What children should gain
The aim is not to tour the world's cultures in an hour. It is to build two habits: describing a custom accurately, and asking questions before drawing conclusions. Children discover that familiar things, such as how a birthday is celebrated or what counts as breakfast, vary between families as well as countries.
Handle this carefully. Avoid costumes worn as fancy dress, generalisations such as "people in that country all...", and any activity that singles out a child as the class representative of a culture.
Free activities to download
Ready-to-run EduTrend Contents cultural studies and anthropology workshops for primary, middle and high school. Each free download includes a step-by-step session plan, facilitator notes, three student worksheets and an assessment checklist. Full 20-week programmes are available in EduStore.
Culture in a Suitcase
Primary · Ages 7–10
Foundation · 60 min
Pupils unpack suitcases of everyday objects, guess what they reveal about a family’s way of life and explore how culture includes food, language, clothes and celebrations.
Games Around the World
Primary · Ages 8–11
Developing · 60 min
Pupils learn and play traditional games from several countries, compare their rules and purposes, and discover what games reveal about the cultures that play them.
Everyday Ethnographers
Middle School · Ages 11–14
Intermediate · 60 min
Students carry out a short, ethical observation of a familiar school space, write field notes, separate description from interpretation and identify unwritten rules.
Food and Culture
Middle School · Ages 12–14
Intermediate · 60 min
Students trace the journeys of everyday foods, analyse food as a marker of identity and celebration, and investigate how migration and trade change what we eat.
Rites of Passage
High School · Ages 15–18
Advanced · 75 min
Students apply van Gennep’s model of rites of passage to rituals such as graduations and coming-of-age ceremonies, compare cultures and write a short anthropological analysis.
Liked the free activities? Go further with a 20-week programme.
Each free activity comes from a full EduTrend Contents programme: a Family Guide or Teacher's Guide with one-page session plans for 20 weeks, plus an Assessment Toolkit with rubrics, trackers and certificates. Choose the one for your child's age or your class below. Instant PDF download after checkout.
W4C-341 · 20 WEEKS · $29
World Cultures at Home
Family · Ages 6–11 with a grown-up
20 one-page activities for home about family culture, food, festivals, stories and the wider world. Includes the Family Guide and an Assessment Toolkit with a star chart, tracker and certificate.
W4C-342 · 20 WEEKS · $39
Young Anthropologists
Primary · Ages 7–11
Four units on identity, traditions, arts and languages, and living together. Includes the Teacher’s Guide with 20 session plans and an Assessment Toolkit with rubric, baseline challenge and tracker.
W4C-343 · 20 WEEKS · $39
Culture Investigators
Middle school · Ages 11–14
Culture concepts, ethical fieldwork, identity and globalisation, and a mini ethnography. Includes the Teacher’s Guide and an Assessment Toolkit with concept checks and answers.
W4C-344 · 20 WEEKS · $45
Anthropology Research Lab
High school · Ages 15–18
Theory, ritual, kinship and exchange, globalisation and an independent ethnography. Includes the Teacher’s Guide and an Assessment Toolkit with worked concept checks.
Photos: Sushanta Rokka, Simon Hurry, Jes Rodríguez / Unsplash
Cultural Studies and Anthropology
Five ready-to-run cultural studies and anthropology workshops for primary, middle and high school. Each one comes as a free PDF with a session plan, facilitator notes, student worksheets and an assessment checklist.
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Cultural Studies and Anthropology
