The anti- bias activity that I chose
is called “Face Puzzles” from “Roots and Wings,” written by Stacey York on page
196. Every child in the world has unique physical features and beauties.
Children at ages three to eight are noticing the differences between themselves
and in people and their peers. This activity involves children putting together
a puzzle individually in a small group time. The puzzle is a close-up photograph
of their face or their peer’s face. It is important for the children to, piece
by piece, recognize their peers physical features and beauties. I chose “Face
Puzzles” in particular because I feel that it is a great activity in guiding
children to recognize the physical features in every puzzle piece.
Most people assume that children do
not notice differences in other people and that they do not absorb bias cues
from adults. In fact, children do notice differences, but they have not formed
a negative opinion against those differences which makes people think they do
not notice a different physical feature in other people at all. Children learn
prejudice behavior, so once they are taught or absorb it from an adult they
will eventually form that particular prejudice behavior taught to them. In the
book “Roots and Wings,” York states that toddlers “pick up on how people feel
and will use this information to guide their behavior” (pg. 15). “Face Puzzles”
involve children forming their own positive outlooks on physical features. This
is appropriate for children between ages three and eight, or really any age,
because it gives the children a chance to form anti-bias thoughts about other
people’s physical features that are different from theirs and their own. In
“Roots and Wings,” it is explained that children between three and four years
old “can be helped to understand that many of their features are permanent...”
and I believe this activity appropriately addresses this for children (York,
pg. 17). Children are able to pick up emotions on how their peers feel during
the activity giving the children an overall positive exploration of differences
in themselves and others.
The themes that are involved with
“Face Puzzles” are bodies, our class (peers), and boys and girls (York, 196).
Young children can understand these themes based on the concepts that follow
them. The theme of bodies is an appropriate theme for young children because it
is a concept that “some physical attributes stay the same and some change
(Anti-Bias Handout).” For example, children are able to see that their peer’s
hair color stays the same, but sometimes that feature changes because she pins
her hair up or she gets a haircut. The second appropriate theme demonstrated in
the activity is our class (peers), which follows a concept that children
understand which is “everyone is lovable (Anti-Bias Handout).” Children
recognize that no matter how different one’s physical attributes are, compared
to themselves, that they those people are still humans and they are fully
capable of being loved. The last theme of “Face Puzzles” is boys and girls
which is appropriate for children because it follows the concepts that they
understand such as “people are similar” and “people are different” (Anti-Bias
Handout). Children are able to tell the differences between a boy and a girl
and appreciate the different attributes, but they are also able to understand
that there are similar attributes between boys and girls.
“Face Puzzles” activity addresses a
few different Anti-Bias Curriculum goals. This activity meets the anti-bias
goal of providing “children with a positive experience exploring similarities
and differences (Anti-Bias Handout).” Children are able to explore similar and
different physical attributes during this activity because they are looking at
each puzzle piece which has a certain attribute to a peer’s face. This is done
positively because they are using having fun with it by using a puzzle. They
are also enjoying putting it together individually, but with a small group of
peers at the same time. Another goal promoted in the activity is fostering
“positive self-esteem and a positive self-concept in children (Anti-Bias
Handout).” When children are putting together the puzzle they are able to not
only recognize the beauty in other people, but come to notice the physical
features that attribute to their beauty. The beauty they see in themselves and
other people also contributes to the anti-bias goal to help the children
“recognize, appreciate, and respect the uniqueness, beauty, value, and
contribution of each child (Anti-Bias Handout).” During the “Face Puzzles,”
they are looking at each part of their peer’s face and watching how it comes
together which gives children recognition of the peer’s physical attributes.
All of the children are able to look at their peers from a close prospective,
making children come to a deeper respect for their uniqueness and beauty.
To begin the
activity you will need:
-An enlarged,
in color photograph of each child’s face
-Poster
board
-Glue
-Scissors
-Resealable
plastic baggies
To create this activity you must
first print the photograph of the children. Once they are printed, glue the
photographs onto pieces of the poster board and let dry. Use the scissors to
cut the dried photograph into pieces to make a puzzle. You can even cut the
puzzle into triangles or squares. Once you have the puzzle made, put each
individual puzzle into a resealable plastic baggie.
To implement this activity, pass out
the puzzles either at random or give each child their own picture puzzle during
small group time. Start by asking the children questions like, “I wonder what
is in the bag I just gave you? Does anyone know what it is? Open the bag and
empty it (York, pg.196).” Challenge the children to put the puzzle together.
When the activity is over have the children put the puzzles back in the baggies
and make them available to play with during free play.
Some variations mentioned in the book
“Roots and Wings” is to make a puzzle of each child’s family, make a puzzle of
a child’s drawing, or let the children paint a picture of them-selves and turn
it into a puzzle.
A book that would go along with this
activity would be “Little Humans” written by Brandon Stanton. “Little Humans”
is a children’s book that was published in October of this year. I chose this
book because it sends a great message along to children. The book has
photographs of children from various locations and doing different activities.
The message coming from the book is that everyone is unique in their own way,
but we all do the same fun activities. I would set this book next to the puzzles
for the children to look at during their free play.
Stanton has
a cute YouTube video of children reading his book:
Another children’s book that would go
along great with “Face Puzzles” is “Shades of People” written by Shelley Rotner
and Sheila M. Kelly. This book has close up pictures of children with different
shades of skin tones. The book focuses on the different physical attributes of
the children and to make children think “beyond the obvious (amazon.com).” I
chose this book because it matches the activity perfectly and it will be able
to give the children a visual on many other types of physical features along
with their peers. I would also put this book next to the puzzles for children
to read during free play after we have completed the puzzle activity.
In conclusion, this is an activity I
can see myself implementing as a teacher in the future. I believe this activity
promotes great Anti-Bias Curriculum goals and also important concepts for the
children to learn. With the “Face Puzzles” activity, children will be able to
gain confidence in them-selves, recognize the beauty in their peers and other
people, and have more awareness of the similarities and differences in other
people. With this activity children were able to notice more of the details of
a person’s face or their own face. I would recommend this activity to anyone,
because it is easy to implement, but has a great amount of impact on children
learning anti-bias behaviors.
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List of
References
“Little
Humans” by Brandon Stanton
“Shades of
People” by Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly
York,
Stacey. Roots and Wings. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2006. Print.
Anti-Bias
Handout- file:///C:/Users/Kimberly/Downloads/Anti-Bias%20Activity%20Goals%20(4).pdf
All images from Google
