We started collecting craft ideas from books, teachers, internet sites, etc. Then we bought the stuff at Michael's, JoAnn's etc. We do a felt Kufi hat for Kwanzaa from a book called Family Fun Crafts. We make paper flowers & papel picado from Mexico/Latin America. We make paper woven baskets from Scandanavia (you can also get these from Martha Stewart online I think. We have a Korean dragon puppet made from a paper bag. There are tons of Xmas craft ideas. We make a Moroccan Khamsa Good Luck Charm, which we do by using file folders to which we glue heavy duty aluminum foil. Then the kids trace their hand and decorate with sequins, beads, feathers. It can be worn around the neck or hung in their room. Those are just a few ideas. The kids decorate Xmas cookies. We do origami - a couple of simple designs. Those are some of the things we do. Hope that helps, let me know if you need more specifics.
Where do you get the crafts? Are they expensive?
This sounds pretty nice, If we could get the crafts at a reasonable price, we might try this. We operate on a very limited budget.
In December, we do a Multi-Cultural Night in lieu of a Winter Festival (Christmas) or the like. We have tables set up with crafts from around the world for 25 cents a craft. We have a huge variety. We have Holiday Bingo and a Driedl game going. There is dance from our Ballet Folklorico group. There is also music and food, of course - tamales are traditional for Las Posadas, which we have homemade by some of our moms. There are also raffle baskets and cookies to decorate.
It is not a fundraiser, but we charge a little to defray the cost of the event.
It is so much fun and growing each year.
Our school does a pot-luck "Taste of..." much like the one described in the article. It is not a fundraiser, in fact, the PTO funds the entertainment, i.e., ethnic musicians, dancers, etc. and solicits local restaurants to supplement the pot-luck donations. It's a lot of fun and the food is great. It does involve a lot of coordination to pull it off, but the school is in an urban, racially and ethnically mixed community and it is definitely a labor of love.
As I read the current PTO article from Roosevelt School, I just wanted to comment that we do an Ethnic Night every year. It's not a HUGE fundraiser but we have an EXCELLENT family turnout. Each teacher picks a country and the whole class and parents are involved in pitching in and making food representing that culture. The children do a craft in school albeit decorate t-shirts with the country's flag, do a dance representing the country, maybe get a speaker to come to the classroom to discuss the culture of that country, etc. We charge a fee to get in and then each family receives a card listing each country that needs to get stamped at each station. Once the card is stamped it is tossed in a hat for a prize. We are a small school of about 150 children and usually have over 300 people attend this function. We begin with a short PTO meeting and then everyone just travels from station to station sampling all the foods. It's a lot of fun.
