Grownups Are So Funny, They Choose Colors Wrong.

As we sat in circle time the other day I noticed one of my students closely observing her friends.  She’d look at her arm and then look at a child near her.  This moved to closely putting her arm next to  a friend nearby.  “Miss. Helen, we are all brown!”
“I’m not,” replied one of the other students. He sat there looking around the circle. “Well, I am not your brown, but I am a brown.  You are right we are all brown!”
“Why do some people say they are white? “ Asked the first child.
“Yeah, none of us look like paper.” Responded another child in the group.
Now all the students were looking at their skin, and then

comparing it to someone near them. “Yeah, A. G. is right, we are all brown.  We are all the same, but not the same brown.”  Was spoken by several children.
“No one is white”
“Or black.”
“None of us are green, blue or red either.”
“Grownups are funny, they choose colors wrong.

 We are all brown.”
This mini group of individuals, saw through the heart of so many issues in one moment and summed it up perfectly, “Grownup are so funny, they choose colors wrong.”

I wanted to capitalize on this discussion, but not take it into “funny, grownup control.”  I quickly pulled up Sesame Street’s The Color of Me song https://youtu.be/4sqN2J9_axY .  This song is so good to use with children.  They were immediately drawn into the song and wanted it played over and over again.

“How do you paint my brown?” Asked A.G.
“How do you make the right brown?” J. L.
We ran to the art closet and looked at the paints.
“We need the brown paint” A.T.
“And white because it will make brown light.” B.Z.
“We will need black, to make a deep, deep brown like in the song.” J.S.
“We need yellow too, some brown is a little yellow.”
“I want green” W.L.
“No W.L., your green is your shirt, we are making our skin.  None

of us are the rainbow colors.” Replied another child,.
“Right my shirt is green not my skin.  I am not a frog, funny me.”  Responded W.L.
They then chose to sit and look in a mirror and mix “my color” as they named what they were doing.
They worked together, compared colors and helped each other find the right mix of colors.
As they finished and began to move onto other areas, they conversation continued to be, “we are all brown.  Not the same brown, but we are all brown.”
A.G. sat with a few friends.  “Blood is red. We all are the same red inside.”

“And we all have hearts!” W. L.
“We hall have blood in us!” Z.B.
“We all breath the same, we need air.” L.M.
“We are all the same, how cool!” J.S.

Now that was an amazing day to just be a teacher and stay out of the children’s way.


We All Bleed the Same https://youtu.be/UEzCQBwQkdA .

Books to add to your discussions:
The Crayon Box That Talked
The Color of Us
It’s Okay To Be Different