Sometimes our differences might cause arguments or conflict, so having a better understanding of each other could help. Today’s assembly marks the United Nations ’ International Day for Tolerance on 16 November. This day is intended to help raise awareness of the importance of tolerance for a healthy society. This wonderful celebrating differences PowerPoint is ideal to use with Foundation Phase learning on a 'myself and others' theme. It's great for helping learners realise that differences are what make us all unique and special. Differences should be celebrated, and helping children to realise this from a young age is important. Family, for Rich, was “over-rated and stressful.” He much preferred hanging out with friends and couldn't understand why Zoya complained about being “lonely” in London when they both had busy careers and several groups of mates. But for Zoya, family was a space where she was truly loved and supported. Although she enjoyed living in London, she didn’t feel she fully belonged and so was never ‘home.’ Zoya couldn’t understand why Rich didn’t seem to enjoy spending time with her family and was instead irritable after a few days.

If a pupil has a disability, disfigurement, or something that makes them appear 'different' to others, make sure you work with them to discuss what they want to share with others. Support them to define themselves and take the lead in their own lives In this resource, you’ll find a beautifully illustrated PowerPoint with each slide depicting different areas where people can be different. The slides cover different types of hair, different coloured skin, the different people we might live with, and the different things we all like or dislike. It encourages learners to chat to a partner about one thing that makes them special, and to consider what life would be like if everyone was exactly the same and liked the same things. Life wouldn't be as fun! The PowerPoint looks at why people are different, and the different cultures that have come together to make their homes in South Africa. It remains true that in our world, there are people who feel challenged and threatened by difference and diversity. Perhaps they have been taught to fear difference, rather than accept it or celebrate it. Perhaps they have not had the chance to meet or be with people who are different from themselves. Learning and remembering that we are all the same on the inside is an important message that the world still needs to hear. This Everyone Can Sparkle KS2 Activityencourages your children to find out what makes their classmates different and what shared interests or qualities they have.We hope that you find these celebrating differences stories useful and are now ready to encourage your children to embrace what makes everyone unique. Not only will this help to build your children’s own self-confidence, but it means they’ll create positive experiences for everyone around them as well. Comment that we are not all the same in terms of our likes and dislikes. Some people love Liquorice Allsorts, whereas others can’t stand them. Many things make us different as humans, though, not just our taste in sweets! For example, if we look at the human race, there is variety and diversity in terms of the languages we speak, the age we are, our physical appearances, our experiences of life and so on.

The PowerPoint encourages discussion on where everyone in the class comes from and how we should be respectful and kind to all cultures. It encourages the learners to consider discrimination and why it is bad. Finally, everyone is encouraged to reflect on what they have learned. This Celebrating Differences unit could be taught as a serious of 1 Hour+ PD Lessons or during tutor time over a term as part of your schools personal development offer. Simply put, diversity means to recognise and value people’s differences, regardless of their: race, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and disability.

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While the responses above are not wrong, it is important to explore and consider the many ways (beyond answering these direct questions) that we can help children understand differences, and teach them about acceptance and appreciating what makes others and ourselves unique. Below are five tips that lay the foundation for us to teach our children to be kind, compassionate, and accepting individuals. A pencil, whiteboard, desk, dictionary, paintbrush and calculator are all items you would find in a school.

VOICEOVER: Sometimes just getting to know someone new can be a brilliant way to celebrate our diversity. You know Hollywood, and you may have heard of Bollywood – the world’s biggest film industry, based in Mumbai – but have you heard of Lollywood, the thriving Pakistani film industry based in Lahore, or Nollywood in Nigeria? Many of the films coming out of these countries are gaining prominence on the international film scene. Cultures and traditions can be so vividly portrayed through cinema, and watching a film from another country provides a window on distant and faraway places. Depending on where you live, you can also easily buy or rent foreign films to stream online. Build Self-Esteem- Children who are valued and respected, ultimately feel better about themselves. These children are more likely to interact with others using the Golden Rule of “treat others as you would want to be treated.” Validate your children’s feelings, appreciate their observations, take their questions seriously, and praise them for making positive choices that demonstrate compassion and empathy. We ’re all the same on the inside. That is true. We all feel joy, pain, delight and fear. We all have hopes and dreams, gifts and talents. We all share in a common humanity. We are all part of the human race.The activity doesn’t end with the “getting to know you” game. Throughout the same day, continue to highlight the diversity among the children. Remind them of the importance of the morning activity, noting how all the children had demonstrated how different they were from one another. In the afternoon, follow up by asking the children to tell you the first words that come to mind when they hear other words sometimes used to describe people: smart, athletic, reads a lot, doesn’t like sports, strong, nice. Write the responses on the chalkboard and discuss the words in terms of similarities and differences. (The descriptive words can be made more sophisticated for older students, Boles says, and can include words signifying race, gender, and ability.) Adapted from an article by Katherine Boles and Vivian Troen called “Differences are GREAT!,” published in Creative Classroom .

This PowerPoint also includes a slide which encourages the class to consider what can be done if they experience discrimination themselves, witness it at school or witness or hear unkind things being said outside of school as well. Using stories helps to bring this topic to life and allow children to deepen their understanding of how and why we celebrate other's differences. The characters in the stories on these Celebrating Differences KS2 Discussion Cards are all different from one another to provide a range of examples. More RSE Day resources to share with your children There are lots of ways you can introduce your children to diversity, helping them to understand what it means: People can celebrate diversity in different ways, through awareness days and events in the year. But, this isn’t the only way that people celebrate diversity, some people might: listen to music from other cultures, read a book or poetry from a different country to their own, visit a museum dedicated to other cultures, and encourage education about diversity.PowerPoints like this celebrating differences KS2 resource are also fantastic for online learning environments. It can be very difficult to adapt a lesson plan for use in a remote learning space, so using a PowerPoint can make the process significantly easier, all you have to do is load up the presentation, share your screen with your class, and you're ready to go! There are a few different events throughout the year where you can explore the idea of embracing our differences with your class. LGBT History Month takes place annually during February, and is a month-long celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, as well as the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. Ask pupils to think about all the things that make them who they are: their looks, their strengths, their religion, their family and their culture. You might be similar to other people in our school community, or you might be very different, but we are all welcome and we are all part of a wonderful, diverse world. Although these terms can go hand-in-hand, they do mean slightly different things. Where diversity refers to ensuring that we put a positive light on people with differences, equality aims to ensure all people are treated equally in terms of their status, rights, and opportunities.