Creating
Affirming Environments
Children
now more than ever are leaving in a diverse world. It is still essential for
children to learn about cultures different from their own and our job as early
childhood provider is to help children to be successful and empower them as
they learn to appreciate differences. Diversity should not be a tourist
approach like only celebrating holidays through celebrations and food only. The
goal of my daycare is to create a multicultural program that will assist
children with recognizing differences, as well similarities among all people.
By allowing children to explore various cultures creates opportunities for them
to see that even when people have unique, and different traditional customs we
all still have much in common. In order to create a diverse environment you
must have an environment that:
·
Encourage a sense of wellbeing for all children by removing
stereotypical materials, art and books.
·
Create pictures and art that represent different families
from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.
·
Have multicultural material properly displayed for children’s
use.
·
Create learning activities and games that prompt positive
discussion such as word games and language.
Art
should be:
·
Authentic materials
for art activities that reflect rich colors and patterns for children to use.
·
Magazines should be
available that contain people from diverse groups and locations.
·
Have materials available for multicultural art activities
such as skin-color crayons, markers and paint.
·
Choose cultural artwork of prominent people in different
cultures to teach and empower young children.
Block Play
and Building should include:
·
A variety of
interconnecting blocks that represent buildings from other countries.
·
Blocks and small
animals that are from the U. S. and other countries.
·
Blocks or interlocking
toys that reflect children and families of a variety of ethnic groups.
Books
should be:
·
Books that are sensitive to other cultures and include information
about everyday life.
·
Books that represent the children who are in your class and
other ethnic groups.
·
Books to arouse the children’s imagination and make them
aware of human behavior and feelings of others.
·
Books about other cultures that tell an interesting story and
give accurate information.
·
Remove books that have biased language or stereotypical
pictures from the classroom. Add books about the benefits of culture.
Cooking
or Food Activities should:
·
Encourage children to experiment with foods other than those
with which they are familiar.
·
Give children the opportunity to prepare and eat a variety of
foods from other cultures such as spaghetti, stir-fried rice and burritos.
·
Have children’s cookware, dishes and utensils available such
as woks, chopsticks and kettles.
·
Use a wide variety of colorful fruit and vegetables from
other cultures to teach and enjoy such as kiwifruit, mangos and plantains.
·
Bring spices to class from a variety of menus for children to
smell and use for hands-on activities
Watching the video on educator Adriana Castillo home daycare
shows the type of positive and diverse environment that is inviting to parents
and also warm and loving for the children. Each room focused on setting the
atmosphere for the children to engage in an Anti-Bias environment.
Resources:
A bulletin containing information about creating
diversity in
Course Media: "Welcome to an Anti-Bias Learning Community"
