The Pre-K Reporter: The Anti-Bias Holiday

Many early childhood educators have questions about how to approach the holidays.

The following text is excerpted from Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves.by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards.

The October–December Push
The three national holidays of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are the ones that most often appear in early childhood programs. They bring pleasure to many families and staff, as well as to children. However, they also pose a range of challenges for many families. Whether or not to include any of them in your curriculum, and what activities to use if you do, requires thoughtful decision making.

Halloween
Many children have fun every year celebrating Halloween in their neighborhoods, schools, and early childhood programs. At the same time, however, its pagan origins and associations with witches, ghosts, and evil make Halloween problematic for some families, including some fundamentalist Christian, Jehovah’s Witness, and immigrant families. Still other families do not like the traditional gorging on sugar that follows trick-or-treating, or they no longer allow their children to go out at all because of their fears about possible harm. Commercialism also has turned Halloween into a time when parents feel pressured to buy expensive candy and ready-made costumes that sometimes are inconsistent with their values or budgets. In addition, children under 4 may find some of the costumes frightening. For one or more of these reasons, some early childhood programs decide not to include Halloween in their curriculum or to modify how they do Halloween activities.

Designing new ways to do Halloween activities
Take into account approaches and concerns of specific families, adapt your activities, or create new ones.

Involve children in making Halloween masks (and perhaps costumes). Display the finished masks in the classroom or let children wear their costumes for a parade at school. Besides helping to reduce the emphasis on commercial costumes and masks, this activity is a way of lessening the fears many preschoolers have of the masked figures that appear on Halloween.
Provide a Halloween substitute. If some families do not want their children engaged in any traditional Halloween activities, consider creating an alternative celebration. For example, substitute dress-up costumes that children put together from the program’s costume and scarf box and have a parade.

Cooking To Learn: Pumpkin Seeds

What do you do when all the pumpkins have been carved? Gather up the seeds and make a tasty snack! Pumpkin seeds are a good source of protein and fiber. You can store toasted seeds in an airtight container at room temperature for one to two weeks, or refrigerate for up to three months. Children can add as much flavor as they like when preparing this easy snack.

Ingredients
1 cup pumpkin seeds* (One large pumpkin usually yields one cup of seeds. Use sugar/pie pumpkins, if available.)
1 T olive oil
Seasoning of choice: salt, garlic powder, onion powder, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, curry powder, or grated Parmesan cheese
*Butternut, acorn, and other squash seeds can be prepared this same way.
Directions

Pull seeds from the pumpkin pulp, using fingers. Rinse seeds in a colander.
Scrub off any remaining pulp with a vegetable brush.
Spread cleaned seeds in a single layer on a cookie sheet to dry overnight.
Place seeds in a microwave-safe baking dish or pie plate. Drizzle olive oil over the seeds, then toss.
Place dish in microwave and heat on high for 2 minutes. Take out the dish and stir seeds. Return to microwave and continue to cook seeds in 1-minute increments, stirring in between, until seeds reach desired crispness and turn light gold in color.
Sprinkle the toasted seeds with seasoning(s) of your choice. Toss to coat. Let the seeds cool about 5 minutes before eating.