Cultural celebration

Activity type: starting of the club
Materials: music, food, ingredient list of each food
Age group: 2-6
Time: 90 mins
Language: All

Activity description:  
Today is about celebrating your culture! Plan today together with families, bring food, play games, sing songs, however you choose to celebrate your culture! 

• Each family and children introduce the snack or food they have brought along. Everyone repeats the words. You can do this a few times, especially if the names of the foods are new to children.  
• Before anyone can start tasting the food - go through the ingredients together, so that everyone is able to check allergies - this is also a great way to introduce new words and maybe even some ingredients that are typical to your culture.  
• The rest of the day is up to you. The main thing is that families relax and have fun together with an opportunity to talk, paly, listen to music and eat and drink together.  Below are some suggestions on what else you could do.  

Do a food tasing: There may be new tastes and food that children have not had the chance to try, take advantage of positive peer pressure and do a food tasting. Go through each of the food and let each child take a spoonful and ask then what they think. 
Tell a story - If there is a book about the celebration or a story related to the celebration – tell it! There might also be audio stories that you can use (see https://saga.ad-astra.fi/) 
Check you the Festive Calendar for ideas for different celebrations: Juhlakalenteri – Tiedot lukuvuoden juhlista ja paastonajoista. 
Don’t forget to fill in the “Words of the day” worksheet so children have a reminder of all the great food and fun activities that you did! 

Allergies:

• ​Families will be asked to share their recepies beforehand so that all parents can check for allergies.
• Ask parents to bring a printout of the recipe. 
• You can have ingredient cards ready that parents can write the ingredients on before the food is shared.
• Each parent is responsible to checking what their children eat.