How do I acknowledge the culture and heritage of the students and whanau in my class/team?

• I actively ask questions about their customs, clothing, food, celebrations. 
• I encourage the children to be themselves by bring in their own ethnic foods and explaining to the other children why something might look or smell different from what they are used to. 
• I use compare and contrast e.g. Mine and Antonia's roti's are just like your pita bread or normal bread but are just part of our culture. Talk about how we all have things at we like and don't like.. that are special to us in our own families. 
• I myself will bring in cultural food (not that I personally am keen on in it funnily enough) in order to make children feel safe enough and comfortable to share their foods. 
• At previous school I've been at we have had cultural units where I have helped children find aspects special to their culture for those who say 'we aren't special'... YES YOU ARE! 
• I tell my children each year that I understand how hard they are working to learn how to read and write in their native tongue because I myself am learning to read and write in tamil, which find trick and share my own changing of language experiences with ESOL students. 
• I encourage my kids and families to bring in cultural items to share for news and ask parents (if they feel comfortable enough to do a presentation or share aspects of their's and their child's culture with the class e.g. Benior/Emile/France, Tukta/Michael/Tailand, Vivian/Vietnam, Latai/Samoa, Antonia and her mum on India, my own dad on sri lanka at two different schools. My mum making roti with the kids at milson. Having L teach his peers Te Reo after transfering into a class from a Kura.
• Encouraging the kids to proudly wear their cultural clothes to school (on muftidays - uniformed schools) and wearing my own and actively having discussions about the reasons why they are different and why it that is ok.