8 replies to this topic

[rocket]

I had a parent in today complaining that her child has been told by another child in a different class that he cannot play with the toys because he is black. Of course she is very concerned and so am i. I thought it would help if i could do a circle time activity using puppets to address the problem. Has anybody got any good ideas?

[Peggy]

I had a similar experience and found the "Elmer the Elephant" story useful to open discussions of this.

Peggy

[Steve]

Hi -
We did a product review of a product which dealt with exactly this sort of scenario, you can find it here.

I seem to remember the website of the manufacturers has quite a bit of content dealing with circle time covering issues like this, so if you can't afford the video package you might want to pop into the website, which is linked to from the review. They use persona dolls to re-enact scenes etc.

[Ladybug]

If a child in another class has said this it might be that you also want to address this through talking to your SMT. Does your whole school use the circle time model and if so could you ask other teachers to bring this issue to their circles?

[Susan]

Good idea Ladybug.

Rocket you do need to bring this to the attention of your head or deputy as there is probably some sort of racial incident monitoring that needs to be completed in this instance.

I'd probably do a bit about we're all different but we're all special and we're all allowed to play with the toys, share, be friends etc. You could use puppets or you could just talk about this and reassert how to be a good friend and share.
It does need to be something that is addressed and in a way that you feel comfortable.

[deborah]

A great book is This is our House by Michael Rosen. A little boy tells other children they can't play in his house because they have red hair, wear glasses... eventually all end up taking over the house and having a great time. Provides lots of opportunity for discussion. A really useful book to have on hand at all times for when conflicts arise in Nursery and to use alongside books like Elmer etc that value individual difference.

Hope that's helpful

Deborah

[Beau]

Deborah,
Thankyou for making your first post. It's always good to have recommendations from other members. :)

[Linda McDowell]

Firstly can i welcome Deborah to the site and thanks for the book recommendation. I have not heard of that one.
Another good bookk is "But Martin". An alien visits a school and finds out how different the children all are on the outside but are the same on the inside.
Linda

[Sue]

Linda

But martin is out of print I know, I tried to get it for my circle time

Welcome Deborah :D

Rocket, On the oxfam website (cool planet) there are some brilliant resources for cultural diversity topics. Recently used the my world, your world stuff with great sucess.

Sue