Mig Said Series: Let's be Friends

Mig Said Series: Let's be Friends 

You most likely will need to read the text to your students or children. But after they watch it a couple of times, they will begin to remember what it is and say it aloud.

Here is a quick summary of the film:

• Brown bear is lonely at the start of the film, notice sigh when the two birds fly by
• One white bear, one brown/black bear….. They are different, can they be friends? Yes!
• Penguins and birds: How did the penguin help the bird? They are different, can they be friends? Yes! Friends help each other and encourage each other.
• Lions have different manes, most are round, one is square. The one with a square mane changes it to round, and the round manes change to square. Then they realize it is okay to be themselves. Don’t have to change. And even though they are different, they can be friends

Ask students/children to think about their friends and how they are different from each other.

What are some things about you that are different from your friends?

Why is it important to have friends who are different from you are?

What color is your skin? Hair? Eyes?

Do your friends all have the same skin, hair, and eye color? 

Discuss how we are all different.

The Colors of Us by Karen Katz

Skin color is often bluntly put into neat categories like “white,” “black,” or “brown.” To an artist who looks at skin and sees a spectrum of shades and hues, that can be incredibly limiting. Lena, a little artist who’s contemplating a self-portrait, has this epiphany as she walks through the neighborhood with her mother. With that, she also learns that colors and differences should not stand in the way of people getting to know and appreciate one another.

Suggested Activity After Watching the Film and Reading the book The Colors of Us:

Outline each child's body on a big roll of paper.

Depending upon the age of the child, either cut out the body for them or let each child cut out their own body outline.

Then using color mixing with acrylic paints they matched their skin tone with the color. This needs a teacher/parent demonstrating how to mix the brown, white, yellow, maybe red to get the same color as his/her skin. Then they each paint their body and include hair, eye color, and maybe the clothes they are wearing.

We would hang them all over the room as a big display and they loved seeing each of their portraits. Discussion included the idea that we are all a mix of colors, not one color.