• toys from around the world: often made by children or by their parents of recycled materials. Even today, our children play games that require no money and few props. Your students will be fascinated to see how ingenious children around the world can be, and to recognize many familiar toys from other cultures.
• implements for growing and eating food: a rice pounder, chopsticks, lunchboxes from different cultures, a fishtrap, a hot chocolate whisk from Mexico - some of these will be puzzles to them and to you!
• tools of work: baby carriers from different cultures, a yoke from New England and bamboo carrying poles from Asia - children are expected to help their families from a very early age in many cultures.
• school: a Jamaican girl doll heads off to school in uniform with a backpack on her back; an abacus and a Chinese brush and ink stone set illustrate a different way to learn to read, write and do math.
• ritual life: children take an important role in community rituals in many countries, including our own. The 3 Kings Day and the Day of the Dead in Mexico; Boys and Girls Days in Japan; the Incan spring festival where the harvest is foretold; Eastern European mummers and the Chinese/Vietnamese Lantern Festivals - all give us rich comparisons and parallels to the holidays that our children celebrate.
• clothing: a chance to dress up!
• music: time with our wonderful collection of world instruments - children the world over make music (and noise).

What are common human needs?

How do people the world over meet similar needs with vastly different materials and standards of living?
How is childhood in other cultures the same as, and different from, childhood in our culture?
What is the role of ritual and celebration in different cultures, and what part do children play in these?

Close observation of an object (including drawing it) to see how it is made and how it works
Use of observation and imagination to figure out the use of an object and to understand why it is appropriate to its place of origin
Making connections between children's activities and responsibilities in other cultures to our own experience of childhood in this country
Generalizing from the particular to universal human experience

Students will learn about

• The ways children in other cultures participate in family life (work, child care) and community life (holidays, rituals)
• The ways children in other cultures play and use limited material resources to make toys and games (toys from recycled materials, street games)
• Different foods and ways of eating from around the world
• Musical instruments from around the world
• Clothing from other cultures
• Education in other countries, including different reading & writing systems