5-Day: Inclusion, Friendship and Peace - Honoring the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
This week, with the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, 5-Day turned their attention to the ideas of inclusion and friendship. Recurrent themes during the week explored the concept of having different skin tones, but similar dreams, and, of being different on the outside, but, the same within.
We began by with filling in a heart shape with many different items, but, each item was the same color. This heart was, then, surrounded by many hands in different skin colors, all of which were about the same size. This activity was linked to two books: The Color of Us and The Land of Many Colors. The next day, we read Strictly No Elephants and began a discussion of what friendship is and how to be a friend. We paired this book with the creation of a friendship chain. Each child colored in the word friendship, which was then glued onto a piece of colored paper. As they worked on this task, we talked about how they can be a friend or what they like to do with their friends. These ideas were written on the back of their friendship link. These links were, then, forged together to create a chain. Later that day, we read The Peace Book to reinforce these concepts of friendship, kindness and peace.
Other areas of the room were set up to support these ideas through activities, games and exploration. A peace garden grew in the science corner with flowers and trays, where a child could arrange stones and create designs in sand and salt. We began a weaving project as a whole class to create a wonderful piece of art together. In small groups, 5-Day put together a floor puzzle of Children of the World. We also played a memory game with children's faces in different skin colors and clothes. Another table had face shapes in multi-skin tones with add on mouths, faces, eyes and hair. On Thursday, the children were paired up with a child they don't usually gravitate towards to play with, for a while. It was wonderful to hear them share ideas of where to play, to listen to each other, to try something new and to negotiate towards a common goal. Each child received a special certificate that day for being such a wonderful friend.
Here are some of 5-Day's thoughts on friendship:
Ariyan: Friends care.
Blake: I like playdates because I play with friends.
Cecilia: Friends share.
Charlotte: Friends play hide-and-seek with me.
Eli: Friends help build with blocks.
George: A friend shares.
Isla: I like to play on the tire swing with friends.
Liam: I can share two cars with Luke and Eli.
Luke: I like friends to play in the block area with me.
Mae: Friends say, "You can play with me."
Nicholas: Nathan is kind to me.
Reid: Friends share the blocks.
Rocco: I like when a good friend plays with me.
Scarlet: Friends can share.
Sloane: Friends are kind to each other.
Thank you,
Caroline and Cathy