Anti-Bias Activity

Baby Pictures

My activity is the baby pictures activity; it's a fun activity to get all the children involved together. This activity meets many anti-bias goals and falls under many themes as well. "We know that children work best when they are actively exploring material, experiencing the world with their whole bodies and all their senses, and interacting with a variety of people." (York pg.188) This activity will get all the children working together, recognizing and celebrating every one's physical features.

This activity is age appropriate for young and older children can participate as well. "Appropriate multicultural activities for young children focus on things children are interested in and the concepts they are struggling to understand." (York pg.188) This activity will help all the children feel special and unique. "Young children are not ready to learn facts about different cultures, and they are easily confused by events that happened long ago or that occur in faraway places" (York pg.187) I want to make sure children have an activity that uses elements the children understand "because using the elements of a culture with which children have no actual experience can strengthen stereotypes rather than breaking them down" (York pg.187)

The baby picture activity falls under many themes. One theme it falls under is our class, it lets the whole class work together and taking a closer look at one another. Alike and different is another theme the baby pictures activity falls under, as the children guess who is who from the baby picture they can see that everyone different but also alike in some way. Bodies is a theme the activity falls under as well, the children will take a close look at all the different features we had at babies and how they change over the years.

Many anti-bias goals are being meet in the baby pictures activity for young children. One goal it meets is people are similar. While the children guess which children is which from the pictures they will start to see how much people are similar. People are different is another goal this activity meets, while the children are realizing how much people are similar they will also be realizing how much people are different as well. Another goal the baby activity meets is some physical characteristics stay the same, some physical characteristics change, and children may not realize how much they have change but also have not changed since they were babies. Lastly many different people live in our community is an anti-bias goal this activity meets, children will see we all don't have the same color skin, hair, or eye color.

"How we introduce materials and activities is an important part of teaching."(York pg.189) The children will be asked to bring in baby photographs and a current photograph as well. "Take time to introduce materials and activities to children, a clear introduction builds interest and helps children be successful." (York pg.189) "Collect pictures of each child as a baby. At circle time, tell the children you have pictures of them as babies. Say "I'm going to hold up the baby pictures, one at a time. Look at it carefully and see if you can guess who it is." When the children make a guess, ask them to explain their reasoning. Then set out the baby photos and the current photos of the children. Invite the children to match the baby and current photo. Display the baby photos and current photos side by side on a bulletin board in the classroom. If you are concerned about damaging or losing the baby photos, make a color photocopy of them." (York pg.192)

A variation for the baby pictures activity is to make a game from photos of the current staff. Collect baby photos and current photos of all the teaching staff. "Make a memory matching game by gluing a photocopy of each picture onto a black index card. Laminate the cards. Lay them face down and invited children to find a match." (York pg.192) This activity will help the children realize how much they have in common with their teaching staff. Also make the comment that their teachers were young once as well so they understand what they children are going through. Sometimes at a young age the children forget that adults were babies once too. Some great books for the children to read that go along with the same themes and concepts are:

Sesame Street- We're different, we're the same By: Bobbi Kates

We are all alike; we are all different By: The Cheltenham Elementary School Kindergartners 

The baby picture activity is a great anti-bias activity. It was "designed to help children explore, examine, and talk about their feeling and perceptions" (York pg.190) It will get all the children working and communicating together. They should learn many concepts from participating in this activity, help them "demonstrate comfortable, empathetic interaction with diversity among people" (York pg190)