time.

Multicultural Students

Is it necessary to have diverse students to teach diversity in the classroom?
No. This is a common misconception, in fact, if you have a homogenous classroom is it especially important to emphasize diversity because the only exposure your students may get to other cultures is through the activities, books, and lessons that you provide them with.

Importance of Diversity

Why is diversity so important?
Diversity is important because the world is changing every day. We must learn to accept and get along with people of all cultures, races, and religions in order to become productive citizens of the world. It is our job as teachers to prepare our students for the real world, and the real world is a very diverse one. We have the opportunity to teach our students love and acceptance NOW, even if it is not being taught at home. Chances are, by the time the students in your classroom reach the real world it will be a much more diverse place than it is now and we need to prepare them for that.

What can I do to make my classroom more diverse?

Provide books in the classroom library that feature children of many different races, religions, or cultures. These are easily found in Scholastic book orders.
Choose to display pictures or artwork on the wall that feature a variety of multicultural children.
Discuss differences and similarities in cultures with your students openly, but stress the similarities.
Provide students with multicultural paint, paper, and crayons as often as possible and allow students to choose the color of paint, paper, or crayons they want to use.
Find an international pen pal for your class or communicate with a class in a different country via Skype.
Read diverse books to your class (see book list above).
If you discuss one holiday in class, make sure to discuss them all. For example, instead of focusing only on Christmas, make sure to cover and give equal time to Hanukkah and Kwanzaa too. Make sure to discuss the Lunar New Year, Ramadan, and Diwalii when the time comes too.

Classroom Photos

Above is our What a Wonderful World bulletin board that we make on the very first day of school. I give each child a multicultural person shape and they decorate it with crayons. I allow them to choose their skin color. We place the little paper children around the world holding hands to show that we are all friends. The earth was made by cutting and pasting large blue and green sheets of butcher paper together and laminating. This display stays up all year. Above the display you can see a banner that reads “We Are All Americans”.