Pride Month is upon us again and at Kids Konnect we love the extra encouragement to explore themes of tolerance, acceptance, love and diversity in our classrooms.
Pride is an amazing topic for helping little ones develop awareness of themselves, the world around them and how they fit into it. It’s also an excellent opportunity to do some fun STEAM activities in line with our play based curriculum.
Having the confidence to teach preschoolers about Pride
We get that for some families, the subject of Pride may be daunting or tricky to tackle. You can learn about the history of Pride Month in this blog post so that you are ready to educate when questions about rainbow flags and parades come rolling.
Preschoolers are smart and they love learning new things, especially about issues that affect them or people in their community. By teaching them about the LGBTQ Community and its history, children can develop an open mindset and form informed opinions and therefore not fall victim to any negative influences. Education is key to acceptance in our society.
To help these discussions at home and to make them fun, here are some Pride themed educational activities for preschoolers that are easy to do at home.
Use science to introduce Pride
At Kids Konnect, we love a science experiment! This fun rainbow-themed activity simply uses some water and a pack of M&Ms.
Rainbow Science Experiment Instructions
-
Place some M&Ms on a dish.
-
Gently pour on some warm water.
-
Watch as the rainbow colors magically spread across the plate.
Source: www.adabofgluewilldo.com
Discuss the science elements of the experiment with your children. What happens when the water comes into contact with the candy? Do some colors move more quickly than others? Would cold water have the same effect?
Now it’s time to incorporate some Pride themes into the discussion. Discuss the colors you can see and ask your child what color would they be and why? What color do they think their friend would be? This is a lovely way to help children start to consider their identity and how they differ from their friends.
Proud to be me!
Introduce the idea of pride by encouraging children to be proud of themselves and their friends, to take note of their differences and celebrate them! This fun ditto can be filled in by children or grownups, or simply used to fuel a discussion. This exercise helps children develop a sense of self and promotes love and acceptance as children think about themselves, their friends and loved ones. We love this one for helping to cement the concept of pride as a positive emotion befitting for us all.
Download the ditto here.
Play with pronouns
It’s amazing how early young children absorb gender stereotypes. A fun way to break them down and help children understand the power of pronouns is to play with pronouns in their favorite storybooks. Swap Jack for Jill, a princess for a prince and try giving they/them pronouns to a favorite character. Ask your children if they think the dragon is a boy or girl and challenge why they think that.
Through this exercise, you can start to introduce vocabulary around pronouns such as binary and non-binary, gender neutral and cisgender. By giving children the vocabulary, you give them the means to process the information and go forward with knowledge, opinions, empathy and understanding.
Gender Vocabulary
Binary
Refers to an individual who fits into the gender binary.
Nonbinary
Refers to people who do not subscribe to the gender binary. They might exist between or beyond the man-woman binary.
Cisgender
(pronounced sis-gender): A term used to refer to an individual whose gender identity aligns with the sex assigned to them at birth.
Gender Neutral
Not gendered. Can refer to language (including pronouns and salutations/titles--see Gender-neutral salutations or titles), spaces (like bathrooms), or other aspects of society (like colors or occupations). Gender neutral is not a term to describe people.
Source: https://pflag.org
Read some Pride-friendly books
Pride month is the perfect time to expand your child’s book collection to include some pride-friendly stories. We recommend a couple in this blog post and also have a new favorite to tell you about!
When You Look Out the Window tells the story of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, one of San Francisco's most well-known and politically active lesbian couples. We love this story because of the focus on community and the impact these two women had, inspiring children to consider what impact they can have on their communities. The handy Reading Guide also helps grownups understand the importance of teaching LGBTQ History and culture to children.
Book a Tour with us Today
Kids Konnect is full of love. We pride ourselves on teaching our students about cultural differences. If this seems like something you’d want your child to get involved in, book a tour at one of our San Leandro, Pacifica, San Mateo or Redwood City preschools today.