This article was originally published in Home and Classroom magazine, published by Brightside Up.
By Debbie Markland
In 2018, in Shann Acevedo and Molly Collier’s three year old classroom in Atlanta, Georgia, amazing things transpired simply from the teachers observing that the children were noticing each other’s skin color and questioning why each of their skin color was different. Believing in an emergent curriculum, they decided to dive deeper into what became The Skin Project.
Why is our skin different?
Why is some skin light?
Why is some skin dark?
To dive deeper into important vocabulary that they knew would be essential to the project, as friends gathered in a meeting time on the rug, Shann and Molly asked children to look at their arms. Hold them up. Study them. Compare it to the friend next to you. Is your skin lighter? Is it darker? How is it the same? How is it different? Through this initial deeper conversation, children were learning that while we do have some similarities and that is great, and we also have some differences, and that is just as amazing!
During snack time, Shann and Molly passed out some M and M’s. Yum! They all shared what color their M and M’s were… red, orange, green, blue, yellow, and dark brown. Aren’t those all amazing colors? Let’s bite into one! The insides were all the same and they were deliciously good! Shann and Molly used this as a reminder to the children-
We can have a lot of similarities and differences in the way we look on the outside, but on the inside we can all choose kind.
On another day, Shann and Molly brought in some eggs- some brown and some white. They too were different on the outside, but when they cracked the eggs open, they were the same on the inside.
David noticed, “They are different colors.”
Hazel observed, “One is brown and one is white.”
Claire said, “They both have eggs on the inside.”
Cade stated, “They are both pointy.”
Sam thought, “They are both oval.”
It was now time to learn, why is our skin different colors. After reading Katie Kissinger’s book, All the Colors We Are, the class learned that our skin color is our skin color because of our family or ancestors, the sun and melanin. Knowing that understanding one’s own identity was important to understanding others’ identities as well, Shann and Molly read The Colors of Us by Karen Katz, and then gathered materials for children to each make their own paint that matched their skin color! After studying paint chips and completing some fun color mixing- each child now had their own paint color. They named their color and then started on their self-portraits. Their self-named colors included:
Cinnamon, Mojave Sunset, Buttery Pink, Tan Sugar Cookie , Catarina, Cozy Chair, Absorb Orange, Pochilla, Sweety, Suplee Chase Brown, Brown, Diaper, Pink Pink, Beige
The final result was amazing!
Their self portraits were perfect! As the self portraits found a place on the classroom walls, Shann and Molly noticed that their sense of community strengthened, and all the friends showed more empathy for each other. What was realized? Skin color should be talked about – not shushed. Teaching children to embrace and understand their own differences helps them to understand and embrace other’s differences. If we teach children to talk about differences, and become comfortable with differences, we are on the right path to treating everyone with kindness.
