Emily Hedges, KB Teacher

In kindergarten, the discussion of skin color is alive. Our activists and self-portraits have awakened a curiosity about skin color, its meanings, and how it relates to the students' lived realities. Our students want to know the skin color of the activists we are studying, they want to use the exact skin color crayon to color in the activists' pictures, and they compare it to their own skin color. You can overhear students comparing skin color at their tables and feel their eagerness to connect to one another. If we as teachers forget to mention an activist's skin color or race, our students ask us directly and check what skin color crayon they should use. Recently, we read the book, The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler. Tyler writes, "Think how lucky you are that the skin you live in, so beautifully holds the "YOU" who's within."

The students were asked to explore their skin color through drawing self-portraits. Each student held up a mirror and took a moment or two to sit with their reflection. We could hear, "I didn't know I had five freckles on my nose!" "I think my skin color looks like toast, too!" "My skin looks like yours so I'm going to use the same crayon." Soon, beautiful faces appeared on their papers. We witnessed students who matched five to seven skin colored crayons to their hand in order to find the perfect one and compared their own skin hands to other classmates. Some students mixed crayons to find their exact skin color and others needed more time to feel confident enough to get started.

With the recent Oratorical festival and celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the students' discussions about skin color have evolved further. Many have connected their own and their classmates' skin colors to that of people in the Black Civil Rights Movement. We are hearing things like, "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had skin like mine," "What water fountain would you (referring to an Asian/American teacher) be able to drink at?" Though they still may not have the language or deep understanding to articulate it, through talking about skin color the students have begun to connect skin color to race and what that means for them. The rich, explicit, and intentional conversations occurring in KB about skin color provides a foundation for future conversations about diversity in our classroom.