Tips on Planning a Multicultural Night

Have you ever wondered how to involve more families in your school? Or ways to make families feel welcome? One way to involve more families and make them feel welcome is by planning and hosting a Multicultural Night event at your school. 

Why Host a  Multicultural Night? 

1. It builds a welcoming community. 

2. It creates a safe space for families to share about their cultures and traditions while learning about others'. 

3. It promotes diversity and acceptance of other cultures among your school. 

4. Provides a great teaching opportunity for all students and families as the world becomes more culturally diverse). 

5. It opens the doors for the community (neighbors and local businesses) to collaborate with your school.

Tips On Planning This Event

1. Start a school committee or team that will work together to plan and host this event. 

At the beginning of the year if you are the team lead or the one who wants to start this team, make a sign-up sheet for other teachers who might be interested in signing-up to be a part of the Multicultural Night team. Another option is to have an already established committee or team, such as the equity team or the family engagement team to be the one to plan this event. However, since planning a Multicultural Night involves a lot of work, coordinating and time, I would suggest to have a team or committee just for planning Multicultural Night and invite all interested staff to be part of it. 

2. Use Google Apps 

Google apps make collaboration easier since everyone can make edits and share the documents with all people involved in planning the event. Create a folder in your drive to put all the documents in it and share it with everyone on the team. Linking documents and other links to one main document is also convenient so that everyone involved in planning the event has easy access to all the information. The main document could be the agenda for the meetings which would include notes on what was discussed in the meeting and links to everything related to the discussion. Some ways to use Google apps is to create and send surveys to families and teachers, make lists (see step 4) Click here to download a copy of the agenda I use.

3. Assign roles to team participants. 

It is important to assign roles to the team participants so that everyone knows what their role is. Make sure there is at least two people per item so that they can split up the responsibilities and work together. Also, make sure you have someone who knows about setting up technology and the music related items because you might want to send online surveys, have QR codes and play music during the event. 

4. Make a list of ideas that the team wants to have at Multicultural night. 

During the planning stage there will be many lists involve. For example, you will need to have a list of parents that will bring food or a list of families who want to participate in the talent or fashion shows. So, it is important to be organized and that is why it is important to do step 2 first ,so not one person is working on everything because it can get overwhelming. Below are some of the items to consider during planning meetings: 

• Make a list of ideas of activities that your team would like to have at Multicultural Night. Some activities that I've done in the past are: food trucks, story time, dance party, dessert show, raffle, crafts from around the world, food made by families and teachers, fashion show to showcase traditional clothing, talent show to showcase instruments, music or poems, and dancing from various cultures and countries. 

• Set a date for the event and make sure there is enough time to plan it so it is successful.

• Make a list of the materials you will need to decorate the event. 

• Make a list of locations or classrooms the can be used for the activities will take place. Make a map so people know where all the activities will be taking place. 

• Assign teacher monitors to each location chosen.

• Make a list of possible local business that might be interested in participating in the event by volunteeting their time. For example, dancers, restaurants, local library, etc. 

• Make a list of the countries represented at your school, make sure to include all staff and families. 

• Make a list with dates of the communication that will be sent to families such as: flyers, sign-up sheets, food, etc. 

• If your school has a budget for the event, make sure you make a list the things that must be included in the budget. 

• Make a list of music for the different activities. If there will be performers make sure you ask them about the music they need for their show. 

5. Communicate with the whole staff and families. 

Communicating information and expectations about everything related to this event with everyone involved is essential to have a successful event. 

Make sure someone in the team is in charge of sending and reviewing all communication and that teachers and families are well informed. If the team planning the event needs classroom teachers to complete a few tasks or reach out to their parents, make sure you communicate clearly to them and with enough time. Communicate with the custodians as well, so they know when the event is taking place and give them a list of things that they will need to do to set up the event, so that they are ready.

5. After the event meet again to debrief on what went well and on what needs improvements for the following year. Record all notes in a Google Sheets document. 

Tips while the Event is happening

• Have teachers monitor all places where events are happening. 

• Print a list the classrooms being used with the name of the teacher who will be the monitor at the location and what is expected of them when they are monitoring or leading at that location. 

• Make sure there are at least two teachers monitoring or leading each activity or location so they can take bathroom breaks and take turns walking around the other locations to enjoy the other stations as well. 

Takeaways

• Create a team of people in your school who will be in charge of planning and hosting the event. 

• Assign roles to everyone in the team. 

• Provide sign-up lists for families and teachers to participate in the different events activities. 

• Communicate clearly with all school staff, families and community. 

• Have fun! 

Share in the comments you experience with planning and hosting a Multicultural night or similar events below.