Creating Affirming Environments

I enjoyed the video of Adriana Castillo’s (Laureate Education, 2011) childcare program. In an early childhood not only the inside, outside of the premises also needs to be attractive for the young children as well as for the adults. It has to have a clean outdoor environment and child appropriate playground that is visible for the visitors.

When they walk in to the building it would be appropriate for the families and children to see the pictures and posters of the children of different cultures doing indoor and outdoor learning. Because not every culture do their learning inside the buildings, sometimes more learning take place in outdoor environment.

Their will be an area of children’s art work for everyone to see and appreciate. There will be an area for signing in and out the children. The names of the children will be printed for the five days with pictures of something especial to their own family.  

There will be classrooms from the hallway and each classroom will have locker area for the children to put their bags and items away. Then they will say bye to their parents and move on to play with toys of their choice. If the children have a hard time, they will have a quiet area to go and be with books, soft pillows, cuddly animals and a teacher. The children will be able to discuss their feelings and express their emotions. This encourages children to express their emotions and work out conflicts (Sparks, & Edwards, 2010).

Every classroom will have bookshelves and book bins in different areas. The books will represent different cultures, different abilities of the children as well as different stories that the children love to hear. Even if a book does not meet my anti-bias criteria, it may still be useful for helping children become critical thinkers (Sparks, & Edwards, 2010).

There will be music and dramatic play props, pretend food, puzzles, and puppets to represent diversity of the world. There will be opportunities for all the children to try different activities everyday because the classroom will have different center areas set up everyday. Most families want their children to grow up proud of themselves and open to others, unbiased and empowered (Sparks, & Edwards, 2010).

The families will have opportunities to know and learn about the curriculum of the program. Every few months there will be opportunities for the families to participate in different events that take place in the program. Reading nights, family nights, children of the world night, parent/ teacher meeting days, movie nights, “I can do it” events, make it/ take it days, are few of those events. All these events and activities will be open to all the children and the families of the program and their siblings.

Reference: 

Sparks, D. L. & Edwards, O. J. (2010). Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. National Association for the Education of Young Children.1313 L. Street NW. Suite 500 Washington, DC. 20005 – 4101

“Welcome to an Anti-Bias Learning Community” Adriana Castillo gives you a guided tour of her warm and caring family child care home, which exemplifies an intentional approach to anti-bias learning and community building. offers insights on how to create a physical environment that cultivates an anti-bias.