NAMING COLORS

Goal: To help children recognize and name the many different colors our skin comes in.

Suggested Reading:

All the Colors We Are by Katie Kissinger

Description: Start this project with either mixing paints or looking at paper in many different shades of brown and tan and ask the child what color is their skin. Discuss what would they call this color. Include the information that we get our skin color from our ancestors and melanin.

Give the child access to the Reflections photographs, paper and glue and let them make a collage. As the child works you can point to different images and ask them what they would call that color skin.

Examples of Discussion:
• “What would you like to call the color or your skin? Pinkish-Tan is a great name for the color of your skin”
• “I like all the pictures you have chosen to glue. This little girl looks happy, what color would you call her skin? Yes, it is a dark brown”
• “People sure come in a lot of different shades of tan and brown”

Variations:

If a child is having a hard time not seeing skin as “white” or “black” then hold up a white and black piece of paper and show that no one’s skin is really that color.