This year, the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Committee had an ambitious goal of creating lessons and resources for global holidays and cultural celebrations. The Committee strives to create thoughtful and authentic resources for our Guides without a tokenistic or “tourist” approach to exploring diversity with children. To do this, the Committee spoke to the faculty and staff about the holidays they celebrate at home and what aspects are most important to them. Below is a word cloud of all of the holidays celebrated by the faculty and staff at Greenspring. The staff was excited to see the many ways in which our community celebrates, and they were then invited to share with our students the special aspects of the holidays they celebrate at home.

So far, our team has created lessons and resources for the following holidays and celebrations: Navratri, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Diwali, Native American Heritage Month, Hanal Pixan and Día de los Muertos, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas including traditions from the Czech Republic, Kwanzaa, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Chinese New Year, Black History Month, Purim, and Holi.

Some faculty worked with students to make traditional dishes, while others read stories and brought in artifacts from their culture to share with the children. The DEIB Committee worked with members of the faculty and staff to create Montessori nomenclature cards for children to learn more about aspects of the holidays if they were interested. In addition, interested staff members have been invited to speak to colleagues about the holidays they celebrate. This has been an important piece of belonging at Greenspring, and we have all learned so much from one another.

In addition to providing essential belonging cues to our staff, this work has become a staple in our classrooms. The children are eager to engage in conversations with one another about the holidays they too celebrate, and they are beginning to notice threads that are carried through various cultural celebrations. Children have noticed that many holidays across religions center around the lunar calendar. They have also begun to see how food and artifacts share similarities from cultures that are geographically dispersed. It is wonderful to see the ways in which the children are absorbing and interacting with this work.

The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee at Greenspring Montessori School is a dedicated group of faculty and staff working to provide lessons and resources for Montessori educators to further the work of DEIB. To learn more about this work, please visit the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging page of our website.