Creating a Diverse, Inclusive and Culturally Responsive Early Childhood Classroom
By: Lindsay Cieri
What makes our classroom special is our students! Whether our students have differing learning needs, are English Language Learners, or are from diverse cultural backgrounds, this allows us as educators an opportunity to create a welcoming and supportive classroom environment for all our students!
How can we do this you may ask? We will talk about some ideas and link materials you can use in your classroom to make sure your students are represented and supported.
1. Lessons & Activities: When planning lessons, it is important to take into consideration how to differentiate your lessons to accommodate the learning needs of all students, and it is equally important to make sure that your students are represented in the lessons and activities that are taught.
Here are some ways to do this in an early childhood classroom setting:
To support ELLs, lessons should include visuals along with text in English and text in the student’s home language.
Consider including early childhood songs in the student’s home language within activities.
Include lessons and activities to celebrate important holidays or other days of celebration throughout the school year. Learning about new holidays or days of celebration in different cultures is important for many reasons; celebrating holidays that may be celebrated by your student population allows all students to be represented and that can help create a culturally responsive classroom.
Invite parents to read a story or lead an art or cooking activity that represents their cultural background.
Send home a classroom newsletter that lists holidays or days of celebration.
Here are some holidays and important dates to celebrate in your early childhood in the January 2023:
January 16th: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
January 22: Lunar New Year
January 24: International Education Day
2. The Classroom Library: Your classroom library should be as inclusive and diverse as your classroom.
Here are some categories of books we recommend including in your early childhood classroom library:
Inclusive Stories: This can include stories of children who have disabilities.
Stories for Social Emotional Learning: Include stories about having kindness, compassion, about emotions, and self-regulation of emotions through deep breathing or yoga.
Stories that Represent Different Cultural Groups: This category is broad, there are many stories for children about different cultures, holidays, and places around the world.
Stories about Inspiring Women: As a woman-owned business, we feel it is very important to include stories about women’s accomplishments in your classroom library.
Stories in Dual Languages: If applicable, include dual language books in your classroom library.
Books with Sensory Components: Some stories provide a tactile component that can be calming to some students.
Adapted Books: These books are modified in a way that allows students to easily understand the stories based on their unique learning needs. These books can be teacher-created or purchased based on your classroom needs to include less or more text, visuals and/or interactive elements.
3. Visual Representations: All students should feel visually represented in the classroom.
We can do this by:
Creating a family tree on a classroom wall where students have pictures of themselves with their families.
Having posters hung on the classroom walls that show people from other cultures or differing abilities.
Toys and classroom materials should be diverse and inclusive such as markers, crayons (with many skin tones,) and dolls (with varying physical abilities and skin tones.)
4. Seating, Sensory & Writing Tools: Be sure to provide a variety of seating, sensory and writing tool options for your students to support differing learning needs.
Try seat cushions with a tactile element to promote increased focus in sensory-seeking students.
Invest in sensory toys and fidgets and have them readily available.
Adapted writing tools such as pencils with grips and lined paper with highlighted areas can provide less frustration during writing activities.
5. Classroom Schedule & Labeling: Be mindful when labeling centers in your classroom to increase confidence and independence.
Pictures and text should be on the daily schedule.
The daily schedule should also include English and text in other languages (If you have ELLs in your classroom.)
Any classroom labeling should be large enough for visually impaired students.
Making sure our students are represented and supported creates a culturally responsive, diverse, and inclusive classroom. When our students feel a sense of community in the classroom, other benefits can include your students developing new friendships with their classmates and knowledge about differing learning needs and cultures!
Connect with us at VMNY to further incorporate these ideas into your classroom!
