Teaching staff counter potential bias and discrimination by
a.treating all children with equal respect and consideration.
b.initiating activities and discussions that build positive self-identity and teach the valuing of differences.
c.intervening when children tease or reject others.
d.providing models and visual images of adult roles, differing abilities, and ethnic or cultural backgrounds that counter stereotypical limitations.
e.avoiding stereotypes in language references.
(a & b)The inclusion model of the Center's classrooms provides a wonderful opportunity for children to learn about respect and valuing differences. In the Tree House equal does not always mean the same. Children understand that others may need to sit on a teacher's lap during activities, a fidget to play with, or more time to complete transitions. If a child sees something happening and does not understand, they ask and we tell them the truth. For example, one little girl made a comment about never getting to go to the gym in the morning. We let her know that the child who went to the gym needed to wake his body up in morning while her body was already awake, she could speak and play, but it was really hard for him to do those things without some time in the gym first.
(c)If teasing occurs in the classroom, it is dealt with immediately by staff members. Children are encouraged to express emotions and talk about their feelings. We remind them that teasing can hurt and as friends, we should not try to hurt each other. We have many books about "teasing" and" how to be a good friend" that we will read to both children after the incident occurs. Usually, we encourage the teaser make the victim feel better-by a hug, high five, draw a picture or verbal apology.
(d)Throughout their day the children in the Tree House encounter many different professionals such as administrators, specialist, teachers, teaching assistants, and student assistants. 
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| (d) We are going to participate in a dance class with a professor on campus. |
(d)Parents also engage the children in discussions about their fields of work (professors, yoga instructors, graphic designers) as well as their cultural traditions.
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| (d)This parent was blowing the Shofar for Rosh Hashanah |
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| (d)This mom is of Native American decent and she came in to tell the children about the Cherokee Indian Festival of Strawberries. |
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| (d)This dad came in to talk about Hanukkah during the holidays. |
(d) Children at the Tree House are visited from professionals on campus such as geologists and experts on frogs.
(d)The classroom contains culturally diverse materials such as puzzles, dolls, music, food, clothing and books
1.D.02
Teachers provide children opportunities to develop the classroom community through participation in decision making about classroom
a.rules,
b.plans, and
c.activities.
(a) Children in the Tree House participate in the creation of classroom rules. For example during an investigation on friendship a small group of children came up with a list of "How to be a Good Friend."
Staff also facilitates the creation of a fire safety plan on a yearly basis, as well as rules specific to field trips.
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| (a) Fire Safety Plan |
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| (a) Holding hands with partners during a field trip |
The Children's Center follows an emergent curriculum. Therefore classroom decisions are centered around the child. The Tree House children make many choices on a daily basis. They choose the topic of investigation for the curriculum, as well as determining in what direction the investigation goes. For example a group time discussion about what we know about food led to several activities surrounding chocolate making.
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| (b) A plan for our food investigation |
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| (c) Exploring chocolate making |
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| (c) More chocolate activities influenced by our web |
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| (b) voting on which book to read |
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| (c) choosing a song at grouptime |
1.D.04
Teachers help children talk about
a.their own and
b.others' emotions.
They provide opportunities for children to
c.explore a wide range of feelings and the different ways that those feelings can be expressed.
Children are provided with the tools to discover their feelings through group discussions, materials (emotion stencils and stamps) and books. For example, the children worked several days on a feelings chart. We began by naming any feelings we could think of and any new ones we learned from books we read. Over the next few days children were able to draw pictures of these feelings and act them out for the camera. Finally, we put all the pictures together onto our feelings chart to display in the classroom.
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| (a) What do you look like when you are sad? |
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| (a)What do you look like when you are happy? |
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| (b) How do you think your friend feels in this picture? |
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| (b) How do you think your friend feels in this picture? |
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| (c) Our feelings chart |
