Trace your child's body on a very large piece of butcher paper. Let them color an decorate it like themselves. |
Make Pagan Paper dolls. Go to Littlebuggles Paper Dolls to print out the dolls and clothes. |
Go to a paint store. Have the children pick out the paint sample card that matches the skin color. Compare to everyone else's samples. |
Read "Crow Boy" Talk to your children about how the boy is smaller and has different abilities. Talk to your child about how being teased feels to the boy. |
Read stories by Ezra Keats, including "Cordoroy" and "The Snowy Day." |
Ranking the Seasons: Give each member of the family a piece of paper. Have everyone write down the four seasons. Now have every one ''rank" the seasons. Each member of the family should tell the others the order of their rankings and why they ranked them in that order. The children will see that everyone has different values and opinions. |
Deserted Island: Have each person in the family draw a picture of the three things they would take with them if they were going to be stuck on a deserted island. Then have each family member share their drawings, and tell why they chose those items. |
Steven: Tell your child that they are going to have a pretend friend come over to play. Tell them that his name is Steven, and that he wears the same things, eats the same things, plays the same games, loves the same people, thinks the same things, is exactly the same as your child in every way. Then ask your child what they would talk about with Steven. Your child will see that it wouldn't be very interesting if everyone were just the same as they are. |
Non-verbal communication: Play a game of charades with your family. (This is where one person acts out a phrase, saying, book, or object nonverbally while the others try to guess what they're saying.) After the game, talk about how important it is to communicate with people even if they don't use the same words or language. |
Yin and Yang: Ask your child if they have ever been on a see-saw or played tug-of war, or arm wrestled before. Try these things if they haven't. Then talk about how these activities require opposite forces in order to work. Have your child think of opposites. Explain that it is the presence of opposing views that makes well balanced communities. Show your child the Yin Yang symbol and explain that it is showing the ancient Chineese idea of conflicting forces in the world being part of the natural order. |
Gingerbread emotions: Have each member of your family trace a gingerbread boy or girl cookie cutter onto paper. Have them cut them out. Have them write all the emotions that they feel all over the gingerbread person. Have family members compare their gingerbread people and discuss whether or not they have experienced the emotions on other people's gingerbread people. |
Beautiful variety: You will need a National Geographic magazine and a flower magazine for this project. Have your child cut out many different kinds of flowers from an old flower magazine. Have them glue them down all over a large paper. Discuss how boring it would be if there were only one kind of flower in one color. Now have your child go through National geographic magazines and cut out pictures of many different kinds of people and glue them next to each flower. Discuss how boring the world be if everyone looked the same. |