Anti-Bias Activity

Cultural Ways Feeling Box Activity

By: Caitlyn Rossa

The activity I chose was the Cultural Ways Feeling Box Activity from the textbook Roots and Wings By Stacy York (Page 195). I chose this activity because touch is a sense that children don’t get to experience as often as taste, sight, smell and hearing. Sure, you could say children touch things every day, but this activity is different because it is challenging the children who participate to actively think about what they are feeling/touching. This activity is important because children love surprises, guessing, talking about themselves and hearing about their peers as well.

Cultural Ways Feeling Box Process:

 

Themes: Senses, Alike and Different, Our Class, My People. 

Objectives: Identify ones own cultures artifacts, appreciate ones own culture, appreciate the cultures of peers.

Materials Needed: Collections of small items and objects, fabric swatches representing the home cultures of the children I your class, and a feeling box.

Description/Process:

·        Collect Materials needed; collecting the items from children’s families might take a couple weeks, depending on if parents remember to bring them in. You as the teacher could even supply some or all on your own if you’re willing to. So don’t plan this activity the day-of or the day before you plan to do it, it takes some preparation.  Figure out what type of Feeling Box you would like; this can be any type of box you would like to use, preferably opaque.

·        Talk to the children about culture, warm them up to the idea of talking about Our Class and Our Friends. Ask questions to get their minds thinking about each other.

·        At circle time, the day of the activity, tell the children that we are going to do the Cultural Feeling Box Activity. Have the box near you, and one at a time, have the children come up to you and put their hands inside the Feeling Box. Ask them to pick an object in their hands without pulling it out, and see if they can guess what the object is. If the children cannot guess, have them say out loud what it feels like, and maybe the other students can help them guess.

·        After each child guesses, tell them to pull the object out and see if they were correct? Ask questions like;

o   What culture uses this object?

o   Who is from that culture, in our classroom?

·        Repeat this process until every child has a turn

Variations: These are very important if you have different age groups.

·        You could make the Feeling Box a Feeling Bag if desired.

·        You could add in pretend food to the Cultural Feeling Box.

·        When the child pulls out the object to see if they were correct, and you ask the culture questions listed above, there is a chance for children to ask more questions, make more observations, or maybe as the teacher you have thought of more questions to ask, so don’t limit yourself to one or two questions! This activity is about exploring and learning about each other!

·        If you would like the activity to last longer and/or be easier for younger children; you could have the child put the object back into the Cultural Feeling Box, (after guessing and pulling it out) and if the same item is picked more than once, they will be able to guess easier or without help.

·          Another great variation; after the activity is over, set the Cultural Feelings Box in the sensory table. Children will love to reenact the activity.

1.     Why did you choose this particular activity?

I chose this activity because out of the five senses, feel is the one that is the most difficult to relate to culture. In reality, there are a couple ways to do this activity, in order to make it for children at the preschool level, there isn’t much I would have to change.

2.     What is the appropriate age for this activity?  Explain with information from the Roots & Wings text, Ch 2 (include page numbers)

This activity is appropriate for “Threes and Fours” because at this time, children are beginning to ask a lot of questions. At this point, if they are in the dominant culture (white people), they might not have a lot of experience with minority groups. This activity would most likely need to be depressed the tiniest bit for three year old children, but if they were in a preschool with ages 3-5, the activity could remain how it’s stated in the textbook. (York pg.17)

This activity is appropriate for “Fives and Sixes” because children at this age are starting to understand a little bit more about culture and are able to identify their own physical features. Children of this age are still curious and asking lots of questions, and they will “enjoy exploring the cultural heritages of their classmates.”

(York, Pg. 18)

For this activity children who are seven or eight years old, could extend on this activity even more than what it says in the textbook. Children of this age could end up doing a whole project just on this activity alone. As it says in Roots and Wings; children of this age group understand feelings, pride, and even a sense of empathy. These children have also moved through the preschool stage where their understanding was inaccurate and disoriented. It’s important for children and teachers who use this activity, to really think about how they could expand or depress it.

(York, Pg. 19)

3.     Explain why this is an appropriate theme.

The Cultural Ways Feeling Box activity has themes of; Senses, Our Class, My People, and, Alike and Different. These themes are appropriate for children from 3-8 because children as young as 3 can easily identify things that are alike and things that are different. Children of this age group will also benefit from the Our Class and My People themes because it promotes group unity, getting along, sharing, and noticing the important things about each other. This activity could even strike up more questions, conversations, and could lead into a whole “project”! Concepts from the handout include:

·        Everyone deserves respect

·        Everyone is important

·        People are similar

·        People are different

·        We can learn about the daily life of people we know

·        Culture comes from parents and families

·        There are different kinds of families

·        Families live in different ways

·        Many different people live in our community

4.     Relate your activity to three concepts from the handout Goals for Anti-Bias Curriculum. (handout, supported by Ch 7)  This is where you answer "how does this activity meet anti-bias goals?"

This activity meets three concepts from the “Goals for Anti-Bias Curriculum” handout:

·        Recognize, appreciate and respect the uniqueness, beauty, value and contribution of each child.—This activity has the chance to be a great interaction and question and answer period for children. This activity will promote the uniqueness, beauty, value and contribution of each child, because something from each child’s culture will be included in the box.

·        Introduce children to other cultures.—This activity will introduce children to other cultures because they will get to see pieces of every child’s culture when the items are pulled out of the box.

·        Encourage children to respect other cultures.—Having multiple chances for each child to be talked to about their culture, or let them talk about there culture, will give the listening children respect for that person in their class. It can also be said that by respecting each unique peer in their classroom, they will also be respecting their culture. 

How can we relate this activity to children's books?

Let's Eat

By: Beatrice Hollyer

This book is about what different people/children eat, around the world. This book is a great tool for supporting the Cultural Ways Feeling Box activity. From the variations section above, you can add pretend pieces of food to the Feeling Box and this book will go right along with it. It's cultural and inviting because of the photos in it, and can really teach children how many different types of food there are in the world.

 Throw Your Tooth on the Roof

Sally B. Booter

 

This book is a great cultural addition to your school's library, and a great addition to the Cultural Ways Feeling Box. This book is basically about tooth traditions in many different countries. Even though there aren't going to be TEETH in your Feeling Box, this book can help the children expand on what they've learned so far. After talking to the children about cultures of the children in their class, they can use this book to compare who does what with their teeth!