Diversity Classroom Activities: Self-Portraits

Looking for One of the Best Diversity Classroom Activities?

Try self-portraits! I teach in an incredibly diverse school. My classroom typically has children with families from all over the world – spanning at least 6 cultures. Creating self-portraits is one of my first diversity classroom activities every year. It teaches the kids to not only accept, but to appreciate our differences.

Each year, I have the class draw self-portraits the first week of 2nd grade and the last week of 2nd grade. I can’t help but giggle as they create their first masterpieces. These little 6 or 7-year-olds are so focused and create the cutest little versions of themselves! Fine motor skills develop a lot in second grade. That means when this class pulls out these self-portraits in just 9 short months, they’ll be shocked by their current “best work”. They’ll soon be giggling just like I am now!

Here’s how I use self-portraits to spotlight classroom cultural diversity:

Step 1:

I typically start by reading the book Picture Perfect. This book was written by a real 2nd grade class. The kids love this!

Step 2:

The students lightly sketch their self-portraits from shoulders up with pencil. Then, they trace over their sketch with black marker.

Step 3:

Next, I tell them that I bought a brand new box of crayons for each table. I make sure to really play up the importance of these brand-new, special crayons. The kids typically can’t wait to get their hands on them. As each table dumps out the box of crayons, they’ll notice only one or two colors in their box. For example, one box might have pink and purple. Another might have green and yellow.

Some kids will think nothing of it and try to start coloring. You’ll want to catch them before they color their entire face green!! It should only take a few seconds before kids start moaning and are ready to explain that they just don’t have enough colors.

Step 4:

I tell them that they are absolutely correct! There are so many beautiful colors in the world! Next, I read the book The Colors of Us.

We talk about how beautiful and important our different colors are. If we all looked exactly the same, how boring would that be?!

Finally, we all put our arms in a circle and take a picture. I like to use this picture as the background of our class Facebook page.

Step 5:

At this point, I take out the Crayola markers that are made to match many different skin colors. We try out all of the colors until we find a perfect shade for everyone.

And FINALLY, they use those and a real box of crayons to color their self-portraits.

Looking for One of the Best Diversity Classroom Activities?

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5:

By the end of this lesson,

we have adorable self-portraits and an appreciation for the diversity in our classroom!

Join the Grace Over Grade email community to get the FREE activities and lessons!

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog.graceovergrades.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/blog-post-opt-in-1280-×-400-px-300x94.png" alt="grace over grades membership" width="769" height="241" />

Don’t forget to Pin this to share with others!

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply