Children Just Like Me

This is a book that I have used previously for teaching a multiculturalism class after school to Kindergarten and First grade students. I'm crazy about this book...it's basically a collection of perspectives from children all around the world on their native cultures. In each page, the children each talk about their family lives, their pets, schools, friends, favorite foods, religion, etc. and my students loved learning about a different child from around the world every day. How wonderful, right?

The authors of this book traveled to about 30 different countries, interviewing children from each place they traveled to and getting a real feel for their culture. Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley traveled for about 2 years to create this book. Barnabas, a photographer, and Anabel, a teacher were both very passionate about telling the story behind the cultures of these children through interviews and photographs. Awesome work! I can only hope to do something as cool as they have, and what a joy it must be-- creating a way of sharing the stories and cultures with kids from all around the world.


 There is SO much you can do with this book, but for a pre-lesson, we could ask our students to describe their own lives, including all of the same mini-topics in the book (family, pets, food, etc). Later as a post activity, we could have them create a Venn diagram, where they could compare and contrast the lives of their peers with their peers from different countries. The kids could also pick their favorite page and study the culture with book or interactive sources. I could also see this book inspiring kids to write to peers in other countries when they begin making relationships with the children in the story, sharing similar interests.  Personally I think this book should be in every elementary classroom! :)