Cultural relevance in my day care curriculum includes books and some artifacts that depict other ways in which people live, eat and celebrate. I do need to incorporate more cultural diversity in my dramatic play areas and these will include more ethnic food, dolls of different skin tone and race as well as more artifacts such as chop sticks or clothing.
To avoid the tourist approach, I plan on making a bulletin board of families eating food with different utensil in the kitchen area, stocking the kitchen with some of these tools and incorporating books that reflect this practice. I am also going to have each family bring in a family celebration photo that includes food. I’ll put together a book for the kids and keep it in the kitchen area. The next phase will be to cook some of the food we see in the pictures as well as have families come in to talk about their food and perhaps prepare us something.