 Why should we be doing play equity? Why should we be concerned about it? So let me show you why. This is Diego. He's 18 months old in this picture. I won't tell you, but he's 14 now. He's actually my great nephew. So one of the things that I love about the work that I do is that I can be very close to children and learn from them. This is Diego. He's 18 months old at the time. Full control of Spanish, but just learning English. He is a child who can tell you all about Shakespeare, but maybe cannot really say a few words in English. He entered the whole learning process in his own way by play, by being able to tell you the things that he was doing in one language and then eventually he was able to communicate in another language. And I won't tell you the things he did, because some of them may be very funny and not appropriate. On the left, you have Maja, who comes into the center at our program and sits by the fence in Christ because mom is going home. So what happens is that with the help of the adults in the program and the help with the children in the program, she begins to enter play and be able to sort of separate in a very natural way and begin to feel like they belong. So that's why play equity is so important, so that we give children who are second language learners or children who need extra time to connect with other children the opportunity to be able to do that in a way that is supporting of them. So how do we do that? This looks like most of the children in your programs. Correct? Diverse, different, similar in many different ways. So the way we do it is by making sure that we create a place where they feel like they belong. So what does that look like? What does it look to be in a place that I belong? In a place that I belong, I can turn around and be my authentic self. I don't need to pretend to be somebody else. I can be me, because being me is honored, is respected. I can explore my identity. And what you see here in this slide is many ways to explore skin color. And that is such an important part, because we need to understand that skin color is part of who we are, but we also need to know that the color of our skin is part of our identity and it's beautiful. And yet many messages that we get into the society say that difference. It gives power to certain skin colors instead of the skin colors that we all have. So the ability to be able to every day come into the program and be able to explore in different ways the color of my skin, not just one activity once a month, but every day. And having that conversation that says, I belong here. I can explore my own language. Opportunities for children to speak their own home language, not just English. Yes, they will learn English eventually. But in order for them to get there, they first need to be respected in the language that they speak today. And to be honored by that, I am a fully bilingual person. And I can tell you took a lot of work to get there. So it's not something that comes naturally. So when we respect children's first language, we begin to really see that they are capable of more than we think they are. So giving them that opportunity to express themselves in different languages. Be inspired by beauty. That is such a crucial thing in early childhood programs today. And unfortunately, a lot of the times we don't pay enough attention to this. So what you see in this photograph is actually an exploration of mudcloth. How many of you are familiar with mudcloth? So mudcloth is a really wonderful cloth that is made mostly in Ghana, but there's also made in different countries. And what is really important about it is that it has very special messages for people. So being able to find the people that understand and know about what mudcloth is and inspire children to be able to explore it in different ways, it's a wonderful way to bring beauty into early childhood environments. What we did here is we actually add buttons and feathers for them to play with the color and eventually was put around in the environment in different ways that I'll share with you. So be able to wonder, just wonder. Spend time just wondering about what happens in the world. What happens when a tower of blocks falls to be able to get into the deep inquiry that Michelle was talking about so that children have that opportunity to ask questions, that we promote their curiosity, that we bring them further into what they're capable already to do, and we expand on that so that they can be ready for the 22nd century. Building relationships, but relationships that are interdependent. Relationships where they can count on each other because they know that there's trust. So it's beyond just be all friends. The reality is no, we are not all friends. But children do know how to find those friendships that will be meaningful and they will stay with them for the rest of their life. And I don't know if any of you remember any of your kindergarten friends, I'm still very close to them actually. So those long life friendships and connections. Also a place where you can have your culture represented. So think about your spaces in your classroom like we have a common kitchen area, dramatic play space, symbolic play space where children can actually come in and explore who they are. In this case, this program had a large population of Hispanics and Latino families. So it was set up as a way that represented the culture from that particular community. So you can see the beautiful colors of my country, Mexico and how it was all incorporated for children to have there all the time. And children would come into the program and say, I belong here. This is my house, it looks like my house. So you give them that opportunity to make connections while at the same time you're helping children to begin to learn the authentic part of another culture without getting into the tourist approach that was mentioned, more important than anything. In a place that I belong, I can be joyful. And we're losing joy folks, we need to change that. We need to bring play. We need to let children laugh again. We need to give children that opportunity to go out and just be them and enjoy the moment and every moment of the day, not just coming in and sitting down and having a task that they need to achieve. So we need to restore joy. And I'm on a big, big journey for that. So I hope you, by the end of tonight, you'll join me. All right, just ignore the bottles. Okay, they are aesthetic. Anybody recognize them? They're Patron, Tequila. So we're representing culture, but that's not the culture we want to represent with children. I just happen to absolutely love this photograph. It was in one of the early childhood environments that we worked with. The educator there found them and filled them up with water and I just love them, so I took a photo of them. So yeah, they're very cultural, but you don't want to bring Tequila into an early childhood environment. So aesthetics, how do we create a sense where children can actually belong and be part of a community? So that they can be part of a group of people that they can challenge each other, that they can think with each other, that they can reflect with each other. The first thing to think about in your environments is aesthetics. Let's think about what that looks like. How do we make them beautiful? How do we incorporate things that bring that to them? So the first thing is thinking about the community that you live in. Who are the artists in your community that you can bring in into your program? In this case, it's a whole investigation on clay and we brought in a pottery artist to work with the children. So it was not only learning to use the play, but they're also recognizing that there's all this artistic value in the community that I live in. And that promoted a lot of critical thinking for the children. Art is part of the human experience. I don't see how else you can get to the core of who we are as humans, except through the arts. When we can engage children in powerful learning about art, it is we get touching their heart, we're touching their mind. So that would be the one important thing. Art and design, do we know the elements of art? Do we use them as we design our environments? Do we know about color and how color affects children's emotions? So in this case, what you see is a lot of different tiles from around the world. In this case, many from Talavera from Mexico and others from Morocco, because again, you're bringing in the global perspective. So one of the beautiful ways to bring in culture is through the arts. Culture can be seen when we are actually learning the letters. We don't need to do a ditto sheet for children to explore the letters. As a matter of fact, the more they work with the numbers and the letters, the more that they will learn them. So in this case, a combination of the beautiful tree cookies with the letters on them. And we use letters in different languages as well. And the mudcloth, it just made it very inviting for the children to engage with them. And they spend a lot of time with them. Creativity, how do we promote creativity? Music is one of the other ways, the visual arts. The more we do visual arts, the more children will learn about them. So right here what you see is actually a space that was created for music, in this case exploration of flutes. So we use bamboo for the children to use the loose parts to recreate their own flutes as they wanted. We brought in flutes from around the world, but we also brought in books that would make the connection for them. That's another way that you can integrate literacy, but also think about a space like that. You walk in there and you say, oh, I have one of those at home. So you begin to recognize your identity. You begin to see yourself in the space and the environment. Another way that we get to really create equity is through being authentic. So what does that mean? What does authentic mean? It means you can be yourself, children can be themselves, but it also means that whatever you put in the environment is truly authentic. It is not something that you bought out of store to represent a particular culture. It is something that you have actually talked to people in that culture that tell you, yes, this is the way that we do it in my country. But you have taken the time to research it. Even particularly if you don't belong to that culture, always take the time to learn from others, from people in your community, inviting them to let you learn more about who they are. In this case, what you see is a Korean table. Again, remember the Mexican table in one of the early childhood environments? This is another environment. It was Korean because the community was, there were a lot of children that were from Korea. So we invited a friend of ours to actually set it up for us so that we made sure, and it was such a learning experience because one of the things that happened is that we wanted a little stool so that we could put the trays just for decoration. Here we are thinking decoration. And our friend came in and she was so offended because she said we never put food in a stool that people step on. And we went, oh my gosh, those little subtle things that can break that connection. That is why it's so important to really learn from your community, to learn from the people. And if you don't have somebody from your community that is representing a particular culture, find out about it, meet somebody, go out and walk and learn about the places that you visit and who they are and how they go about their daily life. Understanding values, understanding history, and understanding traditions. In this photo what you see is a series of tops. How many of you played tops when you were little? Okay, I'm Jewish, so we played cradle. Huge tradition in my family. So again, instead of doing Hanukkah as a celebration of the holiday, one of the ways that you can do it is talk about different traditions that families have. In Michelle's Center of Gravity, they do the Festival of Lights, which is gorgeous because if you think about it, which holiday has lights? Almost all of them, almost all of them. So it's making that connection to children's traditions, to children's history and to children's languages as well and the values. Language, again, supporting children's identities and languages. We have these blocks in every language you can imagine. These are in Swahili. And we put them in the sandbox with Jurassic Sand just because we thought another place where sensory can happen, where children can enjoy it and they're playing again with language. So recognizing that the symbol, the A, may be a different symbol in a different language. So they're making connections that communication happens in different ways, not just in English. So it is also learning to make those global connections that they're gonna need in the 22nd century because we're gonna be communicating around. And even if you don't speak the language, at least you need to know that there's a different language that people speak. Inclusion, make sure that every child in that program can function and feel like they belong. Children with special needs. This is Ricky. And Ricky has cerebral palsy. Ricky's a persona doll. So a persona doll is another way that you can bring in culture, you can bring in disabilities or diverse abilities, you can bring in the presence of children who may not be already represented in the classroom. So in this case, Ricky was very much loved and was carried around. And the children play alongside with Ricky. You don't play with Ricky, but Ricky plays with you. So it's not a doll, it's a real child in the classroom. So here he is working with the Moroccan tiles. Loose parts are dynamics. And I haven't started talking about loose parts. But in order to create an environment that is really, really open to belonging, you need to have a dynamic environment. You need to be flexible. You need to allow for things to happen. You need to know that time needs to be open. That children have the time to play and to engage. That they have challenges in the outdoors that they can actually confront. Different heights that they can climb on. Culture is dynamic, culture changes every day. That's why loose parts is so incredible when it comes to supporting culture, because they're flexible. The children give the culture to the loose part instead of the other way around. So one of the things we have seen, for instance, is children grabbing a little bag or a little towel and putting it with rocks and it becomes a burrito. So that is authentic representation of the food they eat, which goes way beyond the plastic food that we have out there. Or the little child that comes over and says, my baby pooped. And yeah, your baby pooped. No, no, no, my baby really pooped. And you take the towel that she had wrapped around the baby and all these rocks come out. So again, symbolic representation. That allows them to be who they are. It's very dynamic. What is happening? There we go. So it also allows them to support their original thoughts and ideas. In this case, we had that drought in California and the children were really concerned about the water. So what they started doing is they started actually creating Folsom Lake and recreating it in their thinking. So by using the loose parts, you were giving them that opportunity to do that. Adaptable, being able to take materials that children can use in different ways. It is also connecting them to their community. So this is a representation of the McBean factory in Lincoln, California where they do a lot of ceramics. So the children have families in the program that actually work there. So bringing in things that they could use to represent their community was also another important way for them to feel like they belonged. Praxis, using theory to change your practices. Or connecting theory to your practices. Also Praxis happens when you learn about the children, you learn their interests and you support them in the work that they're doing by the materials that you add. So here we have Maya, making posole. So she's taking part of her culture. The teachers know the culture and they give her the opportunity to create what they're wanting to represent. So the teachers understand the importance of giving children the symbolic opportunities to represent their thinking. That's how theory gets connected into the practices that you do. Theory again, how do we use the theories? This is an investigation of homes. How do we leave? A child asked, how do people in different parts of the world live? Do they live in buildings like we do? Do they live in the homes when they're in the suburbs? So it was incorporated into everything. I gotta tell you guys, this is a challenge. Where are you gonna find so many different homes? Bird homes, little bird houses. That's a little trick. Observe, listen to them. Listen to what they're saying. Listen while they are discussing each other. Are they noticing their eyes? Are they noticing their skin color? And then provide them with opportunities to continue to explore them. These are identity dolls so that children can actually change the hair and put hair in different ways. And we've seen some wonderful things for children who have darker skin may put a blonde hair and they said, oh, I don't know if I like that. I like mine better. So it allows for that conversation but it also validates who they are as well. Given the opportunity to explore materials openly in any way that they want, this is part of the Festival of Life. And here we see building with actually their candle holders and he's building them up. So again, playing with the light that was a lot of LED lights going on. So he had that opportunity to do that and combine them. So this is what Michelle was talking about equity which is another thing that if you're thinking about your environments, of course you have to consider equity. Are the environments making sure that every child has access to everything but not just because we give them to them but because we're really recognizing individual children. We know who they are. We know the language they speak. We know their history and we know their values. That's when equity really comes into play. So looking at the children's strengths, what are their strengths? And what you see here is actually investigation for children who are blind. So the letters that you see are corrugated cardboard. So it is helping them go beyond just braille to actually feel the actual letters. And this is in a writing area. So think about how can I add things into my environment that will support every child ability and every child's strengths. Again, their identity, their uniqueness. You know, not thinking that every child, that child is crazy because he's wrapping his head with a bandage. When in reality what he's doing is trying to figure out what he feels like to have a bandage around their bodies. Because somebody had broken a leg and he wanted to know more about it. Abilities, do we challenge them? Do we take children to the point where they feel that they can move to the next level? So challenging opportunities like in this case they were trying to stop a ball from rolling. So they came up with a solution. They added another board at the end. Nobody told them to that but the opportunity was there because the materials were there. The loose parts were readily available for them to do that and they had teachers that could stop and think about it and help them. Do we have access? Where we give them the opportunity to reach their full potential. Where they can make mistakes and correct them in play. I think we are asking children to be so perfect in everything they do and to meet every single standard that they are not knowing how to make a mistake and they crumble when they make one. So it is an important thing for them to have as well. Critical reflection, don't you love this? This is another one of the setups for music but in this case it was an exploration of bells and symbols. So planning thoughtful experiences for young children. Intentionality. This is a children's circle nursery school and team Craig hides rocks all over the yard and the children know that they can take two rocks to go home every week but then they have to bury the other ones they find so that the other children can have them and at the end of the year they get a big rock that they take with them. So being really intentional about the way you set up the environment and what you provide young children. Evaluating our own culture. Find spaces for your own culture to be represented. This is my grandma and grandpa and me. That little baby is me. So, and it was me trying to figure out my, the part of Jewishness that I have. So the story there is the giving quilt by Patricia Polacco and my grandmother made not quilts but made table cloths for all of the granddaughters. So they were used in many different ways from the table to when you had a new baby. So very similar to the giving quilt. So find your culture in this process as well because you belong there as much as the children do. And the more you respect your culture the more you will be able to be there. Exploring possibilities of other cultures as well that support the children. In this case Diego was very sad because children kept making fun of him because he was Mexican. They kept asking him if he wore a Mexican sombrero. So the teachers were very sensitive to allow him to bring his grandfather, it is a true story, grandfather that is an artist in Mexico and share the mural that he had just completed. And what the teachers did to support him is brought in tiles so that they could then represent that mural. So you can see part of the mural which was dedicated to women. And that made Diego feel like yay, they care for me now, I belong. I can share who I am. Inform decision making. Think about everything that gets in the way of the decisions that you make or support what you make. Think about history, think about creativity. Think about your biases. Think about responsibility. And this was gathered by our advisory as we were writing the last book. Thank you to Michelle who was always challenging our thinking and after. How would you do white ladies write a book about culture? And it was a great question. So she challenged you today to ask those questions. That was the best question anybody could have asked us. And that led us to get a wonderful group of people together to really challenge our thinking and to share with us how to do what we were doing in the book that we just published. Because it is a challenge. So this is where the loose parts come in. This is Genaro and Ian. And they're actually looking at mirrors that were set up in the environment and they're comparing how many teeth they have. So their hands is going into their mouth, they're laughing at each other, they're counting, you have three, you have four. And in a very wonderful way, they start looking at their eyes, your eyes are black, your eyes are green, your eyes are blue. And they're beginning to find similarities and differences, which is again a wonderful way for them to be connecting. It also allows them to be aware of their own capabilities. And what you're seeing here is actually building towers from around the world. So it started with a simple exploration of a tower in their community and then questions started coming up and more photographs were brought in of towers, the Eiffel Tower, different towers in different countries. So family started bringing in photographs and it just kept growing and growing and the children continue to build. So it's not only about them, it's also about the connections that they're gonna make. I love this photo. This is Marlisa. They were having a new baby in their family and we provided the children, I think there were like three new babies in this program. We gave the children a lot of fabric and they were making all these different revulsals to carry their babies or we brought fabrics from different parts of the country and we gave them photos of how people carry their babies and this is what started happening. So it's building this wonderful empathy and the caring and the nurturing that children need. So yeah, Marlisa is an amazing child. Developed an imaginative play. These wonderful glass beads can become bubbles. They can become food. They can become, I've seen them be everything you can imagine from the red ones are tomatoes and the green ones are spinach. So now you know that the children know they're vegetables. And it also, what is wonderful about loose parts is it allows children to really learn to respect each other because there's no longer any competition. Now there's equity. Children work with each other, they challenge each other and I gotta tell you, every program that we have worked at the behavioral issues have ended or diminished. And you know what's more amazing too? We did a toddler program. The toddlers were scoring higher than the toddler DRDPs. So they had to bring in the preschool DRDP. So that tells you that something here is working because they belong, they're in charge, anxiety has disappeared, that's about equity. It also helps them understand about equality and equity. When children argue, they learn from each other and never be afraid of allowing children to have an argument because it's through those arguments that they will actually engage in deeper thinking. That's what John Piaget, the theories talked about. And the confidence that comes from playing with loose parts. You know, there's no reason why children shouldn't have tools. Real tools. Here you have a girl drilling with adult supervision. So again, the importance of bringing in real tools for children. Washing dolls so that they see that the color of their skin does not change. Collaboration and democracy. This is like a center of gravity. They're grinding spices and he went into their spaghetti. So I invite you to join us in the journey of play equity. I invite you to start thinking about loose parts. Start in the corner. Like Bev Boss, my mentor used to say, one corner, change something in your environment. And maybe that's something that we can talk about for your question and answers. Thank you.