Multicultural books grade level 1

Chrysanthemum- by Kevin Henkes

This story is about how a little mouse goes to
school and has a very unique name. Many children in the
class make fun of her name because she is different. Her
parents remind her that her name is special just like her.
Everyone in her class has a different name because
everyone is different and unique in their own way. To tie
this to multicultural I would have the students take home
a page for their parents to help them fill out about their
name.

tekyteach.blogspot.com (worksheet)

Every child in the room would have a different story to tell of

their name and we would share them with the class on the
fallowing days in class.

Daddy goes to work by Jabari

Asim
This story is about a little girl
who goes to work with her dad.
They talk about how they get to
work by subway and other things
children in our town do not do.
To tie it to multicultural I would
have the children draw a picture
of what their parents do for a
living. We would talk about how some cultures moms dont work
and instead their job is to stay at home with the kids and take
care of the house.

Nana upstairs and

Nana downstairs By
Tomie dePaola
This story is about
the little boys
grandmothers house
and how his greatgrandmother lives
upstairs. In this story
the greatgrandmother is sick
and will soon pass
away.
We will talk about in
some cultures many
mothers live with their children after they have raised them.
We will talk about how in some cultures all the family
members live in one house and they all take part in raising the
children. We will also talk about how different cultures deal
with elderly people getting sick. Our activity would be to make
a family tree.

The Empty Pot by Demi

This story talks about how
people are honest and have
integrity. When the little boy
Ping doesnt grow a flower as
fast as the other children
the emperor knows that Ping
is

being honest.
For our lesson I would talk

about the way children are taught to be honest in different

cultures. How many children are taught by example of their
close family but how some children are taught by strangers in
boarding schools or in orphanages because the cultures are
not as family oriented as many that we know here in our town.
Then we would make flowers and on the flowers we would put
the words that describe a good person including honesty.

Everybody
Bakes Bread by
Norah Dooley
This book has a
little girl
Carrie, sent out
to find a 3
handled rolling
pin. She visits
many homes in
her
neighborhood. All of them are making a different kind of
bread that is native to their culture.
For our activity I would use the recipes in the book and make
the bread for the kids to try. I would even let the kids vote
on a bread for us to make as a class. Then we would talk about
which bread we liked more. We would then graph the results
and post them with a short paragraph about the bread they
liked.

How My Parents Learned to Eat by

Ina R. Friedman
This story is about how a sailor
dates a young Japanese girl while
stationed in Japan. They go on
dates and in secret they learn the
others cultures way of eating.

Our activity would be to watch a video on how to use chop

sticks. Then we would try eating a snack with the chop sticks.
We would compare and contrast the ways of eating (with chop
sticks and forks/spoons).

(My sixth grade teacher, who is now a second grade teacher

at the school I work with first introduced me to this book.
Her parents we just like the couple in the story. I will always
remember her and this book. If I were to have the chance to
have her come and talk about the different ways she ate in
her home I would.)

Looking after Louis by Lesley Ely

This book is about a boy, Louis, in school
that is autistic. It talks about how the
whole class comes together to help Louis
become a part of their activities.
Our activity would be just taking turns
playing with others and working on ways
to invite other kids to play with them
when we notice that they are not playing with someone. We
would also talk about how it makes us feel when we are
included in games with others instead of sitting out or playing
alone.

The Sandwich Swap by: Queen Rania (The queen of Jordan)

In this story two girls in school eat
lunch together because they are
best friends. The two girls are from
different cultures. Lily eats peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches and
Salma eats hummus on pita. They
talk about how they think the
others lunch is gross. The girls say
things that hurt the others feelings.
They stop doing things together
until they decide to give each others sandwich a try. They
decide that its ok to be different and even liked the
sandwiches.
For our activity we would make a list of different sandwiches
that our class likes to eat. I would make sure to throw mine in.
(Italian-pepperoni and salami with provolone cheese melted
with mustard. This is a sandwich passed down from my
grandpa, to my mom, to me, and now my boys.) We would write
a description about the sandwich so others know why they like
the sandwich. Then we would draw a picture to top off the
writing. As a second activity we could try eating the other
types of sandwiches. (I dont think there would be many
variations since most 1 graders eat PB and J)

We had a Picnic This Sunday

Past by Jacqueline Woodson
This book is super funny. A little
African American girl is going to
a

family picnic and as she is there

watching all her relatives arrive
and bring their food for the
picnic the same they do every
year. It is funny to read about
how she thinks of things. Little

kids would defiantly relate to how she explains her aunts and
uncles.
For our activity we would talk about family picnic and see if
any of our students go to family picnics yearly. I would then
make a special day a classroom picnic day. On this day we
would invite moms and dads to come to our room and bring a
side dish for the picnic. We would vote on the main dish. We
would eat outside on the playground or if the weather was not
nice enough for that we would move all the desks to the
outside edge of the room and we would all eat on the floor.
We would share stories about going on a picnic with their
families.

Lissys Friends by Grace Lin

This story is about an Asian
little girl who goes to a new
school. Lissy folds origami
animals as her friends. She
when her classmates her
origami it is like a way to break
the ice. She then makes a
friend that she does not have
to replace with another made
friend.
For our activity we would learn
to fold an origami animal. We would follow a step by step
instruction on how to fold the animals. Then we would name
them and have them as our desk friends that we could read to
during self-selected reading time.
Website for how to fold origami
http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-for-kids.html

Websites for multicultural use

http://www.nea.org/tools/resources-addressingmulticultural-diversity-issues-in-your-classroom.htm
This website has many uses for my classroom. It has ideas for
books to use and where to buy books and websites for
teaching multicultural needs. It also talks about teaching
tolerance.

http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/24727/multiculturaleducation-activities
This website gives a list of activities to use with multicultural
books or to add to already made lessons to add that extra
hands on effect.

http://np.harlan.k12.ia.us/ELL.htm
This website has links for websites for my students to use
during computer lab time so the learning from class can
continue into the lab.

http://multicultural.mrdonn.org/
This website is on that has many plans for multicultural as well
as games and activities that teach diversity and tolerance. I
would add these thing to my lesson plans to add the
multicultural aspect to our other lessons.

http://www.multiculturalchildrenslit.com/
This website has many different cultures referenced. Even
Middle eastern, and Vietnamese Americans. These are hard to
find. I would use this to relate to those cultures along with
the others that are seemingly everywhere else. This website
give lists of books for the cultures in the genres of realistic
fiction, nonfiction, traditional, biography, historical fiction,
poetry, and fantasy.