Crayon Box - Family Diversity

Summary

This lesson uses the book The Crayon Box That Talked to look at diversity between families. Students reflect on their own family traditions that make them unique and write a short statement about it.

Materials

• The Crayon Box That Talked, by Shane DeRolf
  
• Vocabulary cards (see attachment below)
  
• Pencils
  
• Crayons
  
• Crayon template (included)
  

Instructional Procedures

Attention Getter:
Display a box of crayons. Ask students how each of the crayons are the same and different.

Classroom Activity:
Gather students to read the book The Crayon Box That Talked. Before beginning, ask students to listen carefully to discover what the problem is in the book.

Read the book as a class.

Reflect with the students what the problem was.

• Why do think the crayons didn't like each other?
• Does that ever happen to you?
• What are reasons for not getting along?

Point out to students that sometimes we don't get along because we may have different opinions or ways of doing something. Each of us is unique, our own color of crayon.

Ask students to think about their family as their own color of crayon. For example, the "Thompson" color has things that make them unique.

What does that family do to make them different? Maybe they celebrate holidays in a different way or not even at all.

Define the words tradition, diversity and culture using the vocabulary cards.

Explain that each family is diverse in that they have different traditions and a different culture.

Brainstorm with the students what types of traditions that they may have within their families. Explain that each student should choose a specific tradition that makes their family's "crayon" unique.

Distribute the crayon template. Guide students in completing the sentence, "My favorite family tradition is…"

Students may then draw a picture of what their tradition looks like and finish coloring their crayon.

Display the crayons so that the class can reflect on the differences in each family's traditions.

Extensions

Students may memorize the excerpt of the linked song, "We're Just Like Crayons", but Stephen Fite:

We're just like crayons
Spread over the world
Just like my crayons
All over the floor
Black, brown, yellow, red and white
It's such a wonderful sight
We're just like crayons
All over the world