Stay for Dinner’s Cultural Diversity Story from a Teaching Perspective

Cultural Diversity and Acceptance

Stay for Dinner is a compelling children’s book by Sandhya Parappukkaran and illustrator Michelle Pereira, the creative duo behind the award-winning The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name. This narrative centres on Reshma, a young girl who cherishes her family’s tradition of eating meals with their hands. As she dines at her friends’ homes, she observes diverse dining customs, from the “ting ting” of cutlery to the “click clack” of chopsticks. Reshma contemplates how her friends will react to her family’s unique practice, leading to a heartwarming exploration of cultural diversity and acceptance.

Curriculum Alignment

There are many aspects of the Australian Curriculum from Foundation to Year 2 that can be explored through this heartwarming book. However, Year 2—and even Year 3—students will benefit the most due to its context and language use. In this post, we will focus on learning areas such as Health and Physical Education, English, Visual Arts, and Drama, although the book may align with additional curriculum descriptors. 

Let’s begin with Health and Physical Education, as the book’s key theme revolves around embracing diverse cultural backgrounds.

Health and Physical Education – Years 1 and 2

• Students describe their personal qualities and those of others, explaining how they contribute to developing identities (AC9HP2P01): Reshma’s experiences with different dining traditions provide a platform for students to reflect on their own cultural practices and how these shape their identities.
• Students identify and explore skills and strategies to develop respectful relationships (AC9HP2P02): The story showcases Reshma’s respectful interactions with her friends’ diverse customs and her friends do the same for Reshma’s dining culture, illustrating the importance of empathy and open-mindedness in building relationships.
• Students identify how different situations influence emotional responses (AC9HP2P03): Reshma’s feelings of curiosity, apprehension, and acceptance as she navigates various dining settings can prompt discussions about how new experiences affect emotions.

English – Years 1 and 2

Stay for Dinner offers opportunities to develop key reading skills:

• Comprehension: The narrative encourages students to make predictions through its repetitive scenarios. They can then connect the text to their own experiences. Through various cultural settings and characters’ emotions, students learn to build both literal and inferred meaning from the text and illustrations (AC9E1LY05, AC9E2LY05).
• Vocabulary Development: Exposure to descriptive language and cultural terminology (e.g., culture, tradition) enriches students’ lexicon (AC9E1LA09, AC9E2LA09).
• Interaction Skills: Students engage in discussions with classmates and participate in Dialogic Reading with teachers to explore the story’s themes, characters, and settings, helping them identify the main ideas of the text (AC9E1LE02, AC9E2LE02, AC9E1LY02, AC9E2LY02).

The book also serves as a model text for showcasing techniques to make writing more interesting (AC9E1LY06, AC9E2LY06):

• Onomatopoeia: Terms like “ting ting cutlery” or “click clack chopsticks” and exemplify the use of sound words to create engaging narratives.
• Imagery and personification: Descriptive food such as “wiggly squiggly spaghetti” or “noodles slip, dumplings skip” bring the text to life by appealing to the senses and giving movement to inanimate objects, making the reading experience more vivid and engaging.
• Narrative Structure: The story’s clear opening, build-up, problem, resolution and ending provide a framework for students to structure their own narratives.

Visual Arts – Years 1 and 2

Inspired by the diverse cultural elements in the story, students can produce art that reflects their own heritage or that of others (AC9AVA2P01). Also, sharing their creations fosters an appreciation for different artistic expressions and cultural backgrounds.

Drama – Years 1 and 2

The narrative supports exploration of drama content descriptions:

• Students explore role and dramatic action in dramatic play, improvisation, and process drama (AC9ADR2D01): By reenacting scenes from the book, students delve into characters’ perspectives and emotions.
• Students share their drama with peers (AC9ADR2P01): Performing adaptations of the story encourages confidence and collaborative skills.

In summary

Stay for Dinner is a rich resource that not only tells a heartfelt story of cultural appreciation and acceptance but also seamlessly integrates with various areas of the curriculum, fostering a holistic educational experience.

You can explore our Talk for Reading unit for Stay for Dinner, which covers essential reading skills for Year 2 students while integrating Visual Arts and Health and Physical Education.