Face Puzzles: An Anti-Bias Activity

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:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xawj5ojJVxY

                                          
                                         

                                             
                                        

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

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Humans-Brandon-Stanton/dp/0374374562

http://www.humansofnewyork.com/

“Shades of People” by Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0823423050/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwfamilyspon-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0823423050

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