Have students decide on a list of special privileges for the day (lining up, teacher's helper, etc.)
Students can read Dr. Seuss' "The Sneetches" together or on their own.
Students can randomly be assigned to groups. They can have a special opportunity to meet Mr. McBean and become star-bellied students! For the rest of the day star-bellies get all the special privileges!
After an hour there is a switch because Mr. McBean rewarded the wrong group! Switch all the stars onto the other kids and make them privileged.
Students can then discuss in small groups over questions like:
How were we like the Sneetches because of our stars?
How did you feel when you had a star? When you didn't?
How do we act like Sneetches in real life?
Humans don't have stars, but what things do we think make people special?
What lessons did you learn?
The world of children is based on what they see, and what they see influences how they understand the world.
This lesson can begin with pictures of the town where the students live. The photos should show details that are culturally unique from other areas of the world: churches and temples (inside and out), meals, people (police officers, soldiers, locals), houses, cars, jobs, people enjoying leisure activities, common places (familiar stores) and so forth.
Discuss what students think it is like in other countries. Show them the map and select a few countries to 'visit'. Be sure to include every continent.
Show students pictures of what the other places look like.
Discuss the common features. Everyone is working or playing, just like us and so on. Show students that the differences in appearance don't make us any different.
Quilts tell stories, and in the classroom 20 or 30 stories are waiting to be told. Teachers can use the curriculum to lead the students in creating a "diversity quilt" out of felt. Each student can support this community-building activity by making and contributing one square. Social studies lessons can focus on slavery and the history of quilts. In math, students can learn about perimeters and areas. For science, students can experiment with glues to find the best adhesive to hold the felt pieces together. For language arts, students can write about their quilt pieces and why they are relevant to them.
With the background work done, students can write about what their individual squares will show. Students can then build their squares and share their stories with the class. Students can relate to one another more through this activity and the teacher can encourage their potential through what is revealed.
The quilt can be hung in the classroom and referred to throughout the school year.
Elementary students often do book reports to improve their reading. The presentation of their book reports and discussion of the stories expose the entire class to what one child read.
If students are assigned book reports or biography reports on people who worked to stop discrimination, then they can share this with the class.
The books or subjects can cover any time period and a range of discrimination such as religion (Puritans, Jews in WWII), race (Japanese-Americans in WWII, African-Americans pre-Civil Rights), age, and so on.
When presenting, the students can also share their ideas of what it must have felt like to be discriminated against and how it must feel to help others.