Anti-Bias Activity

Anti-Bias Activity

How would you feel? Roots and wings by Stacey York page 227

For this Anti-Bias Activity I decided that I would like to talk about the How would you feel? Activity. I choose this one because I think it is very beneficial to children. I have worked in a preschool for a couple months now and this is an activity that we implement on a daily bases. I have seen kids have a better understanding of how they make somebody else feel and how the words they say can affect someone else. It also just lets children be aware of there own feelings and how they can represent themselves in a better manner.

Around the ages five and six according to the text Roots and Wings (York 18) children at ages five and six use their increased language ability as their main way of showing aggression. They will use insults and call each other names as much as four-fifths of the time. The verbal aggression can be counteracted with a discussion of “ fair and unfair” but also with “ How do you feel”. You can have a real discussion with children and try to get them to understand emotions and feelings.

According to our text Roots and Wings by Stacey York they discuss this Activity in detail and talk about the benefits they have seen with this activity. On page 227 they said this activity helps children recognize that some people treat others unfairly because of differences. It also helps children recognize that name-calling, teasing, and rejection hurts. Last it will help children put themselves in another person’s situation.

The three themes that I connected my activity with for multicultural concepts for young children would be everyone is equal, everyone deserves respect, and everyone has feelings. With this activity you are trying to get across these three themes so everyone can learn how name-calling and hurtful behavior can affect a child and there self esteem. This activity is good to teach children how to deal with their feelings and emotions in a more positive way. The biggest message to get across is that everyone needs to be treated equal and their feelings are valued as well as they are respected in their learning environments.

I feel that this activity meets many of the anti-bias curriculum goals. For example one of the goals that best relates is promotes respect towards others. This activity helps children see things from a different perspective, which is a main underlying concept of anti-bias curriculum for young children. A couple of other concepts that I found relate to this activity would be Increases children’s ability to interact, talk and play with people who are different from them, as well as help children notice and do something about unfair behavior and events. This activity will help over time to teach children to do the right thing and to not judge children but help them feel more welcomed.

Now lets talk more about the activity and how it is used in a classroom setting. The materials you will need for this activity will consist of an Oak tag, scissors, metal fastener, fine tip marker, multicultural photographs of pictures of people in various everyday setting. The description of the activity is you cut an 8-inch circle oak tag. Divide the circle into six sections. In each section draw one face to represent each emotion such as happy, sad, afraid, and angry. Label the drawings make a spinner by cutting an arrow out of the oak tag and attaching it to the center of the circle with the metal Fastener. Show the child one of the teaching pictures and tell them a simple story about what is happening in the picture. Example is two young kids playing together and the other child say’s things like you are not my best friends because you look funny. You sit the kids down and you ask the question how does this make you feel and have all the kids pass around the spinner and have them point to what emotion they are feeling after the story.

How Do You Feel?, Browne, Anthony

Description

How do you feel? Sometimes you feel happy, sometimes sad. Sometimes you even feel surprised. This title presents an exploration of emotion for very young children. It offers an understanding of how they feel, using simple words and pictures. I choose this book because it is exactly what the point of my activty is. It is a great book to read outlowd and pass around the wheel to see the childrens emotions. It is perfect for the childs activity!

Sometimes I'm Bombaloo Hardcover – March 1, 2002

A warm book about losing your temper, and how to feel like yourself again. With its bright illustrations and sweet story, this title is the perfect read aloud for librarians, teachers, and parents.

Five-year-old Katie is a good kid -- most of the time. But sometimes...well, sometimes, say when her little brother knocks down her beautiful castle after she told him not to touch it and she knows she'll never be able to make it look that good again...sometimes Katie gets so mad she's Bombaloo, she's just not herself.

Being Bombaloo is scary. But a little time out and a lot of understanding from Mom help Bombaloo calm down. And cleaning up the mess that Bombaloo made, then sharing hugs and sorries with her family, help Katie feel like Katie again.

This book is a great way to show kids how you can get frustrated and how you can bring yourself back to happy. It show interaction with kids and the emotions they feel and how they solve it. I think it would be a great addition to a circle time for the emotions activity.

by Rachel Vail  (Author) , Yumi Heo (Illustrator)

Book Analysis

Little Black Sambo

Author: Helen Bannerman

Pictures: Gustaf Tenggren

Year of Publication: 1899

The Children’s book that I chose to evaluate it called Little Black Sambo written by Helen Bannerman and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren. Little Black Sambo is a childrens book about a child name Little Black Sambo who got all new clothes that his father bought for him from the Bazaar. He then wore his clothes outside and there was four tigers that tried to take all his clothing from him and wear his clothing to be the fanciest tiger in the jungle. The Tigers then fight each other over who has the fanciest item and soon fought each other and no longer cared about the clothes the took. Little Black Sambo took his clothes back and the Tigers fought each other so hard that they turned into butter. Then the Sambo family ate the Tigers in the Pancakes they made.

            On the front cover it has a picture of Little Black Sambo, which from the picture you would guess that his race was African American but as you read on you learn that He is from India. The front cover is a picture of a little boy wearing a diaper and one of the Tigers that took his umbrella from him. Throughout the book they had a picture of the mother and father who are dressed in semi normal Indian wear for that time. There seems to be not to detailed of pictures in this book very self-explanatory.

            The first subject to talk about is the title of the book and the name of the boy. It has been said that because of this book there was controversy that followed the word Samba. It is said that this book turned the word Samba into a racial slur used by people. There was many pirated versions of this book since it was written so early on but those different versions all incorporated more stereotypes of “ black” people. They did make a version that came out in Japan that was not considered to be racially wrong.

            Throughout the dialogue it is easy for me to read and understand and it would be easy for children to understand as well who reads English. The only word they throw in there that might need further explaining would be Bazaar and they tell you that melted butter in India is called Ghi. The butter is explained and the Bazaar would have to be told once but other than that the child would be able to understand. While reading over it you would think the person who wrote it might have had one friend who taught them a couple words used in India not someone that understood the culture.

            The other part of the book that I did not know for sure but felt that they might have been portraying the Tigers as the “ white” people at that time in history. It has pictures of these lighter furred Tigers who want to take all of Little Black Sambos things so they can look the best. Then the Tigers end up fighting each other over who is the better Tiger and the fanciest and care less about Little Black Sambo. Is the Tigers a metaphor for the “ white” people taking things from the “black” people and not caring what the things were just caring that they had the best while the others were left to be clothes less.

            The thing that bothered me like I had touched upon earlier is that the author and the illustrator have a sense as to Indian culture but such a little amount was incorporated in this book. The author is from London and the illustrator is from Sweden and you get the sense that they maybe had one encounter with someone from India. They then wrote and illustrated a book but with such little information that it does not teach people about the culture. Before reading the book I thought that the boy was “ black” for obvious reasons. They then only threw in a couple words to make it seem like they were honoring a culture which I did not see them do correctly in this book. I do feel like for a kids book that they did use Tigers in the right way as something considered to be feared in the jungle.

            While reading this book I did uncover more than I thought I was going to find. First that Sambo became a racial term because of this book. Second the possibility of the tigers having a more diverse role then we might think. Also the way that the culture was not portrayed as well as I had wished. All together the book is not one I think our children need to read. To be honest the story line is confusing and it does not make sense as to why Little black Sambo and his family end up eating the Tigers. To me it is irrelevant but it probably has a hidden meeting