Clothes for Celebrations
The aim of this section is for the children to become aware of how clothes play an important part in many celebrations and festivals. Most children have certain outfits for special days out, such as birthday parties, Sundays or trips to the beach during the holidays.
Activity: children are asked to match the outfit with an occasion.
Religion and Customs
The pictures within this section will allow the teacher to address the strand unit People and Places in Other Areas: It has a picture of an African woman in traditional dress as well as wedding party photographs from India and Japan. Teacher could show the children on a wall map where these countries are.
Extension tasks with teacher: The children can be encouraged to discuss their special outfits, why they are special and when they wear them. The teacher can elicit from the children special occasions during the year when they will wear a particular outfit or costume e.g. Christmas, Easter, and Hallowe'en. Children from different cultures within the class may share their particular special festivals. The children can also discuss special occasions such as weddings, christenings etc. when people would often wear specific clothes. The children could also bring in photographs of themselves and their family dressed in their special clothes. These can be displayed in the classroom.
People and Places in Other Areas
An activity in this section of the site requires the children to match pictures of people in traditional wedding attire to their country of origin. It is important that the children are given an opportunity to become aware of the variety of clothes and costumes worn by people from different places and particular ethnic backgrounds. Approaches to this might be influenced by the nationalities of children in the class or in the school. Parents may be asked to contribute information and to share experiences. The teacher can discuss the national dress of countries. Most children are familiar with the variety of dress worn in different countries from their experiences of the media. Children could also find out about clothes worn in different climates. They could find particular countries on a world map.