Their days are packed with urgent and necessary things to do: forms to fill out, homes to find, a new language to learn. But Syrian refugees in Canada are also getting a cultural education about their new country through the universal language of the arts.

At the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Syrian children newly arrived to Canada have been given colouring books created just for them, entitled “Welcome to Toronto.”

To create the book, Rafi Ghanaghounian rallied 30 of his fellow artists to each contribute a sketch of their favourite thing about Toronto. Next to the drawings, the artists wrote a few words about their choice, which were then translated into Arabic.

Mario Calla, the executive director of COSTI Immigrant Services, agrees getting refugees out in the community is important.

Most days, his organization is helping refugees settle in and learn the language. But last week they took 72 people, mostly children, on a special field trip to the National Ballet of Canada’s performance of Romeo and Juliet. (The National Ballet supplied the tickets.)

“They can’t just be sitting in a hotel,” said Calla. “It’s an opportunity from them to be exposed to Canadian culture.”

And an opportunity for kids to be kids. Most of the attendees of the ballet excursion were young girls, like the 10-year-old Malaz Mosto. Through a translator, she told CBC news she “wants to be a kindergarten teacher when she grows up. But while she’s little, she’d love to be a ballet dancer.”