Anti-Racism Lesson and resources for Children
We developed this lesson to help start the conversation with your youngest about Black Lives Matter and how to be an anti-racist.
Recommended age range- 5-12; there are some notes italics throughout about how you can make it more age appropriate depending on your child’s age. Please note that this lesson can be broken up into two sessions; there is a lot of information to digest!
Focus for lessons and beyond:
Explaining racism and what it means
Exploring our feelings
Exploring injustice
Calling to action
Terms to explore:
Perceptions
Empathy
Restorative Justice
Racism
Bias
Activism
Introduction: Use this section to set the stage for the lesson and get kids thinking
Materials Needed:
Paper
Crayons/Markers/Colored Pencils
Questions for getting started and setting the stage
It is often easier for children to access and discuss big feelings through art- throughout the lesson children, ensure children have access to paper and colorful writing materials.
“Have you ever had something unfair happen to you? What happened? How did it feel? Let’s talk about that experience and what happened; you can draw while we are talking to show how you were feeling.”
Give children a few moments to think about a situation where things felt unfair- children may reference rules at school or recess, they may discuss bedtimes or only one sweet rule; most (not all) will reference something benign or perceived unfairness. Most children will be referring to boundaries that adults set for children. It is important that children can access the very real feelings of unfairness as this sets the stage for children to understand injustice.
“Now let’s talk a little bit about perceptions- perception means what someone thinks about a person or a situation without knowing the facts. Have you ever had someone say something about you without knowing you? I will give you an example- as a young girl, people assumed or had a perception that I must like the color pink because I was a girl. I did not like pink, in fact it was my least favorite color in the rainbow. But people were making a judgment or perceiving something about me based on how I looked without knowing me.”
Families/teachers, who are presenting, please use any example that speaks to you and your experience- be authentic so children can access your feelings.
“ Has this ever happened to you? Can you think about a time that someone has made a judgment about you based on how you look?”
This may be more challenging for some children to access – have several examples of hand to share. Some children may reference gender assumptions or some may have true examples of racism. It is important that children leave this portion understanding that “perceptions” and “judgments” lead to all sorts of flat out wrong assumptions about people without knowing who you are on the inside.
Lesson and Discussion- this is a brief history lesson to help frame the thinking; you should continue the conversation with your kids by reading and researching as a family
Now that kids have a working definition of unfairness and perceptions, you will build on these terms in this section. You want to connect the dots for kids that injustice is unfairness to the extreme and perceptions are the foundation for many biases. Help children explore their own biases here and learn how to combat it. You can also allow children to write or draw how they are feeling and thinking during this part of the lesson as well.
“There has been so much hatred happening in our world over the last few weeks and I am sure you have a ton of questions. Today, we are going to talk about how racism and systems within our country have hurt many many people over hundreds of years. We will also talk about what we can do to start to change this and make things better.” Pause here and allow the words to sink in for a moment- ask children if they have any quick questions before moving on to the next part.
“In our country, racism has existed for hundreds of years, both person to person and in our institutions we have in this country such as some of our laws and how authority treats certain people. In the very beginning of our country, unfortunately, white people sold and owned black people as slaves. This continued for many years and even after black people were given their freedom, they were not treated fairly or the same as white people.
This still happens today sadly. For years, children of color have had to go to schools that were not the same and did not receive the same education as white children. People of color have been able to access the same jobs and opportunities as white people and sadly, they were also paid less. Housing was not equal and many people of color did not have access to colleges. Also, authorities have been targeting people of color unfairly and unevenly, resulting in putting them in jail at a much higher rate than white people. This is called systematic racism and in order for all of us to be free, we need to work together to change this. We can do this by talking to the people that make the laws about changing the policies, you can do this by making sure that you are standing up for what’s right when you see injustice happening. This is called activism.”
Pause here and allow children to process- younger children may need a bit more time/support in understanding this. Try to tie it back to the original discussion of fairness and perception.
“God calls us to love one another and that everyone is our brother and sister- what happens to one, happens to us all. We are all worthy of love and acceptance for who we are and nothing separates us from God’s love. God calls all of us to stand up for what’s right and be brave! If we see someone being treated unfairly, we need to speak up! But, even more than that- it is important that we are constantly reflecting on and asking ourselves if we are being fair and treating everyone the same, regardless of what they look like, the color of their skin or where they come from. This is not always easy- judgments that we make on the inside that affect our actions on the outside are called bias. Anyone can have bias- this means that you need to educate yourself more to actively fight against that bias.”
Pause here - children are apt to have a ton of questions here. Children might ask “does having a bias make me a bad person?” or “I still do not really understand what you mean”. For the later, try using some real life examples that kids can access, such as people making assumptions based on their gender- most children have experienced some version of this during their lifetime (unfortunately).
Activity- Paper Plate Portraits
The goal of this activity is to help children start to explore some of the judgements or biases that are placed on them due to gender or even race. This is a powerful activity that builds the connection between how it feels when someone judges us based on how we look and how we can start to make different choices when we are potentially doing the same thing.
Materials Needed:
Paper plate- one per child
Crayons/Markers/Colored Pencils
Starting the exercise
“Let’s circle back to some of those judgments we talked about at the beginning of the lesson. Let’s start with a question- What is something someone might think about you just from looking at you?”
Pause here and provide an example for kids that you have experienced to help children access this. Younger children often mention judgments based on gender, age, size or clothing. Older students have said, “Some people might see I’m a girl and think my favorite color is pink,” and “People might think that just because I’m a kid, I don’t know a lot.” Older students may mention stereotypes based on race, ethnicity, religion, class or sexual orientation.
“Today, we will be exploring the differences between what people may think about us and how we truly like on the inside. Let’s start by doing the following:
Begin by drawing a picture of yourself on the “bump” or back part of the plate. Take your time and be detailed!
Now write down a few words or phrases that some people might assume about you based on how you look.
Turn the plate over and draw a big beautiful heart on the inside. Then write some words or phrases that describe their character and personality - who they really are.
Kids may potentially say vastly different things based on their experiences. Boys may write down “rough” and “violent” on the outside of their plates and “gentle” and “loves stuffies” on the inside of their plates. There may be some vastly different words and phrases from how they are perceived and how they actually are on the inside. Use this as a springboard to discuss using the following guiding questions:
Guiding Questions:
1. What differences do you notice between the front of the plate and the back of the plate? How does that make you feel?
2. How does this help us understand bias a little better? How might our bias affect how we act towards people?
3. What can we do when we see bias or racism happening?
4. What can we do to prevent bias within ourselves from affecting our actions?
We want children to walk away understanding that implicit and unchecked bias is harmful and if unchecked, can lead to actions that might be harmful or hurtful towards someone else. It is important that children understand that we have to make active choices to be unbiased and anti racist at all times.
Wrap Up
“We really explored a ton of different things today! Great job thinking and talking about these things; it is not always easy to talk about this. But this conversation is just the beginning - there is so much more reading and educating ourselves about bias and racism and how this affects our brothers and sisters and our entire community. It is important that we continue to educate ourselves- to listen to one another and to learn from one another.“
Resources and Extensions
There are so many resources available but those listed below have videos and history lessons that can give you a good start with your kids: