Activity Instructions

Part A: Exploring Diversity

Step 1.

Begin by having a chat with your child/ren. Explain that they are going to be exploring a world of colour! When we look around our house or yard, we can see lots of different colours: in the furniture, plants, pictures on the wall, and in the people! We are all different and have different coloured hair, eyes and skin. These differences are known as diversity. Explain that Harmony Week is a week celebrated every year. During Harmony Week, we celebrate the diverse cultures that makeup Australia: our First Nations peoples, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and those who have arrived in Australia since European settlers arrived.

In this activity, your child/ren will be exploring diversity through colour.

The first thing they will be doing will be to imagine a world without colour. You could share the following image - also available here:

Invite your child/ren to share their thoughts about this picture, for example

I wonder what is happening in this picture.
I wonder what you notice about this picture.

Step 2.

Now share this picture - also available here:

You can then pose some of the following questions:

I wonder if this is the same picture as the one before?
I wonder what is different about it?
I wonder what you think of this picture? I wonder if having colour in the picture makes it more interesting?
I wonder what colours can you see in this picture?
I wonder what else you notice about this picture?

Now have a look around the room:

I wonder what colours you can see in your room or yard?

You could take some time focusing on each colour and then work with your child/ren to name that colour. Talk to your child/ren about how a descriptive term that relates to a familiar object can help to explain a particular colour (e.g. apple green, sky blue, mandarin orange, lemon yellow, strawberry red). Suggest that using food as a descriptive term can be helpful because food is something we are so familiar with and look at all the time. You could use this Colour Chart to help inspire your child/ren.

You can then introduce your child/ren to the idea that there are so many different colours in the world!

Step 3.

Now explain to your child/ren that this is the same for people; we come in many different colours! Take a look at these flashcards. You will see lots of different skin colours, eye colours and hair colours - having all these differences makes the world a more interesting and colourful place.

Direct your child/ren to the different hair colours in the pictures:

I wonder what names you might give the different hair colours? Note: Remind children how we can use food and other familiar objects to help us explain colours (or refer to the Colour Chart). For example, lemon yellow, orange orange, chocolate brown, licorice black.
I wonder if you can find someone in these pictures with the same hair colour as you?
I wonder if you can find someone in these pictures with the same coloured hair as other people in your family?

Step 4.

You could then focus on eye colours. It might be hard to see eye colours in the pictures, so instead, take a look into a mirror and each others' eyes:

I wonder what eye colours you can see?
I wonder what names you could give these eye colours?
I wonder if anyone else has the same eye colour as you?

Step 5.

Finally, you could focus on skin colours. Take another look at these flashcards and invite children to consider the following questions:

I wonder what names you would give the different skin colours? Note: You could explain to your kid/s that they may sometimes hear skin colours referred to as either black or white. These are very broad and general terms, and when you really look at people, no one is actually black or white; there are so many skin colours! Focus your kid/s on the diversity of colours and remind them how we can use food to help us explain colours. In this case, we could say that different skin colours might be cinnamon brown, honey gold, peachy pink, apricot pink, peanut brown, chocolate brown. Tip: Refer to the Colour Chart for more ideas.
I wonder if you can find someone in these pictures with skin colour like you?

Through this process, reiterate to your child/ren that although we all look different, we are similar when compared to other things, like cats or bananas or trees. Sometimes our differences can mean we come from different cultures, speak different languages at home, wear different clothes, have different types of families and have different experiences. But we are all the same inside. We can celebrate our differences while knowing that we are all the same inside; we all like laughing and singing and dancing, we all feel sad or angry sometimes, we all feel pain when we hurt ourselves, and we all enjoy playing.

Remind your child/ren about Harmony Week and how it is a day for celebrating all the diverse cultures that make up Australia. In the next activity, children will be creating a picture to celebrate Harmony Week.

Part B: Self-Portraits

Step 1.

Explain to your child/ren that they are now going to think about how we are different from other people and how we are the same as others by creating a self-portrait. A self-portrait is a picture you make of yourself that shows how you think of yourself. (You could share some of these examples of self-portraits with your child/ren.)

Some things in your self-portrait will be the same as everyone else: you will have a head, a mouth, a nose, cheeks, a chin, eyes and ears. But there will also be things that are different:

some of you might have lots of hair, while some might not have much at all
your skin, hair and eye colours may differ from others
you might be wearing different clothes and shoes.

Step 2.

Share your selection of Faber-Castell World Colours art materials (or provide your child/ren with a range of markers, pencils or crayons in the colours discussed in the previous activities).

Invite your child/ren to think about the colours they would choose to describe themselves and to select these colours for their self-portrait:

I wonder what colour/s you will use for your eyes?
I wonder what colour/s you will use for your hair?
I wonder what colour/s you will use for your skin?

Optional: You could also invite your child/ren to consider what they'd like to include in the background of their artwork:

Are they in a place where they love spending time?
Are they doing something they love?
Are they with their family?

Work with your child/ren to complete your self-portraits.

Step 3.

Display your self-portraits where they can be viewed and enjoyed by visitors to your home!

Take it further

Your child/ren may have their own ideas about how to extend this activity with the materials used in this activity, or you could consider the following:

Suggest the prompt 'World Colours' to your child/ren and invite them to make a drawing of a place that they love (e.g. the park or the beach or someone's home) and to make their drawing as colourful as they can
Work with your child/ren to catalogue as many different colours as you can find in your house or garden and to name these colours using a descriptive word based on a familiar object (e.g. food)
Read children some stories that include diversity, for example, here, here, here and here, or find a book through the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature Cultural Diversity Database. The book The Colours of Us by Karen Katz explicitly discusses skin colour, and although it is an American book may still be helpful and enjoyable for children.
Invite children to draw and colour faces with this colouring-in sheet
More Harmony Week activities can be found here
More information about Faber-Castell and their range of art materials for young children can be found here.

A World of Colour (home learning)

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