Celebrate!: An Anti-Bias Guide to Including Holidays in Early Childhood Programs

by Julie Bisson, Louise Derman-Sparks (Foreword)

Updated information and unbiased, developmentally appropriate strategies and activities to celebrate, rather than exclude, diversity, traditions, and holidays. Many programs are establishing a "no holiday" policy, but this book shows you how to celebrate and adhere to school policy. Among other topics, it includes evaluating holiday activities for appropriateness, addressing commercialism and stereotypes, involving families, and developing inclusive policies. Julie Bisson provides training on subjects ranging from culturally relevant and anti-bias curriculum to holiday curriculum. Louise Derman-Sparks has worked for over fifty years on issues of diversity, social justice, and activism in early childhood.

Genres: Nonfiction

200 pages, Paperback

Published January 3, 2017

Reviews

[Maeve]

Developmentally appropriate practices to including holidays in early childhood programs in a way that celebrates diversity, tradition, and holidays. Techniques for appropriate activities, addressing commercialism and stereotypes, and building good relationships with families are included, as well as three examples from early childhood centers.

While especially useful for staff in early childhood programs, librarians can gain some useful information for holiday programming.

[Shelley]

This is a great resource for holiday programs and I came away with so many great tips for tweaking our programming to ensure that it's validating for kids. I took pages of notes and it's helped us come up with solid end of year video plans.