They say it takes a village to raise a child. In Kindergarten, it takes a "village" of realistic vinyl dolls to reflect the diversity that exists in my students' real-life community.
My kindergarten students live in one of the most culturally, economically, and racially diverse cities in the country.
Students' families speak English, Arabic, Spanish, Cantonese, Vietnamese, French, Tagalog, and Tongan. Our school is in a neighborhood that contains both subsidized apartment housing and upper-middle class single-family houses, and the school attracts families from all of these homes. My students are dropped off and picked up and cared for by their parents, grandparents, older siblings, aunties, and neighbors. Many of them take a "walking school bus," composed of rotating parent volunteers who collect neighbor kids on their walk to school with their own children. There is no majority of any one racial group at our school. About a fourth of our families are a combination of two or more races.
My Project
I want my students to be able to use our block area to create a community that reflects their world. I want them to be able to tell and act out stories about the people who live and work in a neighborhood like theirs. The realistic vinyl figures that I have selected represent family members of all ages and a variety of races, nationalities, occupations, and physical abilities. I have also selected a collection of books and jigsaw puzzles depicting families and various family members. With this combination of resources, I will be better able to teach important vocabulary and concepts about family relationships to both my native English speakers and those students who are just starting to learn English.
The only human representations in our block area have been a few battered and torn cardboard cutouts that finally had to be retired after 30 or 40 years of service.
We also have a chipped and worn collection of truly vintage wooden "people" with uniformly peach-colored skin and bodies that more closely resemble bowling pins than human form. I think my students will be thrilled and amazed to see their own faces and those of their families reflected in our new village of miniature friends.
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