Creating Affirming Environments
The visual of my at home care child facility would provide
every opportunity for parents and children to feel that they belong here. Keshia’s Kinder Care Learning Center will be
an anti-bias environment. When entering
the building their will pictures of people from all over the world with
different background, representing cultural diversity. The center name and labels throughout the building and classroom will be written in Engalish and Spanish. In the dramatic play center I will provide
food from other cultures so the children my explore and learn the types of food
that other cultures such as Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Mexican, Caucasian and
African Americans may eat. I would
provide a variety of cultural diversity of dolls in the center as well. In the reading center and the other centers
as well, I would provide a variety of books that represent cultural
diversity. The books may focus on foster
children, children with disabilities, same sex parents and families that are
mixed. In the block center, I would
provide people with different disabilities, puzzles that display disability and
teach the children that we are all different but we should still be treated
equally and with respect. I would
display pictures of individuals from different cultures and famous people. There will be plenty material for the
children to choose from in the art center.
The children will have their free choice to create their very own
portrait with its own unique style. I
will invite the families to come to the center and teach us about their own
culture. Children are living in a
diverse world everyday but are unaware of the term because it is not spoken of in
the home. Keshia’s Kinder Care Learning
Center will be a “Learning community that truly nurtures and supports all
children, and will make our efforts worthwhile and exciting” (Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. 2010).
References
Derman-Sparks,
L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children
and ourselves.
Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
LaKeisha,
ReplyDeleteI love the name that you have picked out!
I agree that materials selection is important. This weekend, I sat down with some children to complete an art competition for our students. We offered to let kids come and colour with us as a means of allowing those who were low income to still have a variety of art supplies at their disposal. While many children were simply colouring animals and funny backgrounds, myself and the young man next to me were drawing people. I had purchased a 96 crayon count box to ensure a vairety of colours to allow children to pick appropriate shades for their artwork if drawing people, yet the crayons did not work on the paper. I was highly disappointed when i opted for the marker selection and found only a pale peach and a deep chocolate brown to represent colours. I was even more upset as I saw the young man stop and feel torn when picking a marker. His mom is white, and his father African American, and he felt like there was no colour in the box to represent him.