Talking to young children about racism can be difficult. We understand why many parents don’t want to talk about race and racism to a five-year-old.
However, research demonstrates that children become aware of racial differences and the impact of racism early on. Some studies even suggest that children in preschool may begin excluding their peers of different races from play and other activities.
Should we teach young children about racism?
Yes.
Young children know about racism. As a diverse and inclusive preschool and daycare center in the Bay Area, Kids Konnect provides a safe space for children to explore these complex topics. This is why we love teaching our students about holidays celebrated by other cultures such as Lunar New Year or Ramadan.
We feel we have an obligation to promote and teach anti-racism in preschools to foster positive racial identities in young children.
How Kids Konnect teaches anti-racism through play
As Kids Konnect is all about learning through play, we fill our curriculum with lots of fun activities from arts & crafts to singing songs to doing some physical education. This is why activities are at the heart of our anti-racism efforts.
Here are some of the activities we like to do with children to encourage anti-racism.
Activities that promote anti-racism
Apple Tasting
Kids Konnect values a healthy lunch and healthy snacks. We also value fun. This activity is deceptively simple and something everyone can do at home.
During snack time, we give each child in the class an apple. These apples are different colors. Some are green. Some are dark red. Some are light red. Some are slightly yellow. After the children bite their apple, we get them to look at the inside of the fruit. They will see that regardless of the apple’s skin color, they all look the same on the inside.
Hopefully the children will learn that even though we have different cultures, beliefs and skin color, we all have similarities that we can celebrate.
Mirror Learning
As important as it is to celebrate our similarities, to combat racism, children must be comfortable with their unique identities. They must be willing to celebrate what makes them different.
Using a mirror, we encourage the children to draw a self portrait of themself. We then provide them with sentence starters to describe their hair color & texture, skin color and eye color. The children then learn some vocabulary to describe themselves and can see that their differences shouldn’t stop them from being friends with another student.
As teachers, this method provides us with many unplanned teachable moments as the children are encouraged to ask questions and have open, honest conversations about our differences.
Diverse Storytime
At any Kids Konnect school throughout the Bay Area, we make sure our bookshelves are stocked with books that feature a diverse range of protagonists and stories.
We know that children and families in the Bay Area are avid readers and reading is one of the best ways to promote empathy and tolerance.
Books that feature different types of protagonists also give children aspirations as they see themselves represented in stories they might not see themselves in otherwise.
Circle of Friends Activity
Some mommy influencers have been posting this activity on their instagrams. It’s quite simple and easy to do at home.
Get different skin tone color craft paper and cut them into circles of roughly the same size. Then, the children can paste these onto a piece of paper that’s hanging by the wall.
Encourage them to group the different colors on the wall to represent their friends. They will be able to see that their all friends have different skin tones and learn to embrace each other. All while having fun at the same time.
Diverse preschools in the Bay Area
We love that Kids Konnect is full of love, life and diversity. Our young children and families are warm and welcoming.
If this sounds like the type of preschool and daycare center you would like to send your child to, please book a tour at one of our facilities in Oakland, Pacifica, San Leandro, San Mateo or Redwood City.
We’re currently fully enrolled but you can join our waiting list for Fall starts.