Anti-Bias Activity

The activity I choose was making a collage of children's different faces describing their feelings. This could be worked on by all children who are welcome to make more than one face. The finished project could be hung in the classroom to remind children of what was learned.

Materials that are included but not limited to:

Colorful paper, and skin toned paper.
Glue
Scissors
Different fabric cutouts
Crayons, Markers, Pencils.

Teacher's initially would go over questions before the project like:
What are feelings?
What are some feelings you have felt?
Who has feelings?
What do some feelings look like?

Vocabulary teachers could use while talking about this activity would be:
merry
cheerful
jolly
pleased
annoyed
raging
shocked
startled
alarmed
nervous
thrilled
excited
etc.

Then they could read books like the following to give an intro to this activity.

The two books I choose for this activity were Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis
and Little Feelings by Judy Spain Barton. Both go over the various feelings children and in turn people can have.


This activity would invovle a group of older preschoolers such as 4 and 5 because of the complications of using scissors to cut out eyes, mouths and so on. It could also be done for young elementary.


     I choose this activity because of it's value and age-appropriateness among preschoolers. This is a way they can see their similarities and differences among their classmates and even relate some of those to the adults in their life. Feelings are something that is apparent everyday in kids lives and we can really touch base with them and unveil the diversity among their classmates in a positive way.
   Feelings really tie into the preschool age because of their visibility in the classroom. Everyone experiences feelings, this is a way children can identify with another in a positive spin on diversity. Using tools such as scissors, glues and crayons really build on those small motor skills, while building a class collage can help with social-emotional.
   The goals it would follow would be Fostering positive self-esteem and positive self-concept by relating to and talking with other children about their commonality in feelings. It also Promotes respect towards others by recognizing others have feelings just like you and we need to treat those delicately.  It also provides children with a positive experience exploring similarities and differences. These goals and this activity promote the ultimate goal of eliminating bias in our curriculum.
  In reflection I would surmise that as we look towards curriculum that is not only valuable and age appropriate but covers the broad range and diversity of each individual child we teach and connects them with the others.