Inside: Use this We Are All Shades of Brown Emergent Reader to celebrate our differences and also showcase how similar we are.
I’m about as fair-skinned as they come. So when I first started teaching my very diverse group of Kindergartners during my first year of teaching, one of the first things I did was an All About Me unit.
And the best part of that unit was mixing shades of brown skin color paint to create handprints for each of them that actually matched their skin color.
Then we labeled each skin color fantastic color names: cinnamon toast, peach, milk chocolate, dark chocolate.
Because in our diverse classroom, we needed to find a way to both celebrate our differences AND showcase that we’re all quite similar. We may have light skin and medium skin and dark skin that makes us look different, but our skin colors all just shades of brown.
So to help kids celebrate our differences (and see how similar we are at the same time), we can use this We Are All Shades of Brown Emergent Reader set.
Other Ways to Learn About and Celebrate Our Differences
It’s essential to not just acknowledge our differences or even tolerate our differences but to appreciate and celebrate our differences.
Why?
When we take the time to see differences, we see people for who they really are. We can appreciate them for who they really are. People will feel seen, valued, heard, and understood. They will feel like they belong.
And a side benefit of celebrating differences is we bully-proof kids since bullies tend to go after the kids who are different.
We take away the “weird” of being different when we learn about and appreciate our differences. And when the weird is taken away, bullies have less things to single out and use to verbally or physically attack their victims.
So acknowledge, appreciate, celebrate, and showcase our differences because the world would be so boring if we were all the same.
Related: 8 Ways to Teach Kids to Celebrate Differences
Resources to Celebrate our Differences:
We use the Rainbow Colors of Me to celebrate our differences.
We read this interactive We Celebrate Differently Emergent Reader in December to see how we all celebrate the December holidays.
We use this We Are All Different Emergent Reader to focus on all the ways we are different (and the same!)
If you want a more advanced version, you can use this We Are All Different Early Reader.
We learn about different abilities and how we can work and play with them, even if we have different ways of doing it with this Disability Appreciation Emergent Reader Set.
And we can read books about our differences.
Books we can Read that Celebrate Our Differences:
We’re Different, We’re the Same
And we use this We Are All Shades of Brown Emergent Reader.
How to Use the We Are All Shades of Brown Emergent Reader
1. Download the We Are All Shades of Brown Emergent Reader Set (download it below).
2. Print out the version you wish to use: color or black and white.
3. Cut them apart. I swear by my paper cutter I bought my first year teaching because I can’t cut a straight line.
4. If you use the black and white version, use these skin color crayons so students can color in the people to match the skin tones of themselves and classmates.
5. Staple the books together and get ready to read!
6. On the interactive page, trace the student’s hand, encourage them to color it to match their skin color, and have them “name their brown.” You can use the name on the crayon, or they can come up with their own name (foods usually work best!).
7. Read the book together. You can follow up with partner reading, silent reading, group reading, or reading to a class pet/stuffed animal.
8. Use the Discussion Starters to further the conversation about our 5 senses and how we can use our senses to learn more about kindness.
9. Connect the reading with writing about our differences and it’s important that we’re different.
Ready to get the We Are All Shades of Brown Emergent Reader?
Download the We Are All Shades of Brown Emergent Reader here.
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