Multicultural art activities for children bring to life the diversity of the world. The Education Alliance asserts that participating in activities exploring and celebrating the diverse cultural backgrounds of students and others brings different cultural perspectives into the classroom, thereby providing the children with knowledge about countries or communities they may not have possessed beforehand.
Mexico
El Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is a festival celebrated in Mexico on November 1st allowing people to pay their respects to relatives who have passed away. In honor of this festival, children can create skull masks by first cutting out a skull from one of the free templates various websites offer. They can then paint the skulls with bright designs and glue on sequins and small beads. Carefully punch out holes on either side of the mask and thread yarn through the holes so that the children can wear the masks.
China
You can design an art activity about Chinese culture using watercolor paints and watercolor paper. After reading books about dragons in China, children can draw their version of a Chinese dragon with pencil on watercolor paper. Then, while the children paint their dragons, tell them about the importance of watercolor painting in China, with its relationship to calligraphy and poetry. If you like, you can teach the children a few simple Chinese characters. They can then practice writing these characters and add them to their paintings.
United States: African American Culture
The Harlem Renaissance occurred during the 1920s and 1930s in the United States, where African Americans in New York City's Harlem neighborhood were creating different forms of art. Before beginning an art activity on the Harlem Renaissance, educators and/or parents should tell the children about the migration of African Americans to the North after the Civil War and explain how Harlem become known as, according to the Biography Channel, "the Black Mecca." Art activities about this time would include listening to jazz from Duke Ellington and writing poetry, like Langston Hughes, to the music or studying the paintings created by Aaron Douglas, who combined geometric shapes with African themes and is known for his murals at Harlem's 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library. You might also ask the children (together or separately) to try their hand at designing a poster to announce one of the events in music, art or poetry that they have studied.
The Americas: Native American Culture
You can teach children about the indigenous people of the Americas with a sand painting art activity. According to Kinder Art, the Navajo tribe used colored sand to form intricate designs to keep away evil spirits. Start by instructing the children to draw simple pictures on paper. Mix together sand and powdered tempura paint in cleaned out jars or yogurt cups to create colored sand. Apply a layer of glue to one section of the drawing and sprinkle colored sand over the area. Continue adding glue and sand until the drawing is complete. Spray the drawing with clear acrylic paint to fix the sand into place.
