Fair and Unfair

Themes for this activity are friends, feelings, heroes and sheroes and my people. We ask friends to play this activity because it is regarding being fair or unfair about people who are human and have feelings. We use picture of heroes and sheroes to describe which one is true and which one is pretended.

Materials are “feeling box” or paper sack, collection of actual ethnic objects, pictures that accurately portray people from other cultures; stereotypical objects such as greeting cards, cartoons, holiday decorations, and small toy figures.

This activity is helping children recognize unfair behavior when it occurs. For example, they will recognize that name-calling hurts. Children recognize that some people treat others unfairly because of their differences. They will resist rejecting others. It also helps children think about themselves and learn about the concept of fair and unfair behaviors and helps them to put themselves in another person’s situation and understand the feelings of victims biased behaviors. They will learn to resist name-calling and teasing and the importance of not making judgments based on appearance.

  This activity is appropriate for young children between 3- 8 years, because they can understand the concepts such as everyone is worthy, is lovable, is capable, is equal, is important and has feelings; some things are fair and some things are unfair; some things are real and some are pretend; people work together and help one another (York.pg, 188 chapter 9).

The goal of this activity is thinking critically about bias by:

- Comparing fare and unfair behaviors,

-Recognizing unfair behavior when it occurs, and

-Putting oneself in another person’s situation.

To do this activity, provide some pictures of people who are pretending. These unfair pictures make people look stupid and silly. They make people sad and seeing them hurts their feelings. These pictures are unfair because what they show is not true. Other pictures and objects in the box are fair because they show people as they really are. Seeing fair pictures makes people happy and proud. Place pictures and objects in the “feeling box” or paper sack. Tell the children they can play a guessing game about the many things inside the box. Now you can ask children to close their eyes and pull an item from the box. Meanwhile, you talk about the concepts of fair and unfair. Pull all of the pictures and objects out of the feeling box and put them in two piles: fair and unfair. Then introduce the word stereotype.  

    

I have chosen this activity because I think it is important to practice justice from the early childhood. Teaching social justice helps children to learn about fair and unfair and how to act when they face unfairness. It is helping them to combine with others and to develop their vocabulary and problem-solving. It helps them learn to listen to their feelings; and understand other’s feeling; it develops their feeling of interest to know about and respect human difference and connection to the social world.

 Another activity is, creating a fair play campaign. Basic of fair play should be reflected in it. It is regarding all children’s sports practices.

 This activity introduces and discusses the basic principles of fair play by showing the picture from playing basketball, soccer or hockey match. Then encourage children to pay attention to the pictures of fair and the unfair conducts.

The most important considerations for this activity are:

-Play should be fair,

- Play’s principals should be stated in a positive manner, using appropriate vocabulary.

 Goal of doing this activity is the need for great agreement between children about fair and unfair. One book with subject of fair and unfair is “It’s So Unfair” by Pat Thomson and Jonathan Allen. Another book is “Think Fair Trade First” by Ingrid Hess.

Conclusion:

Being fair is one of the most important things that children must learn because it will affect their whole future life so we as a parent or teacher have to teach by many ways to them to be fair in their life. One of the best things is playing with them based on showing them what is fairly and what is unfairly; give them examples of people or story’s heroes who behaves fair or unfair and explain to them that being unfair hurts others and it is not accepted. Discuss and telling the story about those subject and ask their opinion.

One of the biggest challenges for parents is to teach their children how to play fair. Our children want to win, and we want them to win, but winning must done honestly. Being fair includes kids and adults. If you teach your children to play fair when they are in early childhood, then you should never have to worry about them when they grow up.

  

                                              

                                                                                              

                                  Children Movie Critique

The toy is an American comedy film made in 1982 by Richard Pryor (Jack Brown).  Richard Pryor plays an actor in this film. He is a young black man who is not too tall and not too short, his body is firm and muscular. His hair is black and curly. He has a mustache. He is an unemployment journalist in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  He is in danger of losing his house to bank. He is a funny and cute guy. Bates was a millionaire and owner of the local paper. He was middle age man who was tall and big with head of good hair, bright eyes and white skin. He was handsome and attractive for his age. Jack Brown had a hard time to get a job. He found a job as a cleaning lady for wealthy U.S Bates. Brown attempted to serve food there but later on he got fired. He ended up being hired as a janitor of Bates department store.

He was playing with a wheel at the store when he met Eric Bates, the brat son of his boss.  Eric was watching him without Jack being aware. Eric was a young boy who had blond soft hair with white skin, beautiful shiny blue eyes, and he was very handsome. He was studying in military school and had come home one week for spring break to visit his father. Eric Bates has been told he can pick up anything he wants in the store. This time Eric had an especial toy in his mind. He picked Jack Brown in store’s toy section. His father’s right hand man (Sydney Morehouse) was with him to visit the store. He was a tall and fat guy with a big belly and white skin. He always   looked elegant with suit and tie. Eric asked him to Wrap up the black man (Jack Brown). Morehouse told him that human beings cannot be owned but the brat boy was serious and put him under pressure. Finally Morehouse, with a great financial incentive, could ask Jack to live with Eric and be Eric's friend for one week.

Eric was emotionally separated from his dad because he believed he did not care about him. He had everything he wanted but he had lacked love from his father. Eric was attending to Jack but still humiliated him with many pranks. After humiliation by Bate’s wife, she introduced him as  Eric’s new toy at a party, Jack got frustrated and run away.  Eric got so sad and fussy and Bate offered Jack more money to bring him back. Jack accepted because he could pay back the bank  the mortgage for his house.

Jack started to teaching Eric how friends supposed to treat each other. They became good friend and made a bond with participating in fishing, mini- car racing and games. They started to have a newspaper of their own. They published their newspaper with a lot of difficultly and distributed in their city.

Bate offered Jack reporting job with his newspaper and Jack accepted, but Eric is upset because he thinks Jack is selling out. Jack explained to him that most men especially African- American men need jobs and need to support their family.

There was a outdoor party at the Bates estate for fund-raising event for the Ku Klux Klan. People who were invited were businessmen, politicians and senators. Jack and Eric decided to screw up the party by golf cart. Bates was so upset and chased after Jack in the golf cart but he fell down in the pool. Jack saved him. Bates forgave Jack because he saved his life and he came back home to his wife.

The next day Eric and his father were driving to the airport for military school, Eric runs off to Jack’s house. He showed his love to Jack and asked Jack to let him stay with him. Jack asked Eric to give his father chance and show him his love. Bates offered the newspaper job to Jack and promised to Eric that he can stay with Jack one week in the next year.

My favorite part was when Jack asked Eric, why he wanted to be close to him.  Eric responded that it was for laugh and that Jack talked to him heart to heart and tried to teach him how to be a good friend and keep his friends.

In parts of movie they show racism especially at the party and when they show flags.

I really loved the movie because it was heartfelt, funny and well directed. The movie brought back funny childhood memories. I believe this comedy movie can teach children they cannot have everything with force and power no matter how wealthy they are. The easy way to find a friend is to be respectful and give love.

Dorothy and the glasses
By: Ivona Brezinora
Illustrated By: Mento Liapshtica

This story is about a little girl named Dorothy who is the only one in her family who has healthy eyes. She was able to count her age on her right hand and draw paintings with her left hand. She is living in a family of four. Her mom, dad and brother Martin all have red hair. Everyone in her family wears glasses except for Dorothy. Mommy always has glasses the same as color her dress. Dorothy wants to try act like mommy. She thinks that would be great if she has pink glasses to match her pink shirt like mommy. She wants to make sure she is not different from anyone else.  She puts glasses on her dog's eyes to see if she is look like mommy. Or she put the glasses on her cat to see if she looks like daddy? Soon all of Dorothy's dolls wear wire glasses. One day she asked her father if she belongs to her family since all of them wear glasses. She proudly thinks now we all are from same family. She tried daddy glasses when he was sleeping on the armchair. She gets a big surprised. She wants to makes sure she can see like daddy but she could not see clearly, so she starts crying loudly. Daddy wakes up; when he finds out the reason of Dorothy crying he explains to her that she is the only one who has healthy eyes in her family. Finally she realized that she should not afraid to be different.

Dorothy is the hero in the story but she feels alone since she doesn't wear glasses and wants to share her feelings with her pets. The adults do not pay attention to her feeling at first. But, they were so kind with her.

Publisher shows Dorothy’s personality as funny, sensitive, naughty and punctual. She watches adults very carefully to see if she is same as them. She is very smart and knows she has red hair like her parents and her brother.  Her family is so friendly. Daddy and mommy gave her huge and kisses when she feels she is alone and share her feeling with them. They are supportive and understandable.

Dorothy does not have anything wrong with her health but she was worried about that because she thought she is different from her family. She could not handle this situation. This affects her self-esteem. So she keeps trying to make herself and her pets look like mommy and daddy.

Author’s perspective pointed to the feelings kids have when they are not understood.

I personally like this story. I would recommend it. The story is mix of funny, sad and happy ending. It teaches parents to be kind and soft with their children and try to explain to them when they misunderstand about their feelings and help them to handle their problems.

Who I am?

My name is Azita. My nationality is Iranian and my first language is Farsi. I have been in U.S about 7 years. I got married 3 years ago and I have an beautiful 11 months old baby girl. It is amazing being a mom first time parent. She is totally changed my life after she was born. I could have never imagined how much she would fill my life with love.

I used to study computer information system (CIS), but I changed my major study to Human Development after I gave birth to her. I am currently at home and enjoy seeing growing my little girl. I love children and learn how to raise them. Our family enjoy traveling, BBQ’s, walking, trip to Lake Tahoe and swimming.

I think attending a school with diverse student can help our children to be more socialist and helping them to accept and understand varied world. So I would like to my child grow up in an environment free from bias and never to experience the pain of rejection.