A lesson on Diversity (The Crayon Box that Talked)

My third graders are finishing up their "crayon lessons".  We started with The Day the Crayons Quit and then did a lesson on Making Friends is an Art! and we are now using The Crayon Box that Talked to talk about cooperation, teamwork, diversity, getting along and acceptance.    There are many different options for using The Crayon Box that Talked.  You can purchase The Crayon Box that Talked from Amazon, you can view the YouTube video of the story HERE, a Vimeo version here or you can print a copy of the poem version HERE.

Lesson:  I started my unit on cooperation by reading The Crayon Box that Talked.  We then had a group discussion on working as a team and being unique.  We talked about the feelings of the crayons in our first story, The Day the Crayons Quit and we also talked about Brown from Making Friends is an Art and students had a really great discussion on what it would be like if we removed brown from our boxes of crayons, markers or colored pencils for the remainder of the school year.  The main idea of our conversation being that all students are unique and have something special to contribute to the class.  I then gave each student a piece of paper and told them that they were to draw the most beautiful picture that they could...using only ONE crayon.  We ended up with pictures like this:

Once everyone had completed their pictures we had another discussion.  Students talked about the challenges they faced trying to make something beautiful with only one crayon. Students eventually came up with the thought that school wouldn't be as fun if they didn't have classmates with their own unique qualities.  

The next step was to create a class picture.  I used puzzle pieces that I found free on TPT.  You can find those HERE. Each student received a puzzle piece and they were instructed to write their name in the middle of their piece and to decorate it using all of the colors.  Finally, I took all of the pieces and put them together to make a class picture with the heading "We all Fit Together".  I haven't had time to hang the completed puzzle yet but I found some examples on some other blogs:
Playing in Prep shared this classroom puzzle:


I found this one on Miss Beadles Class Blog:

More Connections:

The Crayon Box that Talked (free)

The Crayon Box That Talked Writing Papers (free)

The Crayon Box That Talked Writing Activity (free)

The Crayon Box that Talked Activity for Back to School (free)

We All Fit Together: Diversity Sign for Display (free)

The Crayon Box that Talked ($1.00)

Related Lesson:
Making Friends is an Art! (making and keeping friends)
The Day the Crayon's Quit (Empathy)

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A lesson on friendship

One of the books that I use in small groups is The Sandwich Swap.  The Sandwich Swap leads to great discussions on how we can be different, but still be friends.  The story is about two girls who are best friends, but that friendship is tested when each girl tells the other that her lunch seems gross. Salma and Lily come from different cultural backgrounds and their lunches reflect that they have differences. The Sandwich Swap is a great reminder that we need to embrace and appreciate each other's differences.  If you want to use this book in a classroom setting you can find an entire lesson plan along with scenarios at Read4Health.  You can also find a script for a skit along with some other lesson ideas HERE.  I especially like the writing part where you have students write about a time where they thought they weren't going to like something but ended up liking it after they tried it.

You can purchase The Sandwich Swap HERE.

Description from Amazon:  Lily and Salma are best friends.  They like doing all the same things, and they always eat lunch together.  Lily eats peanut butter and Salma eats hummus-but what's that between friends?  It turns out, a lot.  Before they know it, a food fight breaks out.  Can Lily and Salma put aside their differences?  Or will a sandwich come between them?  The smallest things can pull us apart-until we learn that friendship is far more powerful than difference.  In a glorious three-page gatefold at the end of the book, Salma, Lily, and all their classmates come together in the true spirit of tolerance and acceptance.

Connections:

I haven't used this lesson yet but plan to download it and use it to go along with The Sandwich Swap.  I love that you create PB&J friendwiches while learning about important friendship traits and that yucky toppings (gets jealous bacon, has a bad attitude lettuce, gives put downs onion, etc...) ruin the sandwich.  You can get it for $4.80 on TPT and it is 67 pages long, including a game and a bulletin board idea!

Friends Stick Together Like PB&J

You could also download the FREE PRINTABLE SANDWICH from http://kidsactivitiesblog.com and have students write friendship traits on each piece of the sandwich.

This Friendship Venn Diagram with questions would be a great tool for talking about diversity among classmates:

Here is another Friendship Venn Diagram:

There is a fun activity in this Free TPT product:  Book It: Retell It, Write It, Make It!.  Students can work together to see how many words they can make out of "sandwich swap".

This would be a good worksheet to hand out prior to reading the story.  Students could fill it out as the story is read:

Listening & Making Predictions

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Tacky the Penguin

Tacky the Penguin is a cute book about being yourself.  Tacky the Penguin is an odd bird and doesn't behave like all of the other penguins.  He wears crazy Hawaiian shirts while all of the other penguins are in their tuxes.   The other penguins find Tacky annoying until his odd behavior saves the day!  I use this book with kindergarten and first grade students to teach lessons on tolerance, self-esteem, self-acceptance, etc...

Purchase Tacky the Penguin HERE.

Connections:

Lesson:  Read Tacky the Penguin aloud for students then lead a discussion:

Discussion Questions:

Tacky the Penguin

Next, use the Venn diagram from the link below to compare Tacky to the other penguins.  

Tacky the Penguin

You could also use this printable to compare the actions of Tacky compared to the other penguins:  This printable has a cute writing activity called "Like Tacky" with a shirt that students can decorate any way they wish.

Tacky the Penguin Companion Printables

You could also have students write on this paper:

Tacky the Penguin Writing

Next, have students create their own "Tacky Penguin":

Create your own Tacky the Penguin

Finally, have students write a sentence telling you what they like about Tacky:

Writing Prompt: I like Tacky because...

Here is another cute idea from Live, Laugh, Love Kindergarten:  Tacky Penguin Craftivity

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