Why explore celebrating diversity?
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The purpose is to help children explore and embrace differences among the class. Today's classrooms are more diverse than ever before, celebrating this will help students see how they are unique and special while apart of our classroom family. It will help students to develop a positive outlook on their identity, and how it can relate to others.
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What will this unit look like for the teacher?
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This unit will consist of several lessons to explore how identity and diversity impacts our classroom, and our community. The read aloud are used to introduce the lesson as a starting point for class discussions and explorations. From those read aloud, we will move on to reflecting how we relate as a class or how we are different, creating stories and positive identity lists, as well as art.
This unit will be guided by the question: What makes me diverse? |
Shades of People, by Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. KellyA celebration of diversity in everyday life, this book explores noticeable physical traits of our life. Children are shown with bright smiles, celebrating their diversity and what makes them unique in the skin that they are in.
Lesson Idea: Create self-portraits, mixing paint to create the students skin tone. Once dry, have students add their eyes, note, mouth, etc. with colours before hanging them up in the classroom! |
The Colors of Us, by Karen KatzYoung Lena is painting a picture of herself, wanting to use brown paint for her skin. When on a walk through the neighbourhood, Lean learns all about the different shades colours come in.
Lesson Ideas: With your class, brainstorm different positive words that can be used to describe colours. Once your brainstorm is complete, have students write simple poems describing themselves using words from the list. I am unique! My hair is like a________. My eyes are the colour of_________. My skin is the colour of_________. My nose look like a _________. My ears are _________. My brain is full of knowledge! |
The Skin You Live In, by Michael TylerThis story delivers an important message of social acceptance, and friendship through children doing everyday activities. Diversity is promoted through the visuals of the book, that can help to teach important social concepts.
Lesson Ideas: With a partner, have students brainstorm three (or more) things they like about their skin. If comfortable, ask students to share. You can also ask students to brainstorm, and practice what they would do if someone is mean and makes fun of them because of their skin tone. |
And so many more books can be used!