Teaching children about racism, prejudice and diversity isn’t easy. We are told that kids don’t see color but they do. Kids aren’t colorblind they just don’t have the societal baggage behind the observations that they make. It’s okay to notice differences, it’s ok to ask why someone has a funny hat or why someone’s eyes look different from theirs, it’s not ok to hate or to treat people differently because of the differences we notice and that is the lesson I set out to teach my son.

On Friday night I told my son the story of Martin Luther King Jr. ,  his amazing dream and tragic death. I showed him a video of the march on Washington and he heard Dr. King’s amazing address  for the first time.  I am so glad he got to see it before he got a chance to read it, nothing compares to seeing the original footage . I love the internet and that I could show him that snuggled in a dark bedroom on my iPhone.

Many questions were asked and the next day we sat down to make these paper dolls. We talked about how they were holding hands just like the children in Dr. King’s dream .I know that the very best way to teach children to avoid prejudice, embrace diversity and fight racism is to lead my example but for a hands on experience this was a fun way to reinforce your everyday lessons .

1. Gather your materials. You will need a sheet of paper, scissors, crayons in various skin colors, markers in various colors of eyes and hair and a bright red one for lips. You will also need a 2nd piece of paper and 3 containers. You will also need some heart stickers, or cut out hearts and double stick tape.
2. Start by fan folding your paper .
3. Cut the paper dolls by cutting out the body shape , leaving the arms connected by the fold. If your child is able have them do the cutting, this would frustrate my son to no end and stop the lesson in it’s tracks so I took care of it and had it ready for him.
4. Write out  all different combinations of physical attributes, cut out and place in the 3 containers. I did light, medium and dark skin. Blonde, brown, black and orange ( red) hair , brown, green and blue eyes.
5. Welcome your child and explain how people are all the same on the inside. We added hearts to each person with double stick tape – although stickers would be perfect.  If you make larger dolls and have a child with a longer attention span you could even add more of what is inside people both the physical and less tangible things like love, hope and dreams.
6. Flip over. Start drawing each physical attribute. We did random drawings to show that no one chooses their outsides, it’s random and only our shell not our heart. Color the skin, hair and eyes which ever color you draw from the containers. 
7. We had fun making predictions and taking turns drawing the skin, hair and eye color and coloring the dolls.
8. I loved the end result of 4 unique looking people connected to each other on one side and 4 connected hearts on the other.  We have been talking a lot about celebrating our differences but connecting to our similarities and this craft was a wonderful exercise in it.

Books

Whoever You Are by Mem Fox. I had the absolute pleasure of writing a unit of study for Itty Bitty Bookworm using this book as the base. I often feel sick of the books we use for curriculum after reading it thousands of times, brainstorming lessons and activities. Not this book, every time I read it I get goosebumps. The book is simple and talks about the differences of little children all over the world, but focuses on what they all have in common. Children of various cultures are shown , smiling, laughing, crying and the reader can see that even if the clothes , or houses or food is different the insides are the same. I always choke up reading this book because it’s so beautiful and a great reminder for all of us that while we so often focus on what we see as different most of what we have is in common.

The Colors of Us by Karen Katz. You are probably already familiar with this author/ illustrator who I have featured time and time again for her lift the flap board books that both my children love.  This is not a board book or right for babies or toddlers, the text is long and the message is great! The story follows a 7 year old budding artist who  like many children depicting people in their art is looking for “skin color”.  On a walk with her mom she reflects about the colors she sees and the shades of skin in all the people around her. I always point out to my son how our own family has all different shades of skin, and this book taps into that message that there aren’t just a handful of skin colors but a range of endless shades.

Little Blue and Little Yellow is a profound book with underlying commentary about race relations while the surface story is about little blobs of color who when squished together turn into one green blob! You’ll be surprised by how easily your preschooler will pick up on the connection between the two. In my PreK class I had more than a few kids make the connection all on their own.

If you are looking for a great books about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I highly recommend My Brother Martin by Christine King Farris    for children 5 and older. For younger children The Story Of Martin Luther King Jr. by Johnny Ray Moore is fantastic .

My kids have been busy playing with their new toys, my son has been  building Legos and my daughter has been pushing babies around the house with her new buggy. I wanted to do something special to celebrate the amazing year we had so while they were playing I ran upstairs, found the bin of art and made an art gallery of their 2011 creations.  It was a fun way to spend snack time and look back at our favorite pieces from 2011.

1. Gather your materials. You will need your children’s art , painters tape ( so you don’t muck up the walls) , some snacks ( all gallery openings have snacks! ) , as well as something to use as a sign, and to write a blurb about the artists.
2. I sorted through my kids’ art that made it to the keep bin in my son’s closet. I have a canvas bin in the corner of this closet that we run art into that passes the keep test. I also put in almost everything my daughter makes. She’ll get her own bin soon.
3. I put the art up at their and slightly above their eye level. I was careful to have things my daughter made at a level she could touch… and as you will see that was a huge hit with her to be able to touch the pieces she made, and is clearly proud of.
4. Make a sign for the door.
5. Don’t forget a blurb about the artists.
6. I put out art related books in the reading nook too.
7. Add some snacks.
8. Invite your guests of honor. I wish I’d done this when my parents were still in town because my kids loved seeing their art and showing it off to their dad, they would have loved showing it off to their grandparents too.
9. I loved that she gravitated towards her own art.
10. My son showed off the pieces he loved making – marshmallow art is his favorite. No clue why.
11. After her brother had his treats , and gave a quick gallery talk about when he made this or that he went back to legos, but my daughter stayed looking forever. I see many more museum trips in our future, although she has already been to one of my favorite museums with me.
12. Then we read a few books and quietly had another cookie. Here are some great fine art books to check out .  

Happy New Year !

I stand by that title, this really is the easy and cheap too, but still a super cute 4th of July craft . We used felt but you could use fabric if you have it on hand. My son was busy playing knights with his grandparents visiting from Texas but I think he could have made this with me. It’s a great patterning lesson, though I would guess most 5 and under would tire of it after a few minutes so make this a group endeavor if need be.

1. Gather your materials. You will need a paper plate, scissors, and three sheets of felt in red, white and blue.
2. Cut your felt into strips ours were about 8 inches long.
3. Cut the middle out of your paper plate.
4. Start tying – doing a simple double knot.
5. Continue the pattern all the way around.

I love making things with items that would otherwise end up thrown away and with Earth Day coming up now is as good a time as any to reuse things for fun!  This isn’t the first roadway we’ve made, we made this one ages ago and it’s still played with daily . If your child wants design and to make it go for it, my son decided he’d “Be the boss.” Which I am sure was a great change from being a kid and he still felt ownership and pride while playing with it knowing he was the designer. He’s already deemed this to be only for big kids and he is right – the tape used on this craft is not safe for babies or toddlers . If you are making this for a toddler I’d do this toddler friendly one instead.

1. Gather your materials. You will need a green kitchen or door mat, black duck tape, additional colors of tape of your choice, permanent markers and  scissors.
2. Start by making a plain black road. I wrapped the tape all the way to the underside to prevent it peeling up.
3. Now add the yellow lane markers.
4. Time to talk about what sort of buildings to make. A fire station was not surprisingly my son’s first choice.
5. Next up a police station.
6. He couldn’t wait to get his vehicles on !
7. A super market complete with parking lot was next.
8. Here he is deciding where we should put houses.
9. We also added a school, and a pond with fish.
10. It was an immediate hit!

In The Town All Year Round (a perfect book match for this activity).

In the Town All Year ‘Round by Rotraut Susanne Berner is amazing.It’s premise are the comings and goings of a town in all four seasons. There is limited text, which serves only to steer readers to look for specific people in the highly detailed illustrations. Each season has multiple pages and the people remain constant throughout the seasons. So you see inside an apartment building , the town square, the park, railroad station etc… in every season. You see the changes in town, the progression and of course the distinct weather in each section. The pictures also progress within the seasons, so a fire truck with a flashing light can be seen on every page in one season with the last page showing it getting to the fire . I can’t possibly explain the amazing detail and sheer number of things to find, make up stories about and spark your child’s imagination in this book. My son adores it. After renewing it multiple times from our library I bought it as his 2010 Valentine’s gift. It goes everywhere with us, perfect for long drives , waits in the Ob’s waiting room and plain old playtime he picks it up every day and finds something new.

What I really love is that because there is no text but still multiple story lines it’s helped my son to understand that literacy isn’t just about words, it about explaining what’s going on, and reading the pictures too. The absence of text has allowed me to really show him that . Now he has started grabbing books with text and telling me he’d read me the pictures, which boosts both his confidence and his enjoyment of independent reading.

Edited for 2011: My son is still crazy over this book. When I am desperate for him to chill out so I can get my daughter down for a nap nothing keeps him occupied ( and quiet) like this book. It’s magic!

My son likes lacing activities, but sometimes he needs to be more creative than those can allow. What can I say, I have created a monster.

So we tried this activity and it was a huge hit. I wanted to share it with you. You will need scissors,paper, marker, plastic craft grid, yarn needle, and yarn (or embroidery floss).

Draw a rough sketch of the shape you would like. Remember, the simpler the design the easier. I did a regular rectangle and heart, but I did a dump truck and a bulldozer, too. You do not need to have artistic abilities for this, as you can see.

Place the plastic grid on top of the paper.

Cut out the designs.

Thread your yarn needle. Here is a closer look at the needles I used. I purchased these at JoAnn Fabrics, but they are at Walmart and other craft stores.

Start your kids off by tying the end of the yarn to a spot on the cutout.

Then let them have a blast as they thread the needle into the small squares.

This activity is great for fine motor skills. It also introduces them to grids and creating lines. Creating lines this way is so different from drawing them. Your child will understand points of origin and plotting the lines. Of course you don’t tell them that is what they are learning. The journey is so much more fun!

This activity is great for quiet time. It travels really well, too. That fact makes it a plus for road trips or doctor offices.

While you won’t be selling them at the local craft fair, you will have a cool keepsake. This activity could easily be adapted into ornaments, too. You can use cookie cutters to create fun shapes such as bells or gingerbread men.

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