Give Our Class a Hand—Celebrate Diversity Banner

1. Discuss these questions with the class: What is a community? How is a classroom of students and teachers a small community? What makes each of us unique? What do we have in common that joins us together?
2. Students work with partners to trace their handprints on construction paper with Crayola Multicultural Crayons. Select a matching skin color for each of the hands. Students use Crayola Crayons to write their name on the palm of the hand in a favorite color.
3. Students write something special about themselves on each paper finger and thumb in a different color. Students list a best-loved activity, preferred animal, yummiest food, something they're good at, or a word that describes their best quality.
4. Students shade around the words with a Crayola Multicultural Crayon that matches their skin color and cut out the hand.
5. Spread recycled newspaper on the art area. Choose a Crayola Tempera Mixing Medium to brush over the hand to give it a pearl, glitter, or textured effect. Air-dry.
6. Students explain to classmates why they chose the words on their hand. Look for unique choices and common characteristics. Glue everyone’s hands on a long ribbon. Air-dry.
7. Display in the classroom or hallway as a reminder of a uniquely diverse class!

LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

LA: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

LA: Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.

LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

SS: Explore factors that contribute to one's personal identity such as interests, capabilities, and perceptions.

VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

VA: Select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning.

Read The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane Derolf & Michael Letzig to the class. As a follow-up activity, have students create posters about themselves, including a self-made portrait and words describing what makes them unique in the classroom community. Have students use only one crayon color to write their descriptive words. If students work in pairs, have them create a poster about their partner. Invite students to share their work and talk about what they have learned about themselves and their partners.

Organize student posters into a community quilt. The size of each square can be determined by space available to display the quilt.