Basic Principles Held by American Citizens
Session 3: Appreciating Differences

Materials

• Drawing paper and crayons

Instructional Activities

1. Ask students to take note of the various different appearances of everyone in the classroom. Make a graphic organizer to record the students’ names, hair color, eye color, and skin tones.
   
   
2. Have each student draw a self-portrait.
   
   
3. After they finish their self-portraits, ask each student to complete a series of sentence-starters that describe themselves. Examples:
   My favorite color is___________________________.
   My favorite book is___________________________.
   I like to listen to ________________________music.
   My favorite TV program is_________________.
   At night I like to ________________________.
   One tradition we have in my family is_____________.
   When I grow up I want to be a _____________because______________.
   I wish I didn’t have to______________________________.
   I am glad I_______________________________________.
   
   
4. Let students share these and hang them on a bulletin board with their self-portraits in a show of appreciation of differences and similarities.