Our dramatic play area has been transformed again; we have created a doctor’s office!
After reflecting on our personal experiences in medical offices and hospitals, we decided to fill our space with stethoscopes, eye-droppers, gloves, x-ray films and other medical instruments.
We also gathered dozens of books related to the subject and delved right into learning about the wonders of the human body. Martha, the organ woman . . .
and George, the skeleton man, helped us with our discoveries.
During our play and subsequent conversations, we have observed that while everyone’s body in our kehillah is different in some way (different color eyes, hair, height, weight, etc.), our bodies are also very similar (for example, we all have a skeleton, organs, limbs and ears, noses and fingers).
In fact, we decided that how our bodies worked was more interesting than what our bodies or skin looked like!
We followed up these discoveries by reading We Are All Alike . . . We Are All Different, a book by Cheltenham Elementary Kindergartners. Inspired by this story about the importance of diversity and of tolerance, we have written our own descriptions reinforcing multicultural appreciation and anti-bias learning. We invite you to read our words and see our illustrations displayed on the big bulletin board in our school lobby! Below are some examples of our work:
We are all alike. We all have bodies.
We are all different.
Some of us are tall.
Some of us are short.
Some of us are girls.
Some of us are boys.
Some people walk using their legs.
Some people use wheelchairs.
We are all alike. We are all people.
We are all different. We do not look the same.
We have different color eyes.
We have different color hair.
Some people have short hair.
Some people have no hair.
Some people wear glasses.
We have different color skin.
Some of us have darker skin.
Some of us have lighter skin.
We are alike. We are all Jews.
We are different.
Some of us light candles and eat challah on Shabbat.
Some of us have a family movie night on Shabbat.
Some of us go to shul on Shabbat.
Some of us go to the playground on Shabbat.
