"I used a lot of colors to make my dark brown!"
An exploration of skin shades
As the children begin to notice similarities and differences among themselves, they have been having lots of conversations about how they look alike or different. We decided to explore this idea as an investigation of skin tones and shades. One of the first activities that we did with the children was to put our hands together and talk about how they looked alike or different.
After reading the book The Colors of Us, we decided to try and mix paint to match our skin color. We provided the children with red, white, brown and yellow paint and a container in which to mix their color.
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| To test their shade of paint, the children put a small dot of paint on the back of their hand. |
After the children mixed their skin color, the teachers encouraged them to paint a picture using their newly created color. The teachers talked with the children about how the color could be used to paint a self-portrait. As the children painted painted, many of them mentioned that they wanted different colors for hair and eyes. As a result, we painted again this week using watercolors so the children could add the details that they felt were missing last week.
This week the children painted their self-portraits with watercolor paints. The watercolors gave them the opportunity to add the details that they were previously discussing. We also provided the children with small mirrors so they could accurately represent their facial features.
