We have begun a social studies unit exploring similarities and differences among people.  We have focused particularly on children, with emphasis placed on similarities among children all over the world.  We began by reading the book This is How We Do It:  One Day in the lives of Seven Kids from around the World, by Matt Lamothe.  This book follows seven children from morning through evening as they go through a day, describing where they live, who they live with, what they eat, and how they spend their time on a typical day.  As we read each section we compared ourselves to the children portrayed.  We also read the book One World, One Day by Barbara Kenley, which takes the reader through a day on Earth, moving from place to place as time passes.  While the children in these books can have vastly different lives depending on what part of the world they live in, with the focus on simple routines that are common to most people (waking up, eating breakfast, going to school, playing) it is easy to see commonalities and make connections to our own lives. Next, pairs of children were given similar books and a pack of sticky notes (which are extremely motivating!) with the task of finding at least five connections between children in the book and themselves.  Some of the connections students noticed were children playing with pets, children helping with chores, a family having a celebration, a child playing in the snow, and children jumping rope.

We also read the book Shades of People, by Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly, which makes the point that "our skin is just a covering, like wrapping paper" and doesn't reveal much about the kind of person we are. We discussed the idea that if a new child came into our classroom we would know nothing about that child based on the shade of their skin, but would need to spend time getting to know them as a person to know if they were kind, funny, quiet, etc.  After reading this book we observed and drew eggs, trying to be as precise as possible, noting the different shades and unique features from speckles to stripes.  After children drew their eggs we cracked them open and noticed that while each egg is quite different on the outside, inside they were all much the same, like people.  With the coming day off from school, we connected this to Martin Luther King Jr.  When I asked if anyone knew who he was someone offered that "he was a man who believed you shouldn't treat people differently because of the color of their skin," which was a perfect, succinct connection to our lesson.