Cootie Shots Curriculum 

Title of Piece: A Different Family

Grade Level: K-3

Summary: A short and sweet play about a young, adopted girl, her gay dad, and her best friend.

Key Ideas: Families come in all configurations.

Vocabulary: Gay, adopted, jungle gym.

Before the play (activities and/or discussion questions): Chart students’ ideas of what makes up a family.

After the play:

Discussion Questions

1. Describe Tia’s family.
2. Is it different than the family we charted before the play?
3. What makes a family a family?

Extension Activity

With student permission chart all the configurations of actual student families.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts
Have students write an essay on what they like and dislike about their own family. The following day have students write what they might want their future family to be like when they grow up.

Social Studies
Research and study the structures of families in other countries around the world. How are they similar or different from other types of families in the United States? What are the traditions and rituals that families in other countries participate in?

Title of Piece: All the Adams in the World

Grade Level: 3-6

Summary: Adam, an autistic child, is teased by two other children.

Key Ideas: Sometimes what we see on the outside is not what a person is really like. There is always more we can learn about others. We have to be careful of what we say and do to others; we may not even realize how or if we have hurt someone.

Vocabulary: Autistic, inability, ability, disability

Before the play: Illicit students’ background knowledge on autism or other related cognitive disorders with a think-pair-share. The children may have vague ideas about mentally disabled people and use different and perhaps derogatory vocabulary. Try not to criticize the only terms the students may know, but be ready to share what more appropriate and respectful terms are, as well as the differences between mental disabilities. Try to have the students explain in their own language what autism is, as well as questions they have about autism. Record their thoughts on a KWL chart:

What Do We Know About Autism	What Do We Want To Know About Autism	What Have We Learned About Autism

After the play:

Discussion Questions

Raise your hands if you heard the girls say hurtful things and saw them do hurtful things.
What hurtful things did they say and do?
How did it make Adam feel?
How do you know?
Can we always tell when we’ve hurt someone’s feelings? Why not?
Who here has ever gotten hurt and tried to HIDE how bad you’re feeling?
Adam had a disability that prevented him from being able to express his thoughts and feelings in words. Who remembers the name of this disability?
In real life, when you meet someone different, like Adam, what can you say or do that would make him feel included?

Extension Activity

Read the following kid-written description from the thin quest junior website about autism:

• What is Autism? Autism (AW.tihz.uhm)? What are you talking about? I’ve never heard of that before. Well, it’s not some alien planet. Autism is a mental disability that some babies are born with. No one knows the cause and it won’t go away when the child gets older. The encyclopedia describes autism as “a disorder in development that usually begins before the age of four, characterized especially by an inability to relate socially to others.” This means that their mind is all mixed up.
• Characteristics of autism are usually evident before you are four years old. You can usually tell someone is autistic by how they communicate with others, which is poorly. This is called “inability”. But I don’t like the word ‘inability’. It means you can’t do something.
• If you have autism, it is hard for you to communicate with other people. Your motor skills, which means how well you can hold things, like pencils, scissors, or crayons, may not be so good if you are autistic. But you are able to do these things! About one in every 1,000 children get one type of autism or another. There are different types of autism. Severe autism is sometimes called Infantile Autism. About one in every 700 infants get this. Usually boys, as a matter of fact. One of the mildest types of autism is called Pervasive.
• Developmental Disorder, otherwise known as PDD. This child just has some sensory and communication problems.

Have the students do a quick write about what they’ve learned so far about autism. Next, have the students get into groups of three and share what they wrote about. Finally, come back to the KWL chart and fill in the final column (what we learned.)

In order to see how it might feel to be autistic:

1. Have students work in pairs.
2. Have one partner pretend to be the “autistic” child by trying to communicate without using words or body language. Have the other partner try to have a conversation by asking questions.
3. Switch.

Other Related Activities

Math
In order to see how many people know what autism is, take a survey in school or at home, asking both adults and children if they know what autism and/or if they know anyone who is autistic. Chart results at school as a class.

Art
In order to educate the community, create posters showing the realities of autism and how to be patient and respectful of people with disabilities.

Social Studies
In order to build bridges, invite someone with a family member who has autism to speak to the class. Volunteer to sing, perform a play, do arts and crafts, play games or visit with people at a center or school for people with disabilities.

Title of piece: America Didn’t Crumble

Grade level K-6

Summary: Statements from Sol Kelley-Jones, a 10-year-old girl, made to the Wisconsin State Legislature about life with her two moms, comparing their rights as a family to those of slaves two-hundred years ago.

Key ideas: Families comes in many different forms. Tolerance and acceptance of those who are different will not destroy America.

Vocabulary: Constitution, pursuit of happiness, equal protection

Before the play

1. How would you feel if you had two moms or two dads?
2. Did African-Americans, Native Americans, women and Latinos always have freedom and rights given in the Constitution?
3. What freedoms and rights are denied to gays and lesbians today?

After the play

Discussion Questions
1. How does Sol Kelley-Jones feel about having two moms?
2. What rights are Sol Kelley Jones’ moms denied in America today?
3. Have people ever said bad things or made fun of your parents? How did it make you feel?
4. Are there any laws that deny your family equal protection?

Extension Activity

Discuss and chart the different types of families that exist within your classroom.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper or to a civic leader, helping them understand why your family or a family that is being discriminated against, should be treated with respect and have equal rights.

Social Studies
1. Investigate and research laws affecting gay and lesbian families in other parts of the country and world. Compare them to the laws in your state and/or in the United States.
2. Research and chart on a timeline when and how various oppressed groups fought for and/or gained certain civil rights.

Title of piece: Anyone for Double Dutch?

Grade level: K-6

Summary: While jumping rope and tossing a football, four children get past gender stereotypes and name calling.

Key ideas: Trying something new can be fun. Both boys and girls can enjoy the same games.

Vocabulary: Competition, practice, touchdown, Double Dutch, gender stereotypes

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. Who thinks boys should be allowed to play whatever games they like?
2. Who thinks girls should be allowed to play whatever games they like?
3. Who thinks EVERYONE should be allowed to play whatever games they like?
4. Have students do a think-pair-share about what games, hobbies, or sports they’re good at and what games, hobbies, or sports they’d like to learn to do better.
5. Chart the students’ responses on chart paper and ask if they notice similarities or differences in what girls or boys said they’re good at.

After the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Discussion Questions
1. Raise your hand if you heard hurtful name-calling? What words? (Why do some people laugh!?)
2. Raise your hand if you’ve heard these words before. Where?
3. What did the girls do to help when they heard the name-calling?
4. Mike, who was saying all these hurtful things…. How do you think he would have answered the question: “Who thinks boys should be allowed to play whatever games they like?”
5. When he realized that he was wrong, what did he say that made things better?
6. Who here has ever gotten angry and called someone something hurtful?
7. What happened?
8. What works better? What can you do when you’re angry instead of hurting someone?

Extension Activity

Show students pictures or video clips of adults doing activities that are stereotypically reserved for the opposite gender. Examples might be male dancers or stay at home dads or female professional soccer players or firefighters.

Chart the kinds of jobs or at home tasks that the men and women, boys and girls in the students’ homes do.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts
• Have students write a short essay response to the question: Do you think there are really “girls’ games” and “boys’ games” or can all games be both for boys and girls? Ask the students to use examples from the play and discussion to explain your ideas.
• In small groups, have students share their writing.
• Have students research and write about a career they’d like to pursue as an adult.
• Have the students give oral reports about their desired careers.

Physical Education

In gender-mixed pairs or small groups, have students invent a game involving a jump rope and football (or basketball, soccer ball, etc…) Have the students write the name of the game, the procedure for playing and the rules. Provide an opportunity for the students to play each others’ games. Compile these games to make a class book of games.

Social Studies

Have guest speakers come to the class to talk about their careers. Be sure to include non-gender traditional persons to discourage stereotypes. Possible invitees might include male chefs, florists, dancers, or stay at home dads and female police officers, executives, professional athletes or mechanics.

Art

Have students draw a self-portrait and design a frame for it illustrating all of the things they can do in their lives if they choose to do so. Be sure to tell them it’s OK to choose things that are typically done by girls (if they’re girls) or boys (if they’re boys) also! Post the artwork around the school.

Math

Take an anonymous survey in the class (but have the students indicate gender) asking if they like jumprope, football, baseball, gymnastics, or any other sports. Graph the results for each gender and compare.

Title of piece: At Your Age?!

Grade level: K-6

Summary: A senior citizen and a young boy compare notes and decide they won’t let themselves be diminished by other people’s ideas about how people should act “at their age.”

Key ideas: The stereotypes we have about people based on their age do not always hold true.

Vocabulary: Frilly, meshuggeneh, shuffleboard, ageism

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Make a Venn diagram with two circles intersecting. Label the circles “Old People” and “Young People.” Tell the children that they are going to help you make a list of things old people do and young people do. If old people and young people do the same thing, write it in the intersecting space. Chart the student responses.

Use some of these questions to encourage the students:
1. What kind of games do old people play? How about young people?
2. What do young people like to watch on television? How about old people?
3. What do old people do on Saturdays? How about young people?
4. How do young people dress? How do old people dress?
5. What kind of music do young people like to listen to? And old people?

After the play:

Discussion Questions
Return the Venn diagram that you made together. Ask the students if they want to change or add anything. Record their responses.
1. What kind of things did Bea like to do?
2. How did she dress?
3. Is that the same way we had said old people dress?
4. What kind of things did Malcolm like to do?
5. What did Malcolm feel about the way people treated him?
6. How did Bea feel people treated her?
7. Were people right?
8. What kind of “names” did people use to call Bea and Malcolm?
9. How did that make them feel?
10. Do people treat you the way Bea and Malcolm were treated because of your age? How?

Extension Activity

Provide magazines showing pictures of older people doing a variety of activities. Have the students cut out pictures and make a collage. Students write or dictate what they see depicted in their collage. Ask the students if they had thought about older people doing some of these things. Were they surprised by the pictures they found?

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Ask the children to choose a person in their family or someone they know who is over 50 years old and one who is younger than them. Younger students will need more assistance.

Have the students interview their subjects:
1. What do you like to do for fun?
2. What do you watch on television?
3. What kind of clothes do you wear?
4. What do you like to eat?
5. What time do you go to bed?
6. Ask the students to answer the same questions about themselves. Report to the class the results of the interviews.
Bring in some books depicting older people and some with younger people. Ask the students to talk about the characters and their likes and dislikes.

Social Studies
1. Have the students research about Grey Panthers, children’s rights groups and other organizations that advocate for the rights of older or younger people.
2. Ask them to research a person who was accomplished as an older or younger person (e.g., Mozart as a youth and Grandma Moses)
3. Ask the students to research, compare and contrast the rights and treatment of elders and children/youth historically and around the world.
4. Invite a panel of older people to your class. Have them talk about what their day is like. Encourage students to ask them questions.
5. Invite a panel of younger children and do the same.

Music
Bring in different types of music for the children to listen to: classical, jazz, easy listening. Ask if the music is new to them and if any of them like it. Invite the students to bring in their favorite music. Show appreciation when you listen. Ask the students in the class if they all like this music. See if you can show how all young people do not have the same taste.

Title of piece: Big Love

Grade level: K-2

Summary: A Dr. Seussian celebration of all different types of families.

Key ideas: Families come in all different sizes and configurations. The most important thing is the love the parent or parents have for their children.

Vocabulary: Mexico City, bonita (pretty), familia (family), grande amor (big love), s’mores

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Write the word “Family” on the board. Ask the children to describe the different kinds of families they know. Chart all the kinds they tell you: two parents and one child, one mom and a child, etc.

After the play:

Discussion Questions
1. Were there any families mentioned that were not on our list? If there are, add them to the list.
2. All these families are different shapes and sizes. What is it about the families that is the same?
3. How can you tell that a group of people are a family?
4. What words can we use to describe a family?

Extension Activity

Have each child draw a picture of his or her family. Have the students make a circle and hold their picture in front of them so all can see. Go around the circle and have each child tell about his or her family.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts
Have each child write or dictate a four-line poem about his or her family picture. Encourage the children to use rhyme in their poem. Save the poems to make a class book with the pictures called: “Our Families.”

Social Studies
Collect pictures of different kinds of families. Pass the pictures out to the students to look at and talk about in a cooperative group or with a partner. In a whole group have students share what they discovered about the families in the pictures.

Art
Have a poster contest around the theme, “Families have Big Love!” Encourage the students to use the text and pictures of diverse families in their graphics.

Math
Before putting the family pictures in a class book, use them to make a graph comparing how many people are in each student’s family. Ask the students who has the largest family. Who has the smallest family?

Title of piece: Billy Tipton

Grade level: 3-6

Summary: Billy, a jazz musician and heartthrob, who lived her/his entire life as a man, shares his/her story.

Key ideas: Live life to the fullest by being true to yourself.

Vocabulary: Jazz, swing, transgender, gender

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Bring in photos from books and magazines of women wearing pants, short
Hair and other men identified clothing. Then show men wearing earrings, long
Hair, kilts, and middle-eastern clothing. (Jesus Christ would be a good photo to show) Include a photo of Billy Tipton. Ask students to share what they see. Then ask questions about gender and gender roles such as, is it all right for men to wear earrings even though girls wear them? Why or why not?

After the play:

Discussion Questions

1. Why did Billy have to change her/his appearance from a woman to a man?
2. Do you think Billy Tipton wanted to work as a man or live as a man or both?
3. What did appearing as a man help Billy accomplish?
4. Was it right for clubs and people not to let women perform?
5. How do you think women/girls feel when they are told that they can’t play certain games or work in certain jobs because of their gender?
6. How do you think men/boys feel when they are told that they can’t
   play certain games or work in certain jobs?

Extension Activity

Research and report on famous past and present people who changed their gender appearance or worked at jobs that certain genders were not supposed to work in.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Write a first person narrative pretending that you want to work at something but are forbidden to because of your gender. How do you feel? What might if make you do or not do?

Social Studies

Solicit/chart “men’s jobs” and “women’s jobs.” Discuss all the student responses. Possible questions might include the following:

1. Do you think men could be good at some things that are on the women’s side and vice versa?
2. What makes us think of certain activities and jobs as being only for women or only for men?

Display pictures and photos of non-stereotypical gender roles both
from today and in history. Examples from today might include police, fire and military women or male nurses, fashion designers, and ballet performers. Examples from history might include women pirates, male actors playing women’s roles.

Divide the class into teams. Have the teams debate opposing positions on any of the following issues:

1. Is it all right for women to be in the military, police, etc.? Why
   or why not?
2. Could a girl grow up to have a “man’s” job such as firefighter or soldier?
3. Could a boy grow up to have a “woman’s” job such as nurse or childcare provider?
4. Could a woman be president?

Discuss the following questions and ask the students to research a profession that is of interest to them. Have them investigate the gender history of the profession.

1. Within a given field, what types of jobs tend to be “men’s jobs” and what type are “women’s?” For instance, in health care, men are usually the doctors, women are usually the nurses; in restaurants, men are the chefs and women are the waitpeople.
2. What are the differences between “men’s jobs” and “women’s jobs?” For instance, “Men’s jobs” traditionally are more often decision-making organizing, leadership, require formal knowledge, more creative; “women’s jobs” traditionally involve service, nurturing, carrying out the designs of others, rely on beauty, etc.
3. What factors might lead a person to live as someone of the other sex? Answers might include occupational opportunities, escape from responsibilities, disguise, gender identity, etc.
4. What has changed? For example, historically, many jobs were open only to men.
5. What traditionally “male professions” can women now hold? These might include actor, singer, teacher, doctor, explorer, CEO, politician, as well as soldier, police, firefighter, etc.
6. Are there jobs that used to be “only” for women that men can now have? Some examples might include midwife, nurse, secretary, childcare provider, etc

Music
Play and listen to some of Billy Tiptons songs.

Title of piece: The Birthday Party

Grade level: 3-6

Summary: A young African American girl’s classmates are scared to come to her birthday party because it is in a “dangerous neighborhood.”

Key ideas: People in one community sometimes fear people from another community until they get to know them and their community.

Vocabulary: Compton, traveling

Before the play:

1. Have you ever been somewhere that made you feel uncomfortable or unwelcome?
2. What did you do or say when this happened?
3. Look at a map of your community or city. What kinds of people live in the various areas?
4. Are there “good” areas and “bad” areas of your community?
5. What makes a neighborhood “good” or “bad?”
6. Do “good” people live in “bad” neighborhoods and vise a versa?

After the play:

Discussion Questions

1. Why didn’t Tiffany and Nicole go to Jamice’s party?
2. Why did her other friends?
3. Why had Jamice gone to Tiffany and Nicole’s neighborhood for their parties?
4. How do you think she and her mother felt in that community?
5. Why did Nicole and Tiffany’s parents let their daughters spend the night at Jamice’s home? What might have made them change their mind about allowing their daughters to be in that community?
6. Which community is most like your community, Jamice’s or Tiffany’s?
7. Would you feel comfortable in the other’s community? Why or why not?

Extension Activity

1. Look at a map of your city. Mark various communities. Indicate those where there are high concentrations of certain groups: Caucasian, Black, Latino, Korean, Jewish, other religious cultures, etc. Also include communities where there is a lot of diversity.
2. Take a fieldtrip through some of these communities to observe how the people live and what the communities have to offer. Visit shops, community and religious centers, a school, a home, etc. and sample foods from different local grocery stores or eateries.
3. Invite guest speakers to share about the community in the city from which they come. Encourage them to bring something to represent that community.

Other Related Activities:

Language Arts

Form a pen-pal club with a classroom in another community in the city. The community should be different from the one where the students live. Have the students write letters to another class in another community in the city. Encourage the students to tell about themselves and the community in which they live.

Social Studies

Look at ethnic population maps of the city from various years. Talk about how communities change over years. Compare pictures of the city’s neighborhoods throughout the years.

Art

1. Provide disposable cameras for the students while on the fieldtrip to different communities. Encourage the students to take pictures that, for them, represent the community they are visiting. Ask the students to talk about the images they have captured. Compare the pictures of various communities. What do the pictures reveal?
2. Make a mural of the city using the information gathered from visits, photographs taken and guest speakers. Be sure to include the various communities to which the students have been exposed.
3. Get a box. The size of the box that you get depends on how big you want your project to be. Old shoeboxes are easy to get for free at your local department stores and they’re a great size to work with. Using paints, colored pencils, glue and paper, pictures, magazine and newspaper clippings and anything else you can think of, turn your box into a three-dimensional representation of you and your community. Then write a short piece, like a poem for example, explaining how your box represents you and your community.

Music

Listen to songs and instrumental music that are central to certain communities in the city. Compare the instruments used. Invite musicians from those communities to perform at school.

Science

Bring in sensory objects from different cultures and communities for the students to explore. These can be natural or man made. Some items might have specific smells, textures or sounds. Have the students compare and contrast the objects using their senses.

Title of piece: Bright Orange Fingernails

Grade level: K-2

Summary: Little Rodney is eager to show Dad his painted nails. Dad responds surprisingly well.

Key ideas: Boys and girls should be allowed to express themselves, even when it is against societal gender norms

Vocabulary: Nail polish, Nascar ©, Now or Laters ©

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Write two headings on the board: “What Do Girls Wear?” and “What Do Boys Wear?” Solicit responses from the students. Suggest items such as fingernail and toenail polish, earrings, dresses, braids, high heels, ties, wearing makeup and football uniforms that might elicit placement for only one gender. If any items appear on both lists, circle them.

After the play:

Discussion Questions

1. How did Rodney’s dad feel when he saw his bright orange fingernails? Why?
2. How does the teacher feel? Why?
3. Why does Rodney like painting his fingernails?
4. What would you think if a boy in our class painted his fingernails? Why?
5. Have you ever done anything that is different from what you were told boys do or girls do?

Return to the list the class made. Ask the students if they want to make any changes? Point out items that are listed under one gender or another. Challenge the students by showing them pictures that might go against their list: girls in football uniforms, boys and men wearing earrings, nail polish or braids, men in other countries in long dresses or kilts, women in ties, judges in wigs, etc.

Extension Activity

Gather a diverse collection of magazines. Have students look through magazines and cut out pictures of people that might go against their original notions of how males and females should dress as well as pictures that fit their original notions. Make a mural collage of the pictures. Discuss with the children how the people are dressed and how some may differ from our original idea about how females and males should dress.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts
Have each child draw a picture of her or himself. Ask them to describe orally or through writing the way they dress and if there is anything different they would like to wear that might be considered of the opposite gender.

Social Studies
Display pictures of peoples from other countries in traditional clothing, jewelry and make-up where appropriate. Encourage the students to also bring in pictures. Indicate on a world map where they originate. You may want to show historic pictures as well. Some of the pictures may want to show men of the African and Asian continents, for example, in long gowns. An historic figure such as Joan of Arc could stimulate discussion.

Art
Paint fingernails.

Title of piece: Cap’n Crunch; A Poem by Bonnie Eaton

Grade level: 3-6

Summary: A young Asian-American girl deals with issues of weight and loneliness.

Key ideas: Television images do not always offer characters with which we can identify. School can be difficult for children who are overweight and who get picked on and left out of games.

Vocabulary: 2 x 4, Polaroids

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Discussion Questions

1. Are there people on television like you?
2. In what way are they like you?
3. Have you ever heard people call other people names at our school?
4. Why do you think they do that?
5. Does everyone at our school get included in games? Why might some people not get included?

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. Does the girl in the play see people like her on television?
2. How does it make her feel?
3. Why does the girl hate kickball and dodgeball?
4. Why does she feel alone?

Extension Activity

Look through advertisements in magazines and newspapers. Have each student cut out the advertisements showing people. Discuss the kinds of people portrayed in the advertisements. How diverse are they? Can the students find images close to themselves? How does that make them feel?

Other Related Activities

Language Arts
Write a letter to one of the companies whose advertisement does not represent your ethnicity, gender, body type, etc. Tell the advertiser that if you saw images of people more like you, you might be more inclined to purchase their product. Be sure to describe the characteristics that you want to see.

Social Studies
With the class, create a checklist of various physical demographics. You may want this checklist to include such categories as tall, short, heavy, thin, black, white, Asian, mixed race, Latino, male, female. Have the students sit in an open area of the school or in their community with this character checklist. Have the students make tally marks for the persons they observe. Talk about the kinds of people they saw. Were people of different characteristics interacting with each other? Which people were alone? What factors seemed to keep people apart or bring them together?

Math
Graph the tally marks gathered above from the entire class. What kind of people were observed the most? The least? Does this match what we see in advertisements and on television?

Art
Redo some of the advertisements or promotional adds for television shows using drawings of different kinds of people represented by our community. Create a classroom display with the original advertisements or television show title and the “redo.”

Title of piece: Cap’n Crunch; A Poem by Bonnie Eaton

Grade level: K-6

Summary: A young Kuwaiti boy learns from his grandmother that is no need to fear something or someone just because one doesn’t understand it.

Key ideas: Sometimes the more we learn about different people or different things, the less fearful we become. One act of kindness can conquer fears held by many.

Vocabulary: Kuwaiti, Mosque, azzam (power), muslim, hussa (lesson), incense, coal-box, ancestors, metrah (floor mattress), haleep (milk), shakar (sugar), sahan el tamer (date dish), sahara (desert), hayyaya (snakes), salam (peacefully), hayyawant el sahara (desert animals), nomadic, gaslight, Yaffa, Christians, Arab Moslems, Jews, rooh el sahara (the desert spirit)

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. Write three phrases on the board:

   • A tall shadow outside your window at night
   • A snake in the middle of the classroom
   • Falling down a mountain

   Ask the students which of these they would fear the most

   Tally the numbers.

   Next, tell them that the tall shadow is a deliveryman with the three pizzas that your mom ordered. The snake is a stuffed toy. At the bottom of the mountain are soft pillows, and the mountain is a mountain of pillows. Ask the students now how many are fearful of these three things.

   Share with the students that sometimes we fear things without knowing the whole story.

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. Why was Azzam afraid of the hayyaya (snakes)?
2. Why did the mother hayya poison the haleep (milk) pot?
3. Did the mother hayya let fear “drive out her reason?” How?
4. How did Azzam’s mother conquer their fear of Jews?
5. How can we conquer our fears of things we do not completely understand?

Extension Activity

Act out the story that Azzam’s grandmother told him. Have one student play the hayya, the family (mother, father, children), the hayya’s daughter. Make props for the story: the haleep pot, the coal-box, the ashes. You may want to make two simple sets: the family’s tent and the hayya’s cave. Have another student play the narrator and read the text from the play.

Other Related Activities

Social Studies

Find Kuwait on a world map. Locate the saharas (deserts) located in Kuwait. Compare the land of Kuwait to the United States.

Discuss how sometimes we judge other people based on how they look. For older students, discuss how, after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, some people regarded Arab-looking people with fear. Much like the characters in the play, they were making judgments about things they did not understand.

Are there places in the world you would be afraid to visit? Make a list of three things that make you fearful of that place. Research the people and culture of that country and write about something that would make you want to visit.

Language Arts

 Write about something you have feared when you were younger because you did not understand it. Compare how you felt then to how you feel now. Have your fears changed because you learned and now understand more?

Think of something you are fearful about and don’t understand. Do research about it through books and/or the internet or talking to people about it so that you understand it better. Write about how your fear changed or didn’t change as you found out more about it.

 Science

 In the story, Azzam’s grandmother heated tea and milk on a coal-box. The nomadic family used a coal-box as well. Talk about how they used this to cook their meals. Coal is another form of energy like the gas or electricity that we use. Make a coal-box or use coals and heat up a snack-hot cocoa, pancakes, etc.

Title of piece: Chocolate Face

Grade level: K-2

Summary: A poem about the joys of being the color you are.

Key ideas: The color of our skin is beautiful.

Vocabulary: cocoa, caramel, cream, Magnolia, midnight, grin, budge, racism, metaphors and similes

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. What color is your skin?
2. Is it exactly brown or black or white?
3. What other words could we use to describe the color of our skin? Talk about metaphors and similes. Chart responses.
4. What things are the same color as our skin? Talk about metaphors and similes. Chart responses.

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. How did the poet describe her skin?
2. Do you think she thought those were good things or bad things?
3. Do you think she likes the color of her skin? Why or why not?

Extension Activity

Make “Chocolate Face” cupcakes with the children.

Give each child a chocolate cupcake.

Let them frost it with chocolate frosting using a Popsicle stick.

Provide chocolate kisses for eyes, a chocolate bar square for a nose and chocolate chips for the children to make a mouth. Let them put a dab of peanut butter on each cheek.

Recite the poem for them or together in a repetition.

Eat “Chocolate faces.”

Other Related Activities

Social Studies

Explore the concept of racism. The poet speaks metaphorically when she writes, “Not everyone likes chocolate’s taste/ But I’ll always love my chocolate face.” Ask the children what those words mean to them? Have you ever felt that someone didn’t like you because of the color of your skin? Did you ever not like someone because of the color of their skin?

Language Arts

Have students write or dictate their own poems a person with their skin color and then about a person with a skin color different from theirs, using metaphors and similes as the poet of “Chocolate Face” did.

 Art

Working in pairs, have the students mix paints to make their own unique skin color. Have students paint a picture of her or his partner. 

Title of piece:  Cooties

Grade level: K-6

Summary: Children learn that they can’t get “cooties” from people who are different from them.

Key ideas: Our fear of differences can lead us to the wrong conclusions and make us sound pretty silly and do silly things.

Vocabulary: cooties, superstition, bedbugs, lurk, portable, disinfectant, contagious

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Prepare in advance a few pictures of people who look, dress, and behave in a way that is different from the children in the class. One idea would be a Muslim woman wearing a burkha or another person whose appearance defies our stereotypes. Try to use pictures of people with information about their lives, either they have written or others have written about them. Perhaps the Muslim woman is a member of parliament or a doctor, for example. Include a quote or anecdote from the person so that the students may feel more of a connection to him or her. Try to have as much information about the person as possible so that the students can see both differences and commonalities.

Show the class the pictures and ask them to do a quick-write about one of the pictures. Use the following prompts:

What do you think this person’s life is like?

Would you feel comfortable talking to this person?

Why or why not?

Ask the students to say what they think “cooties” are, and write their responses on the board. Ask them how people can get “cooties,” and write this on the board as well.

Ask for a show of hands as to who thinks “cooties” are real and who thinks they are imaginary.

After the play

Discussion Questions

Ask students again who thinks “cooties” are real and who thinks they are not real. Add anything you have researched about “cooties,” e.g. lice, the board game, etc.

Reveal to the students what the people in the photographs are really like by reading what each person has written about him or herself or what someone else has written about him or her.

Ask the students to pair-share about what they wrote about and what their reaction was when they learned the truth about the person they wrote about. Prompts:

Were you surprised?

Would you feel differently about talking to the person?

Whole group: Discuss how the students felt about the people in the photographs before learning about them. 

Did anyone feel like the people in the pictures might have “cooties” as the lady in the short play felt?

Has anyone felt that way about people around them? Why? What made them change their mind, if they did? (Hopefully, getting to know the person as an individual.)

On a large sheet of paper on which you have drawn a Venn Diagram in advance, model this activity. Use a person from one of the photographs for one side of the Venn, and yourself for the other, writing commonalities in the middle and differences that express individuality on the two sides. Discuss how individual differences are necessary and desirable in our society.

For older students, pair them so that they are working with someone who is relatively different from them, and have them complete a Venn Diagram. They’ll have to talk and ask each other questions in order to complete this activity. Write on the board some suggested topics such as: family, likes, dislikes, religion, race, socio-economics.

Extension Activity

As a homework assignment, have the students interview someone in their

neighborhood or school with whom they have not felt comfortable talking

because the person was different from them. Perhaps they might do the Venn Diagram activity with this person. Students share their interview with classmates as well as a paragraph about how their view of the person changed after the interview.

 Other Related Activities

Social Studies

Research the use of the word “cooties” as a put down. You might want to do an internet search.

Music

Write a short song – perhaps to a familiar tune such as “London Bridges” or “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” – about why worrying about “cooties” is silly.

Art

Draw your own cartoon about the silly “cootie” lady and of all the wonderful people of whom she is afraid.

Title of piece: Courage

Grade level: 3-6

Summary: A song about a child who learns, from history class, the importance of tolerance and inclusion.

Key ideas: When, despite our own fears of what might happen to us, we stand up to the injustices perpetrated against others, we help make the world a better place.

Vocabulary: cruel, gas chamber, Auschwitz, My Lai, Hiroshima, atrocities, dehumanize

Before the song: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. Have any of you been teased by others?
2. Have any of you felt left out by others?
3. How did these incidents make you feel?
4. Have you ever teased someone else? Think about how it made you feel.

After the song

Discussion Questions

1. Why do we pick on others and leave others out?
2. Why is it hard to be friendly with someone others consider to be “uncool” ?
3. When we dehumanize others (make people feel less than human) what can it lead to?

Extension Activity

Pair up students and have them interview each other about a time when each had been left out or picked on. Have the students ask each other to describe their feelings and experiences. Then have each student write an essay on the other student’s experience. Have them reflect on how they could have help this person to feel included.

Discuss what kinds of discrimination go on in your school and in the world today. Brainstorm what we can do to “not let it happen again.” Create a plan of action and carry it out.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Write a poem or essay from personal experience when you were left out, ignored or picked on by others.

Social Studies

Find cartoons, drawings, stories or other propaganda used against Jewish, Arab, Vietnamese, Japanese, and other groups of people to demean or dehumanize them.

Sit with a person you never sat with at lunch and/or spend time with him or her at recess. Try spending time with a different person every day for a week. Keep a journal.

Music

Using a familiar tune, write new lyrics about something you have learned about discrimination.

Title of piece: Doing the Right Thing

Grade level: 3-6

Summary: A student enlists the help of her parents and teacher in response to being harassed because of her older brother’s sexual orientation.

Key ideas: Peacefully standing up for what you believe in can bring about change. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to stand up for what you believe in.

Vocabulary: gay, lesbian, tolerance, discrimination, diversity, protect, respect

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Ask the class to think of words they’ve been called when teased or words they’ve called others. Write a few examples on chart paper or the board.

Have the students quickwrite or journal about a time they or a friend were teased or about a time they teased someone else. Prompts: How did this make you feel? What did you do about it? Is there anything else you wish you could have done or said?

Tell the students that the play is based on the real life experiences of Natalie Gutierez, a 10 year old girl and fifth-grader from east L.A. This is what happened to her every day in school and how her family responded.

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. Tonia got picked on because her older brother was gay. Was that fair?
2. How did the name-calling make her feel?
3. She felt so bad that she wanted to do something pretty drastic. Who remembers what she wanted to do?
4. Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt so bad about how others treated you that you wanted to go to a different school?
5. Look around—see all the wonderful people we’d lose from our class if we don’t stick together and treat each other well!
6. What could you have done if those had been your friends picking on Antonia? Why is it difficult? Why is it important to do it anyway?

Extension Activity

Ask the students to discuss in small groups of three or four the following questions:

Does our school do its best to protect all of its students from teasing and discrimination?

What more could be done to make sure that everyone is respected and that the school really does “celebrate diversity?”

In the same cooperative groups, have the students work together to choose and create their own message about discrimination, tolerance, and celebrating diversity. Use the following options (plus others if students have their own ideas!)

Write and perform a rap or song

Make a poster or advertisement

Write and perform (or videotape) a skit

Interview a human rights advocate and publish the interview for the class

Write a letter to the principal with questions and suggestions

 Other Related Activities

History

Have the students research other human rights advocates who had the courage to stand up peacefully, defend others, and bring about change (Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., Martina Navrotilova, Ghandi, for example.) Select a person who has advocated for the rights of a group that may be discriminated against or subjected to name calling at your school. Write an essay, biography or report about one of them.

Social Studies

Show “Trevor,” a movie about a boy who feels different from other boys in his class and is confronting, in a humorous way, his feelings of affection for another boy.

Music

Play and learn some songs by gay artists such as Melissa Etheridge, Elton John, and k. d. lang and discuss the meaning of the lyrics.

Title of piece: The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans

Grade level: K-6

Summary: A stage adaptation of the classic story by Johnny Valentine about children who stand up against unfair laws and people.

Key ideas: Standing up to unfair laws and people is difficult but necessary. Good families come in many different configurations.

Vocabulary: Proclamation, Duke, Royal permission, and kingdom

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Ask if students’ classroom, school or parents have ever made unfair rules.

Write some of them down on the whiteboard or overhead projector.

Now have students all stand up and tell them that the class is going to play a game. If the rule/law applies to them they must go to the class jail and sit down.

The teacher pulls out prewritten rules out of a bag and reads them out-loud. (Some examples might include laws against brown hair, freckles, wearing tennis shoes, having short hair, and small or tall height.)

At the end there should be only a few or none at all left standing.

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. How did you feel when I called out a new unfair classroom law and you had to go to the classroom jail?
2. What was unfair about the new classroom laws I made?
3. What was unfair about the new proclamations the Duke made?
4. How do you think it feels to people in our classroom, country or world who have to live under unfair laws?
5. What should we do as students and individuals when an unfair law is made against a certain group of people?

Extension Activity

Have students make classroom laws regarding people and communities that are different from themselves, with the goal of trying to create a more fair classroom. Discuss how the new laws make the lawmakers and lawbreakers feel.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

As a class write a persuasive letter in support of one person identified by Amnesty International’s Web Site who is unfairly being jailed someplace in the world.

 Social Studies

Study and report on unfair laws in the United States and around the world that are targeting and oppressing certain populations such as single parents, gays and lesbians, union workers, racial and ethnic minorities as well as religious and handicapped populations.

Math

Sort and graph jelly beans. How many are of each color? Which has more? Which has fewer?

Title of piece: Fair Play

Grade level: 3-6

Summary: Children explore a variety of ways to respond when they witness teasing and bullying.

Key ideas: Constructive responses to teasing and name-calling, such as standing up for the kid getting picked on, reasoning with the bully, or getting help from an adult can have a peaceful outcome. Destructive responses, such as name-calling or violence will only make things worse.

Vocabulary: Bully, teasing, positive, negative, reaction, bystander, witness, harassment, strategy, intervention, constructive, destructive

Before the play:

Think-Pair-Share:

Ask the students if they have ever observed others being picked on or teased because of the way they look or what they do. Chart responses.

 Quick write:

Have the students quick write about possible ways a bystander or witness might resond to this teasing. They can write about their own experience or one that was charted. Have them draw a t-chart on their paper and on one side, write down all the negative reactions (those that they know they’re not supposed to do, but feel like doing when they witness harassment or teasing). On the other side, have them write down all of the positive reactions they can think of. Give a few examples before sending them to their spaces to write independently.

Things I can do when I witness someone being teased or bullied:

NEGATIVE –

POSITIVE +

Call the bully a jerk.

Get the teacher.

After the play

In cooperative groups of three or four children, have the students discuss their reactions to the skit. Prompts:

What happened when a destructive intervention was chosen? How did you feel? Did this resolve things or make things worse?

What happened when a constructive intrervention was chosen? How did you feel? Did this resolve things or make things worse? Would you feel comfortable doing this?

Extension Activity

Have the cooperative groups create an advertisement (poster) expressing what they think other kids should know about responding constructively to teasing and bullying.

Other Related Activities

 Social Studies

In their cooperative groups, have the students write and perform their own short plays about teasing and bullying using the examples charted in the beginning activity.

Math

Have the students record the number of constructive and destructive responses they observe at school and at home during one week. Graph the results and present this data to the principal or school board.

Language Arts

Individually, in pairs or in small groups, have the students write picture books for the lower grades about how to respond constructively to teasing and bullying (this could be an extension of the skit activity above.)

Title of piece: Four Heroes

Grade level: 3-6

Summary: Kids share stories on various community leaders such as Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Chavez and Harvey Milk

Key ideas: By giving of themselves to make the world better for others, Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, and Harvey Milk showed courage fighting against hate and discrimination afecting their communities.

Vocabulary: equal rights, suffragist, sweatshop, bloomers, corsets, union, strike, segregation, boycott, gay, wages, la huelga, la raza, lesbian, NAACP (National Asociation for the Advancement of Colored People), Civil Rights Movement, District Supervisor, recognition, potential, contribution

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. How have women been discriminated against? Name a leader who has helped women achieve equality.
2. How have black people been discriminated against? Name a leader who has helped African Americans achieve equality.
3. How have Latino people been discriminated against? Name a leader who has helped Latino Americans achieve equality.
4. How have gay people been discriminated against? Name a leader who has helped Gay Americans achieve equality.

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. How do you think Susan B. Anthony would feel about how women are treated today? What would she do if she were living today?
2. How do you think Cesar Chavez would feel about the way immigrants, farm workers and Mexican Americans are treated today? What would he do if he were living today?
3. How do you think Rosa Parks would feel about the way African Americans are treated today? What would she do if she were living today?
4. How do you think Harvey Milk would feel about how gay men and lesbians are treated today? What would he do if he were living today?
5. What can you do when someone laughs, calls names, or makes fun of Latinos, African Americans, gay men and lesbians, or women?
6. Our Declaration of Independence says that we are all created equal, but what do we still need to do in this country and world to ensure that all are treated equally?

Extension Activity

Have students write all the ugly names they have heard in their school against Latinos, women/girls, gays and lesbians and African Americans, or other groups on a piece of paper. Then ask them to take a pledge to not ever use the names. Then have each student tear up the paper into tiny pieces and throw them in the trash where ugly names belong.

 Other Related Activities

Social Studies

Research and write about the civil rights issues faced by one of the four groups discussed in the play or another group that has faced discrimination. Or write about a person who you think is a civil rights “hero.” Have the students read their reports or post them on the classroom walls.

Arts

Make a mural or collage using images (photos, drawings, cartoons) and favorite quotes of the civil rights heroes they researched.

Language Arts

Plan a celebration day in honor of one of these “heroes” form the play or your research. Write about the activities that would occur.

Title of piece: Just Because You’re You!

Grade level: K-6

Summary: A young boy’s father assures him that his classmates are wrong to tell him that he’s a “maricon and he’s going to hell.”

Key ideas: People who are brave enough to follow our own path are sometimes called names, but God loves us the way we are.

Vocabulary: m’hijo, maricon, “Maricones,” and “!No seas payaso!”

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Write “Namecalling” on the board. Solicit names from the students of what they have heard around school. Ask the students if they have ever been called any of those names? Why?

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. What was the name that Miguel was called?
2. Why did the father think Tommy called Miguel a maricon?
3. Is there anything wrong with boys not doing what other boys do? Or girls not doing what other girls do?

Extension Activity

Share with the students a time when you did something different than your peers. Have the children think of a time when they wanted to do something different from the other students in their class. Did people make fun of them? Did they call them names? How did that make them feel? Have the students write about or dictate what happened.

Other Related Activities

Social Studies

Discuss people in our society that do things different that what people of their gender have traditionally and/or stereotypically been expected to do. Bring in pictures, videos or books about these people. Some examples might include:

• Female politicians
• Male designers
• Female firefighters/police officers
• Male cooks
• Female news reporters
• Male nurses

Have various guest speakers come into the classroom and talk about their non-gender traditional/stereotypical careers.

Art

Make a class career book. Have the students cut out or draw pictures of people of various genders in that line of work.

Math

Have students visit persons in the school and local community. Have them survey the gender of persons in that job. Use tally marks to indicate the gender of the profession. An example is below:

Title of piece: Just Because You’re You!

Grade level: 3-6

Summary: An inspirational ballad about the importance of having the courage to be yourself

Key ideas: We can accomplish a great deal by living our lives truthfully. When we live our lives in fear and with lies about who we are, our true potential is never revealed.

Vocabulary: point (the multiple uses of the word)

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Ask the students if there has ever been a time when they ever felt they needed to hide something about themselves in school, such as their faith, facts about their family, things they liked that might not be the same as their peers, etc.

As the students:

1. Why did you hide those things about yourself?
2. How did hiding those things make you feel?
3. Did hiding those things prevent you from doing anything?

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. Why does the poet say “what I’ve got isn’t me?” Why isn’t it?
2. What do you think the poet feels people might say?
3. What are the “lies” that the poet has got to throw away?

Extension Activity

Discuss people in history that may have had to hide aspects about who they were because of social pressures. Some examples might be Oscar Wilde, Billy Jean King, and Langston Hughes. Read short biographies about these persons. How did this influence their lives, their sense of being free, and what they were able to do.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

View or discuss films around the theme of the poem: “The Lion King,” “Mulan,” etc. Chart out the “lies” about themselves that the characters in these films felt they had to tell.

Social Studies

Have various guest speakers come into the classroom and talk about their experience in life when they were had to hide aspects about who they were because of social pressures.

Title of piece: The Golden Rule

Grade level: K-6

Summary: Children discover how people with religious beliefs and those without may have different traditions, but similar philosophies.

Key ideas: The way we dress can convey something about our ideas about the world. There are reasons why people dress or behave differently.

Vocabulary: Catholic, Jewish, Sikh, Christianity (or Catholicism,) Judaism, Bible, Torah, Guru Granth, keepah or yarmulke, peyes, turban, synagogue, ashes, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Easter

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. What are some events you celebrate?
2. Where do you celebrate those events?
3. With whom do you celebrate?
4. Are there special foods you eat at these celebrations?
5. Do you wear any special clothing for any of these special celebrations?
6. What if any rituals or traditions do you follow at any of these celebrations?
7. Why do people celebrate?

Have students cut out a variety of magazine pictures of people from different cultural backgrounds. Students select one picture to journal about what the person’s clothing might express about the person. Students might also journal about what their own clothing expresses about them.

Explain that people who practice some religions have distinctive clothing that expresses their religious beliefs and that they will be seeing a play that explores this idea. 

Students may want to share and discuss clothing or objects from their own religions.

Note: Discussing religion in a public school context is appropriate and important to children’s understanding of their own identity and the identities of others. Some basic guidelines to keep in mind are:

 We do not teach religion. We teach about religion.

We acknowledge that people follow a variety of religious beliefs, and some people follow no religious belief system.

We treat all religious belief systems with respect and do not speak of one as superior to another.

We do not reenact religious ceremonies, but may discuss them.

After the play

Discussion Questions

Prepare sheets of paper with the following questions on separate sheets (there should be enough sets of questions for each student to have one in a group of four):

1. How did the characters behave toward each other at the beginning of the play?
2. How did the characters behave toward each other at the end of the play?
3. How did the way they behaved toward each other change? Why do you think their behavior changed?
4. This play is called “The Golden Rule.” What do you think the golden rule is, and why do you think the play was given this title?

Have the students get into groups of four. Each student is responsible for asking his/her question to the group and recording the results of the ensuing discussion on the same piece of paper.

After the students have discussed all of the questions, ask students to share what they recorded with the whole group. Record the general results on chart paper. End the discussion by focusing on question number three, emphasizing the power of communication to understand each other better.

Extension Activity

Provide the groups of four with books written for children on different religions or cultures (often, the religion will be embedded in a book about different cultures.) Have the groups discuss the different symbols, clothing, foods, etc… associated with the religion. Have the students create a poster showing some of the things they’ve learned about the religion and present it to the rest of the class.

Other Related Activities

 Social Studies

Invite religious leaders or people who practice different religions to come in and talk about their religious beliefs with the class. Be sure to have the students write thank you letters to the presenter telling them what they learned or appreciated.

Research about a religion with which you are not familiar and might thing is “weird.” Write about what you learned.

Science

Have a cooking class. Make traditional holiday dishes from different religions, talk about the dishes, and have a feast!

Music

Gather and listen to music from the cultures linked to different religions.

Math

Make a graph illustrating the number of people in the world who practice various religions. Or chart on a map where most people who practice certain religions live.

Art

Study art prints showing how artists around the world express their religious beliefs.

Title of piece: In Mommy’s High Heels

Grade level: K-6

Summary: A boy’s song about an imaginary kingdom where no one is ever teased for being different.

Key ideas: Celebrate the things that make you different regardless of what others say.

Vocabulary: hyena, Argentina, plaster, Nome, Alaska, riot, kidney stones, appendix, peasants, shopping sprees, jeer, whirl, swine, pearl, beheaded

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Tell the students that they are going to pretend to have a show and tell day. Ask them to think of the most unusual thing they could think of to bring to share with the class. It has to be something that they own. Chart the responses.

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. What were the unusual things that the students brought in the song? Chart responses.
2. Which of these was the most unusual? It probably will not be the high-heeled-heeled shoes.
3. Are the high-heeled shoes in themselves unusual?
4. What made them unusual?
5. Do we ever see one gender wearing clothes of what is common for another gender? For example, women wearing a suit and tie, men wearing gowns?
6. Is there anything “wrong” with that? Why or why not?
7. Why did the boy like wearing the high-heeled shoes?

Extension Activity

Make coffee-can stilts with the students. Each student needs to bring in two coffee cans. Poke holes on the sides for them using a hammer and nail or metal drill. Thread long strong binging string or thin rope through the holes and tie off at each end of the holes. When the students stand on the cans and pull taught the rope, it should reach to their waist. Have a coffee-can parade where the students walk around the school observing the view from “up high.”

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Have the students draw or reflect on how the view is different from the height of the coffee-cans. Do they prefer the view up high or below. How does it feel to be taller than others?

Social Studies

Research on the internet or in magazines about how people dress all over the world. Are some genders dressed as what we typically see as the opposite gender? Have students find three examples in their research and complete a student chart.

Art

Fold a large sheet of paper in half. On one half, title it “Commonly Known Manner of Dressing.” On the other half, title it, “What the Research Says.” Make a collage using the research from the social studies activity above. On one side, paste pictures of how we commonly see persons dressing in gender-specific roles. On the other side, paste pictures that show persons dressed in the opposite.

Music

Chart the words of the song, “In Mommy’s High Heels.” Assign a verse to different students. Sing the last verse as a class together.

Title of piece: It Takes All Kinds

Grade level: K-2

Summary: A calypso song celebrating “all kinds” of kids

Key ideas: Differences among people make for a better world. Not all girls have the same interests. Not all boys have the same interests.

Vocabulary: calypso, variety, watermelon rinds, clone, whiz, frilly, embrace

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Make a Venn Diagram (two intersecting circles) with the children. One circle should be labeled, “What Girls Do” and the other labeled, “What Boys Do.” Solicit responses from the children and record, leaving the intersection empty for now, unless the children respond with things in common. You can use words or pictures. Write down their true responses.

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. What was the song, “It Takes All Kinds” about?
2. Do all boys want to do the same things?
3. Do all girls want to do the same things?

Look at the Venn Diagram again with the children and ask them if some of the things listed on the boys side could be things that girls would like to do. Would some boys like to do the things that girls like to do? Draw another Venn Diagram with the same headings. Encourage or challenge the children to list again the items from the first Venn Diagram, filling the intersection space with things that both boys and girls like to do. Most everything should be in the intersecting space, except things like boys going to the girls’ bathroom.

Extension Activity

Have children fold a piece of paper in half. Look at the first Venn Diagram the class made. On one side of their paper, students are to draw a picture of a boy doing something from the circle that listed “What Girls Do.” On the other side students are to draw a girl doing something from the circle that listed “What Boys Do.”

Have the students share their pictures with the class.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Have the children write or dictate a sentence about something they like to do. Don’t have the children indicate their name. Post the sentences on a bulletin board entitled, “What do boys and girls do?” 

Social Studies 

Have various guest speakers come into the classroom and talk about their careers. be sure to include non-gender traditional persons to discourage stereotypes. For example, invite female police officers, mechanics, football players, bankers and fire fighters. Include male cooks, bakers, nurses, florists, dancers and secretaries.

Art

Encourage the children to talk about all the different things they like. Make a silhouette of each child’s head on a large piece of butcher paper. Students cut out pictures from magazines of things they like. Make a collage of the pictures, gluing them inside the head. You may want to use the collage pictures as a frame instead. They can draw pictures of things they like as well. Frame them with the title, “I can do anything.” 

Science

 Remind the children about how the song told of how boring it would be if all the lifesavers were the same flavor and how an all blue rainbow wouldn’t be any fun. When two drops of the same color are mixed together, nothing happens. But when drops of different colors are mixed something wonderful happens. 

Using eyedroppers, have the children mix two drops of blue food coloring on a coffee filter and see what happens. Next have them mix a blue drop and a yellow drop. Watch how the color difference made for a greater effect. Repeat with yellow and red and again with blue and red. 

Music

Listen to other calypso songs. Listen to other genres of music: country, classical, pop, rap, etc. Move with the music. Ask the children if they would like to hear lots of different kinds of music or just one. Talk about how the different kinds of music make us move and feel different ways.

Title of piece: La Peluca de Su Mama

Grade level: K-2

Summary: A Latino boy is mocked and teased by his classmates for trying on his mother’s wig.

Key ideas: Peer pressure can cause even friends to turn against us. Name-calling can hurt.

Vocabulary: la peluca de su mama (his mother’s wig), en la escuela en frente de todos (in school in front of everyone), maricones (derogatory word for a gay men), “sissy boy,” Ellos (they), que (that)

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Tell the children that they are going to play a game. They will pretend to be different than they are and walk around with the new characteristic. Call out various changes:

Pretend you have tall shoes on that make you the tallest in the class.

Pretend you are wearing long gloves that make your fingers reach to the floor, the ceiling and the walls.

Pretend you have a long-haired wig on and your hair can cover your face or you can swing it around the room.

Pretend you are wearing huge glasses that make everything look a different color or bigger.

Discuss how the different exercises made you feel.

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think Louis wore his mother’s wig?
2. How do you think it made him feel?
3. Do you think he felt the same way you felt when you pretended you were wearing the shoes, the gloves, the wig or the glasses?
4. Why did Juan call him names in school?
5. Is this the same way he reacted at Juan’s house? Why did he change?
6. How did the student’s in Louis’ class respond? What did they call Louis?
7. How did that make Louis feel?

Extension Activity

Make “play wigs.” Have the students take a sentence strip and tape long lengths of roving or yarn to one side. Help them to fit it to their heads and cut off excess. Staple the headband together. Allow the students to explore how it feels wearing the “wig.”

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Pretend you are Louis and write a letter to Juan telling him how he made you feel. In the letter you may want to decide if Juan is still your best friend.

Social Studies

Discuss how wigs have been worn by people (even men) throughout the ages and all over the world. Some examples might include American and British judges, Egyptian Pharos, and World Wide Wrestlers.

Title of piece: Liberty!

Grade level: 3-6

Summary: In Chris Well’s adaptation for young audiences of his own one-man show by the same title, the Statue of Liberty humorously describes the rights and liberties she symbolizes.

Key ideas: All people are created equal and are entitled to equal rights.

Vocabulary: liberty, Declaration of Independence, equality, freedom, Bill of Rights, Constitution

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Find a model, picture, book, or webpage on the Statue of Liberty. Have students read the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. Then ask the following questions: 

1. What does it mean,”Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free? Give who? Who does the statue (America) want?
2. What is “wretched refuse?”
3. What does the lamp symbolize?

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. Read The Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights and The Constitution.
2. Who, according to The Declaration of Independence, is created equal?
3. Does the United States treat everyone equally today? Two hundred years ago? One hundred years ago?
4. Should the poor be allowed to come to America? The homeless? Those who are being hurt in their own country? Why or why not?
5. Which groups of people were immigrants in the past and what groups of people are today? Which is the only group of people who were not immigrants?

Extension Activity

Have students research their families’ immigrant history, if applicable. Have students bring information, photos, articles etc. Describe when and how their families came to America.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

After interviewing a family member, each student could write a first person narrative of a family member, taking on the character of a family member who first immigrated to America. Describe the hopes and fears of being a new immigrant. Include their experience of seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time.

Have the students write an essay on what liberty means to them.

Social Studies 

Have students research the different waves of immigration, information on countries of origin , and where different immigrant groups settled in the United States. Have students draw and make maps and graphs of immigration patterns.

Study the history of the Statue of Liberty: where she came from and why she was given to the United States.

Math

Each student can make a bar graph showing the waves of immigration by year.

Art/dance/music

Have students share one piece of art, dance or musical piece from their ancestors country.

Learn the songs (or a song) sung by the statue in the piece.

Draw a picture, painting or mural depicting the Statue of Liberty surrounded by those whom she has welcomed to the United States.

Title of piece: Love What You Cook

Grade level: K-2

Summary: Two girls share stories and learn how food brings people of different backgrounds together.

Key ideas: Cook what you love and you’ll love what you cook. Certain foods that are enjoyed by one group of people can be enjoyed by another as well.

Vocabulary: cultures, grits, granola, bagels, lox, salmon, jambalaya, Hannukah, Jewish, Louisiana, New Orleans

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. What is a favorite food that your mother or father makes?
2. Do you ever eat foods that are from certain cultures other than your own? What are the foods and what cultures are they from?
3. Do you like these foods even if they are not of your culture?

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. What does it mean, “cook what you love and you’ll love what you cook?”
2. Kiara’s parents are from different cultures with different foods. Are your parents from the same or different cultures? Does your family enjoy foods from different cultures?
3. How did Kiara’s parents learn about different kinds of foods?
4. How could you learn about foods of different cultures?

Extension Activity

Have each child write a letter to their parents telling them that they are learning about foods from many cultures. Explain in the letter that each student is to bring in a special food from their culture to share with the class at a cultural foods potluck lunch. On the day of the potluck, have each student tell about the dish that she or he brought and why it is significant to her or his family culture.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Have the students write out the recipe for their cultural food and make an illustration to go with it. Gather all the recipes together and make a class cookbook. Copy it and give each student a copy to share with his or her family.

Social Studies

Get a train map from the railroad company. Pick out different cities along the route from the East Coast to the West Coast. This may have been the route that Kiara’s mother took when she stopped in New Orleans. On different days, talk about a different city, using pictures, posters and the internet. Serve a dish typical of that region.

Art

Have each child design his/her own cover for the Classroom Cookbook.

Title of piece: Mariposas

Grade level: K-2

Summary: A boy dreams of a magical world of butterflies where he can be himself.

Key ideas: Everyone deserves to be treated con amor y respecto (with love and respect).

Vocabulary: sissy, Gaylord, mariposa (butterfly), tormented, threatened, un mundo (a world), con amor y respecto (with love and respect), galaxy, corazon (heart), Mi mundo de mariposas (my world of butterflies)

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Write two headings on the board: How I Want to be Treated/ How I Do Not Want to be Treated.

Solicit ideas from the students to write under each heading.

After the play

Discussion Questions

Return to the chart the class made together. If they are not already written, add the poet’s ideas. One possible example:

Extension Activity

Make butterfly glasses, using tag or thick paper. Fold the paper in half and trace around a pattern of a half of a butterfly. The pattern should have an extension arm so they can be worn. Have the students cut it out. Cut out a hole in the middle of each wing for eyes. Invite the children to color the butterflies using one of the colors mentioned in the poem: red, blue, yellow, green, pink and orange. Have the children wear the glasses in a parade around the school.

Other Related Activities 

Art

The poet imagined a world full of butterflies. Draw a picture of what your fantasy world would be like. Choose one animal or creature of which your world is full.

Language Arts

Write about the world you drew, the creatures that live there and how they treat each other.

Social Studies

Discuss the kinds of names you hear students called at our school. Make a list of all the names. Are any of them positive? Add the names to the appropriate column on the class chart. Have you ever been called any of the names from the “How I Do Not Want to be Treated” column? Have you ever used any of the names from the “How I Do Not Want to be Treated” column?

Math

Make a real graph of the different butterfly glasses based on color. Of which color are there more glasses? Of which color are there fewer glasses? Ask the students to tell you how the glasses are the same and how they are different.

Title of piece: Matzoh

Grade level: 3-6

Summary: A friendship between a Jewish girl and an African-American girl deepens during Passover as they share stories about their heritage.

Key ideas: Similarities of oppression and slavery are discovered between the African American and Jewish people.

Vocabulary: Pharaoh, Egypt, Passover, matzoh, slavery, Mississippi

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. What is slavery? How were/are slaves treated?
2. What do you know about the slavery of Jews in Egypt?
3. What do you know about the slavery of African Americans in America?

After the play

Discussion Questions

1. Why do Jews celebrate Passover?
2. What is the significance of eating matzoh?
3. What similarities did Shayna and Nikki’s ancestors share?
4. Both Nikki and Shayna felt awkward around each other because of some differences between their cultures. Why is it important to learn about your own culture and other cultures?

Extension Activity

Celebrate and eat some foods of the Jewish Passover and African American foods from the slave era.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Read about the Jewish slavery experience and the African American slavery experience. Make a Venn diagram showing the similarities and differences.

Social Studies

Research the heroes that led the slaves to freedom such as Moses, Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglas and write short biographies on each.

Research other groups of slaves throughout world history.

Music, Dance, Art

Watch a video, play a song, display an art piece about or from a slave period. Sing some old spirituals and discuss the double meanings. View and discuss drawings and paintings of slaves. Learn some songs and traditions of the Jewish Passover.

Title of piece: Mother Nature

Grade level:  K-2

Summary: While baking cookies, Mother Nature shows us how wonderful and varied humans can be.

Key ideas: We have similarities, and we are all different. We all have unique and wonderful talents. The world is a better place because of the variety of people that live here.

Vocabulary: shortening bread, variety

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Make a web diagram with the word “people” in the middle of the circle. Draw lines from the circle. Ask the students what different kinds of people do they know? Write down their responses. You may want to use the following questions:

1. What different skin colors do each of us have?
2. What sizes are we?
3. What kind of things do we like to do?
4. How big are our families?
5. What jobs do we have?
6. Is our hair long or short, curly or wavy?

After the play

Discussion Questions

Return the webbing that you made together. Ask the children if they heard about some other differences that we have? Record their responses.

1. Are we all the same?
2. How are we different?
3. Would you like to eat the same thing every day? You might like pizza, but wouldn’t you get tired of eating only pizza?
4. Would you like to watch the same T.V. show all the time and nothing else?
5. How would it be if we were all the same and only could do the same things?
6. Is it better that we are different? Why or why not?

Extension Activity

Make shortening bread with the class. Either use the school’s oven to bake them, or bake them at home and bring the cookies back for the children to decorate.

• Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
• In a large mixing bowl, cream 1 cup of butter.
• In another bowl sift together 2 cups of all-purpose flour, _ cup confectioners’ sugar and _ teaspoon salt.
• Add the dry ingredients gradually to the butter and mix thoroughly.
• Press the mixture into an ungreased 9 x 9-inch pan, pressing all of the edges down.
• Prick with a fork around the sides, working your way to the center, every _ inch.
• Mark into twenty squares, cutting about halfway through the dough.
• Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Shortbread should not be brown.
• Cool in the pan and cut while warm.
• When cool, let children decorate their shortbread with frosting, chocolate chips, coconut, candies, etc. Have each child talk about how her or his cookie is different from the others.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Using the ideas generated from the class web, have the students write or dictate a comparative essay about the different kinds of children in their class.

Social Studies

Take a fieldtrip around the school community. Allow the children to take pictures of the different kinds of people they see in the community using an instant camera. Be sure to ask permission from the subjects first. Let each student take at least one picture. Make a collage of these pictures and discuss the differences they see. Talk about how each person is a contributing member of the community and how their differences are a strength in our neighborhood.

Math

Make a graph of the differences students have in the class: hair color, family size, number of letter in our name, etc. Measure and record the children’s heights.

Music

Sing “Shortening Bread”

“Mama’s little babies love shortening, shortening! Mama’s little babies love shortening bread.” Sing the song subsequent times, replacing “shortening bread” with favorite foods that their parents cook at home.

Title of piece: Moving

Grade level:  K-2

Summary: A Dr. Seussian celebration of diversity and of liking yourself exactly as you are.

Key ideas: We all have different ways we move and sound. Be proud of your differences.

Vocabulary: abnormal, gait, pitch, trait, ache, idea, talent

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Tell the children that you and they are going to move in different ways. Tell them to listen to your directions as you walk in a circle around the room or outside. Model and call out different directives as you lead the children in a circle or parade:

walk slowly

walk fast

walk high

walk low

walk like you are carrying something heavy

walk like you are flying

walk like an elephant

take big steps

take little steps

walk happily, angrily, etc.

Encourage the children to suggest other ideas.

Ask the children,

1. Is there more than one way to walk?
2. Did we all walk the same?
3. Was one way of walking better than another? Why or why not? How do we know?

After the Play

Discussion Questions

What happened when the man walked in a way that people wanted him to walk instead of his own way? (his legs got sore) Let’s try walking that way and see how we feel.

What happened to the man when he talked low the way people told him to talk? (his voice hurt) Let’s talk that way and see how we feel.

Should we walk and talk the way others want us to or the way that feels good to us?

Do you ever do things you don’t want to do just so other people will like you or so you fit in?

Extension Activity

Talk about what a “trait” is. Remind the children that in the play, the actors said, “a ‘trait’ is a word that describes what you’re made of.” Talk about what traits each of us have: color of eyes or hair, long or short legs, big or small stomachs, etc. Tell them that traits are neither good nor bad; they just are.

Cut a piece of butcher paper, big enough for the tallest child to lie on.

Trace around each child on their own sheet of butcher paper.

Over the next few days, have the children draw and color their traits-eyes, nose, hair, etc.

Have the children dictate or write on the posters about their traits. For example, “I like my brown eyes.” “I can hide more easily because I am small.” “My short hair is easy to dry.”

Post the drawings around the room.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Tell the children that we get our “traits” from our parents. Have the children write or dictate a letter to their parents thanking them for giving them their various traits. Encourage children to be specific about the traits.

Social Studies

Group your children into pairs. Gather varied pictures of people with different traits. Give each student a picture. Have each student look at his or her picture and then describe the traits of that person to their partner.

Math

Graph the students’ traits in the class: long or short hair, hair color, eye color, gender, and people over and under a certain height.

Music

Bring in a pitch pipe or use a piano or other instrument. Play the pitch and have children try to match it humming. Try matching the pitch of each child’s natural speaking voice.

Art

Have children make a “crazy trait” person. Using old magazines, have children cut out mismatched arms, legs, heads, bodies and glue them onto a piece of art paper.

Title of piece: Ode to Parents

Grade level:  K-2

Summary: A song that’s sung to the tune of Beethoven’s Ode To Joy celebrating the many varieties of parents.

Key ideas: Families come in all configurations. Love is the most important ingredient.

Vocabulary: bullfrog, octopus, ebony

Before the Song: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Show a variety of animal families and how they raise their young.

Discuss the similarities and differences between animal and human families.

Write or diagram different human families that the students come from or know of.

Have the students draw pictures of their families.

After the Song

Discussion Questions

1. Can a family include only one parent?
2. Can a family include two parents of different colors or ethnicities?
3. Can a family include two parents of the same gender?
4. What do you think makes a good family?

Extension Activity 

Have students draw the different types of families that they have learned about and then have them list the important things that make a family.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Write a list of ten good things that makes a family and ten bad things that hurt a family.

Science

Study and report on different animals and how they form families and raise their young.

Oral Language/Sharing/Art

Children may bring in pictures of their families and then make a collage of families. Reading books on different families can also be used to galvanize or deepen discussion.

Title of piece: Opposition

Grade level:  3-6

Summary: A poem about the scientific and historical necessity of opposing forces.

Key ideas: There are opposing forces all around us. The universe is dependent upon opposing forces just as our world is.

Vocabulary: opposition, universe, tension, thermonuclear, fission, hydrogen, helium, smithereens, Jehovah, black hole, nova, shrivels, illuminate

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Fill a balloon with air. Ask the children, “What is in the balloon?” (air). Ask them to tell you what is preventing the air from going out into the room (the balloon’s walls). Explain to them that while the air is trying to push it’s way out, the balloon is holding it in and pushing inward, preventing the air’s escape.

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. How is a star like the balloon we were using?
2. According to the poem, what happens to stars if the opposing forces did not continue the tension that exists?
3. What would happen to Earth if the sun (a star) died?
4. What are some opposing forces in our world?
5. What does the poet think would happen if those opposing forces did not exist?

Extension Activity 

Have the children stand face to face in pairs and push with equal force (but not too hard) on each other with the palm of their hands. If the children use the same force they should stay in the same position, either going forward, nor backward. Tell the children that they are opposing forces pushing upon one another, causing tension, but staying constant.

Other Related Activities

Science

Pass out magnets to all the students. Have them explore with the magnets for ten minutes-testing what it attracts, putting them together, etc. Ask the students if they see a relation to the magnets and the poem, Opposition. Have the students work with a partner and try to put their two magnets together on every side? Does it always attract? 

Language Arts

Make two corresponding lists of opposing forces in our world. You may want to use political, social and current events. For example: 12th graders and 10th graders, Democrats and Republicans, Christians and Muslims, IRA and British Government, Palestinians and Jews, and Right-wing Fundamentalists and Left-wing Purists. Have the students select one of the opposing pairs and write about the subjects, answering the following:

1.  What are the opposing forces?
2. To what are they opposed?
3. What could be done to eliminate that opposition? 

Social Studies

Invite two guest speakers with opposing positions to speak about their beliefs/and or stances. After their discussion has been modeled, have the students take opposing positions and discuss their viewpoints. It is not necessary that the students subscribe to that position.

Title of piece: The Other Side of the Fence

Grade level:  3-6

Summary: Two neighbor children learn about each other’s families and cultures as they prepare for Halloween and Dias de los Muertos.

Key ideas: The similarities and differences of two traditions are explored and celebrated.

Vocabulary: tradition, Halloween, prank, costume, potluck, ghouls, calavera, Dias de los Muertos, allergic, altar, abuelita, cult, cemetery, tombstones, bouquet, marigold, ancestor, vaccination

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. What do you know about the night of Halloween?
2. What do you know about Dias de los Muertos?

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. How are Halloween and Dias de los Muertos alike? How are they different?
2. What do Sandra and Joey gain by exploring what’s on “the other side of the fence?”

Extension Activity

Build a classroom altar for Dias de los Muertos. Students can bring items, pictures and memories of people and animals who have died and place them on the altar.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Have students write a poem or short essay on a pet or family member that has died. 

Social Studies

Research and discover how Dias de los Muertos is celebrated in different parts of Latin America. Then do the same for Halloween in different parts of the United States. Research the history behind each of the celebrations. 

Music, Dance, and Art

Have a classroom celebration of Dias de los Muertos. Music, dance and art from Latin America can be used. Students can make masks and candy skeletons to add to the celebration.

Title of piece: Play Wedding

Grade level:  K-2

Summary: Two little girls play dolls and talk about a wedding between two men that one of the girls attended.

Key ideas: Two men can have a wedding.

Vocabulary: wedding

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Build background knowledge about a wedding. Bring in bridal magazines, photos of people at a wedding, wedding pictures, etc. Bring in pictures of brides and grooms, but not couples.

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever attended a wedding?
2. Who got married?
3. Describe what happened.
4. Have you ever been to a wedding between two women or two men?

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. Was the wedding that Noodlehead described different from the weddings we talked about? How?
2. Can two men have a wedding? Can two women have a wedding?
3. Why or why not?

Extension Activity

Invite the children to each bring in a stuffed animal or doll. Tell the children that the class is going to have a wedding between two stuffed animals like Noodlehead and Bananabrain had. Let the children vote on which stuffed animals should have a wedding. Let the children pick roles that they would like to play-parents of the wedding couple, flowerboy and flowergirl, ringboy and ringgirl, bestman or bestwoman, attendants, ushers, guests, etc. Invite the parents to bring food for the reception.

Other Related Activities

Social Studies

Look at pictures of weddings from other cultures. Have guest speakers come and share about their wedding with pictures and/or video tape. Talk about the similarities and differences to the kind of weddings the children and you talked about earlier.

 Art

Design the wedding invitation for the class wedding. Be sure to include important items like the date, place and time. Model a format of a wedding invitation.

 Music

Listen to different kinds of wedding music from various cultures. Have the class vote on which music they would like played at the wedding.

 Language Arts

Write a social column for the class newspaper about the wedding that was held. Report on who attended, what they wore, what kind of food was served, etc.

Title of piece: The Princess Petunia

Grade level:  K-6

Summary: A fairy tale about a princess who helps her father to see that everyone should be free to marry whomever he or she loves.

Key ideas: Sometimes persons want to marry of the same gender.

Vocabulary: witty, grumbled, harsh, condone, consideration, situation, content, bent, proclamation

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Write the word, “Families” in the middle of the chalk or whiteboard. Draw a circle around it with lines coming out in all directions. Ask the students to tell you the different kinds of family structures they know and write them at the end of the lines, e.g., single mom and one child, mom and dad and two children, husband and wife with no children, etc.

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. Do you know any families with two women or two men?
2. What did the King want Princess Petunia to do at the beginning of the poem?
3. Did Princess Petunia want to marry Prince Poppy?
4. Why not? Did she hate him?
5. Who did the Princess want to marry?

Extension Activity

Read, “Families, a Coloring Book,” by Michael Willhoite or another book that shows diverse kinds of families. Return to the graphic you and the students have made. Ask the students if they would like to add to it. Make any additions that are suggested.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

For younger children, provide or read books that show diverse families: “Who’s in a Family;” Daddy’s Roommate” and “Daddy’s Wedding” by Michael Willhoite; and “Two Moms, the Zark & Me” by Johnny Valentine. Discuss the family structures pictured in the stories.

 For older students, have them research on the internet and in magazines and newspapers stories about the same-sex marriage debate. Have students write about the two positions. Invite speakers to share their points of view. Discuss the legal rights of married persons versus the legal rights of persons living together, but not married.

 Social Studies

 Discuss marriage ceremony traditions from other cultures. Have guest speakers share their traditions using props, video tape, and pictures. Have the students discuss with their parents their wedding traditions through pictures and stories. Have the students report back to the class the traditions in their own families.

 Math

Have the students draw a picture of the members of their family. Make a class graph of the number of persons in each student’s family. Compare and contrast the diversity of family structures and the number of people in each family.

 Music

 Listen to the various music used in marriage ceremonies all over the world and of different cultures.

Title of piece: Rapunzel

Grade level:  3-6

Summary: In this humorous version of the story, Rapunzel rebels against Teen Magazine prescriptions for girls.

Key ideas: Be happy with who you are and don’t try to fit into what people want you to be. Take control of creating your own happiness; don’t wait for others to do it for you. True beauty is on the inside.

Vocabulary: dwelled, tower, eager, trippy, repay, grounded

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. What fairy tales do you know? (Chart responses)
2. What problems did Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Snow White have?
3. What was the solution?
4. Chart responses, for example:
   

   CHARACTER	Sleeping Beauty	Cinderella	Rapunzel	Snow White
   PROBLEM	Pricked finger and fell asleep	Lost shoe and was a maid	Locked in a tower	Ate an apple and fell asleep
   SOLUTION	Prince woke her with a kiss and married her	Prince gave her lost shoe and married her	Prince climbed her hair, rescued her, and married her	Prince woke her with a kiss and married her

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. What did Rapunzel’s aunt want for her neice?
2. Did Rapunzel wait for a prince to rescue her?
3. Why did Rapunzel cut her hair?
4. Why didn’t Rapunzel’s Aunt want Rapunzel to cut her hair?
5. How can you take care of your own future? What can you do?
6. What did Repunzel decide was more important than her hair and beauty?

Return to the chart the class had worked on before seeing the play. Write in the new solution in the version of Rapunzel they just saw. Ask the children to think of other solutions for each of the other heroines. Write down all responses. An example is below

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Reread one of the popular fairy tales above or another of similar storyline.

1. Have the children write a new ending where the heroine rescues herself. Decide what new message you want to convey.
2. Write the story, reversing the genders of all the characters.
3. Act out the new stories.

Social Studies

Many countries and cultures have their own version of popular fairy tales. Read some of these other versions other cultures.

1. Compare and contrast their story elements.
2. Locate the country of origin on a map.
3. Ask what kinds of stereotypes they notice in the fairy tales (e.g., the female as the victim and the male as the rescuer)? Why do you think tales are written this way?

 Physical Education

Create a “forest obstacle course” on the yard. Have the students pretend to be Rapunzel or Liberty and travel through the course.

Title of piece: Ripple Effect

Grade level:  K-6

Summary: A poem about the big and little ways we each can make a difference in the world.

Key ideas: Everyone can make help change happen here and now.

Vocabulary: pride, hate, teasing, justice, injustice, oppression, ripple effect, current, resistance

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. Set out a large bowl of water. Have students take turns dropping a small pebble into the bowl and watch the ripples. Talk about how they start from one small spot and end up affecting the entire surface.
2. Do you ever see problems in your neighborhood that need to change? What
3. are some of the problems?
4. What can we do to solve those problems?
5. What can you do to solve those problems?
6. When can we start solving those problems?
7. What will happen to those problems if you or someone else does nothing
8. to solve the problem? Make reference to the saying “When they came for the _______, I said nothing. […] And when they came for me, there was no one left.”

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. What are some of the problems that are mentioned in the poem?
2. What can begin to happen when just one person starts trying to solve problems?
3. What does it mean in the poem when the poet talks about a tiny ripple becoming a current?
4. What things might make up the “mighty wall of oppression?”
5. Can one person make things change? How?

Extension Activity

Have students find one problem in their neighborhood. ( Ideas may include graffiti, dumped trash, vacant lots, etc.) Then have each student write two ideas or solutions and/or draw a picture that might help solve the problem. For extra credit students may actually implement the solution or idea.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Students may write a journal entry about what happened when they tried to solve the neighborhood problem that they identified in the extension activity. Ideas might include, How they felt, what occurred, and how they might solve the problem on an even grander scale. 

Social Studies

Study times when one person’s small ripples grew into larger ripples and made a big difference.

Have students research problems occurring locally and throughout the world, and then provide possible solutions to ending the problems.

Art 

Each student can make a poster identifying a problem and asking for help to solve that problem. Examples might include a poster recruiting volunteers to assist at a convalescent hospital or homeless shelter.

Title of piece: Same World

Grade level:  K-6

Summary: An upbeat R&B song celebrating the fact that no matter how different we may seem, we all belong to the same world.

Key ideas: You don’t need to be afraid to be who you are; we are all special.

Vocabulary: unfurls, disguise, sacred, peace

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. Have you ever felt that you were different from everybody else?
2. In what way?
3. What do you think is special or different about you?

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. At the beginning of the poem, the poet seems to question the contribution that she could give the world. Why?
2. By the end of the poem she has “finally found [her] peace.” How?
3. What does it mean when she says, “we are all from the same world?”

Extension Activity

Display a map of the world. Ask students to research from their parents where their ancestors came from. When the students have that information, label the map with the student’s names and a string to the city they now live in. Explain to them that although we all come from different parts of the world with different ideas and cultures, we are all from the same world.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Have the children research the place of their ancestor’s origin, through speaking with relatives, books and/or the internet. Have the students write or give an oral report of that place. 

Social Studies

Have the students research the flags of the place of their ancestor’s origin. Have the students draw the flag on an 8 _” x 11” piece of tag paper.

Art

Laminate the student flags. Punch hole in the four corners. Have the students tie the corners together to form a quilt.

Math

Make a graph the number of flags from each place.

Title of piece: She’s a Real Spaz

Grade level:  3-6

Summary: A young girl with Cerebral Palsy makes a new friend when she tries out for the cheerleading team.

Key ideas: A person with Cerebral Palsy can still participate in many activities.

Vocabulary: pom poms, spaz, spastic, spasms, Cerebral Palsy

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. What kind of disabilities do people have?
2. Does a disability prevent a person from participating in physical activities?
3. Why or why not?

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. What is Emily’s disability?
2. Did it prevent her from doing certain things?
3. What could she do?

Extension Activity

Have the students do activities while staying in their seat: dancing, playing catch, and exercising.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Talk about other kinds of disabilities: blindness, deafness, paralysis, etc. Have the students make a list of things they could not do and things they could still do if they had that disability.

 Social Studies

Have various guest speakers come into the classroom and talk about their disability and how it affects their life. Have them share with the students how others treat them.

Science

Working with a partner, have the students try to experience what it might be like to be blind or deaf. Have one of the partners chaperone the other as they go through the day wearing a blindfold or earplugs. Debrief about the experience afterwards.

 Music

Have the students listen to music first with out a blindfold and then with a blindfold. Is there a difference? Share what has been experienced.

Title of piece: Shy Kevin and Curious Joe

Grade level:  K-8

Summary: Joe and Kevin become friends at school. Joe learns that Kevin is deaf, can read lips, and communicate using sign language. Joe also learns about many famous and important people who are deaf.

Key ideas: Friendship can occur with two very different people and deafness is just another part of being different. Deaf people are just as normal and smart as non-deaf people.

Vocabulary: deaf, read lips, hearing aid, sign language, curious, shy, disability, agism

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. Have students watch a quick video or commercial with the mute button on.
2. Ask, “How did you feel when you cannot hear the words?”
3. Ask, “What did you want to do when you did not understand the program?”

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. How do you think Kevin felt when the bullies were making fun of him?
2. How would you feel if you were made fun of because of something that you could not change?
3. Are deaf people less intelligent because they can’t hear?
4. Who in the class has friends of family who are deaf or hard of hearing?
5. Point out some prominent deaf people in our world.
6. What are the different ways deaf people can communicate?
7. What would you do if you could not hear anymore?

Extension Activity

Have students learn the ABC’s using sign language. Then have each student sign a positive feeling, thought or their own name. Have the class then translate each students message.

Other Related Activities

Social Studies

1. Write a report on one note worthy deaf person.
2. Bring in a guest who is deaf or hearing impaired.

Language Arts

1. Have one student say a sentence with lips only, then have the class translate the sentence on paper.
2. Have each student learn their name, a saying or verse from a song in American Sign Language.

Science

Study the ear and the many ways deafness can occur. Invite a deaf person, ear doctor and/or a school nurse to discuss deafness.

Title of piece: Snooty Patooty

Grade level:  K-6

Summary: A young boy learns a valuable lesson about name-calling.

Key ideas: We need to see more in a person than what is physically visible. Name-calling can hurt, and name-callers may “find they are alone at the end of the day.”

Vocabulary: nappy, rappy, honkies, beaners, midgets, fag, Jew, lezzie, snicker, gay

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. How would you describe the color of your skin?
2. Is it exactly the same as your parents?
3. Does everyone in your family have exactly the same color of skin?
4. How many different colors of skin are there in the world?

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. What is a bully?
2. Have you ever been called a “bad” name?
3. How did it make you feel?
4. Why do you think people call other people names?
5. How does it feel when someone tells you something nice, for instance that you are wonderful, great, smart?

Extension Activity

On one side of the board, make a list of the “bad” words that Snooty Patooty said. On the other side, list “good” words that could be used instead.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

For younger children, choose a student each day to be the Super Student. Have each child write a sentence about something nice about the Super Student. Have the students illustrate their sentence. Put the pages together for a special book for that student. Continue activity until all the students in the class have had a book made for them.

 For older children, have the students write their own rhyming poem or story in which a name-caller learns a lesson.

Art

Put your story together like a cartoon comic strip. Draw the characters interacting and use cartoon voice bubbles for what the characters say.

Social Studies

Research various world cultures, foods, and traditions. Compare and contrast these cultures and find commonalities.

Math

Compare currencies from different countries. Talk about the different denominations and colors used. Include a discussion of cultures that have used barter systems and shells and seeds for currency.

Title of piece: Student Teachers

Grade level:  K-6

Summary: A young Moslem girl explains to a Mormon classmate what it means to her to believe in Islam.

Key ideas: Some of us have different religious beliefs than others. To find out what those are, we need only ask.

Vocabulary: Moslem, Islam, Mohammed, Allah, charity, fast, Hajj (pilgrimage), Ramadan, Fitar, Sohur, Mormon, religion, agnostic, atheist, caffeine

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Ask the students what religions they are aware of. Some younger students may need some prompting. Ask the students if they are aware of any special customs associated with those religions, (e.g., celebrating Christmas, Chanukah, baptism, etc.) Chart their responses. Tell the children that there are lots of different ways that people in our world pray and worship. Be sure to mention that there are some people who do identify with a religion.

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. Anjoum is Moslem. Islam is her religion. What were some of the things she does to express her faith? (e.g., pray five times a day, fast, give charity, make pilgrimages)
2. Necie is Mormon. What did she said about her religion? (e.g., cannot drink Coke)
3. Are these the same as the things we charted earlier or different? Add them to the chart.
4. Do you know anything else about either of these religions?
5. Is there anything that is the same as we have listed, e.g., praying and giving?

Extension Activity

Invite guest speakers of different religions to come and speak about their traditions and customs. If speakers are not available, bring in various artifacts of world religions: Bible, Torah, Book of Mormon, Goganza, cross, music, etc. Have the students compare and contrast the religions by writing or talking about similarities and differences.

Other Related Activities 

Language Arts

Have the students interview a member of their family about the traditions and customs of their religion. Students can report back to the class and discuss the similarities between the ways some people practice their religion. 

Social Studies

Take a fieldtrip to a synagogue, mosque, temple or other religious places of worship. Have the students notice what they see in these places. Upon returning to the classroom, the students can draw what they have seen. Compare the various locations. Show a world map indicating where various religions are practiced.

Math

Make a graph of the various religions represented in the classroom. Compare that with national and worldwide statistics.

Title of piece: That’s A Family!

Grade level:  K-5

Summary: Real photos and text from, “That’s A Family,” a documentary created by Debra Chasnoff and Helen Cohen. The project follows kids across America describing their diverse families.

Key ideas: Families come in all sizes and shapes and are not defined in one particular way.

Vocabulary:  family, adoption, gay and lesbian, divorce, guardian

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. Ask for responses to this written question. “What is a family”?
2. Write various responses in a web diagram format.
3. Display various photos or drawings of traditional and nontraditional families.
4. Ask by a show of hands which photos or drawings are considered to be families.
5. Tally the votes next to each photo or drawing.

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. Revisit the written question, “What is a Family”?
2. Write new responses in a different color on web diagram.
3. Ask for a new show of hands regarding the photos and who they now consider family.
4. Tally the votes with a different color.
5. Discuss with the class any differences, changes, ideas that have come up.

Extension Activity

Have students make public awareness posters on the various diverse families in America for an information and tolerance campaign on campus. Or, have students bring in photos of their own family and share a story that will surprise people about their family.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Write a short play that would address a student or parent who believes that there is only one particular type of family. Use persuasion and information to form your polite dialogue with those who are unaware or hostile to different types of families. 

Social Studies

Investigate by going to various resources including the census the statistics on various family structures in the United States. Report the findings and data regarding families today as compared to ten, twenty, and fifty years ago.

Math

Make a bar graph using data gathered from the class on what types of families are within the classroom.

Title of piece: That’s A Family!

Grade level:  4-6

Summary: A Latino youth talks about the star of his family reunions-his favorite uncle-Constantin.

Key ideas: We are all human beings who love and need to be loved. Treating each other with respect can help make our world better. Knowing who we are is part of self-respect.

Vocabulary: Fresno, dinky, reunion, esophagus, Bakersfield

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. When was the time you felt you knew who you really were as a person, family member, and ethnic group member?
2. What triggered this event?
3. If you haven’t felt this, how do you think you will when that time comes.

After the Play

Discussion Questions

Discuss when and how children and teenagers discover who they really are. Some examples might include Martin Luther King, Jr., Harvey Milk or Cesar Chavez, when they first felt the sting of discrimination. It might also be helpful to remind students about the story of the ugly duckling

Extension Activity

Have students write a letter to Uncle Constantin telling him about their discovery and other feelings and thoughts they might have.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Write a story about a family reunion or gathering when you learned something about yourself. Describe in detail the activities, food, environment and people. Share the stories and food with your classmates.

Social Studies

Is there a family member who intrigues you and whom you have never gotten to know very well? Ask that person to tell you a story about an important time in his or her life. Write three things that occurred for that person.

Physical Education

Teach each other games, songs and other activities from family get togethers.

Title of piece: The War of the Stuck up Noses

Grade level:  3-6

Summary: A new girl in school helps everyone see that what’s in your heart is more important than the label on your jeans.

Key ideas: Like yourself for who you are. Be true to your feelings and don’t be pressured by peers to do what you don’t think is right.

Vocabulary: plastic surgeon, modeling agency, ghetto, Braille

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

Draw a stick-figure person on the board. Ask the students to tell you what is important about a person. Write the words or phrases around the drawing.

1.  Is what a person wears important? Why or why not?
2. How about the amount of money his or her parent’s make? Why or why not?
3. Have your friends ever made you say or do something you really didn’t want to do?
4. Why do we sometimes do things other people want us to do even if we know it isn’t right?

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. Why were Brittany and Victoria mean to Nancy?
2. What did Brittany and Victoria learn by the end of the play?
3. What could you do to help Coco realize this?
4. Have you ever felt like Brittany or Victoria? Describe when.
5. Have you ever felt like Nancy? Describe when.

Extension Activity

Look back at the stick figure and qualities that the class generated. Ask if there are any changes that the students would like to make?

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

With the students, generate a list of things that peers might try to pressure students to do: smoking, drinking, ditching school, stealing, etc. Have the students pick one of those “peer pressures” and write an advocacy essay about why they should not succumb to that pressure. Share these essays with the younger students at the school.

Social Studies

Talk about people in history that have gone against “peer pressure” to do the right thing even if it wasn’t popular. Some examples might be hiding Jewish people in Europe, girls demanding to be allowed to attend all-boy military academies, and some Boy Scouts protesting against the organization’s policy to ban gays and atheists. Have the students research these or other events.

Art

Create an anti peer pressure poster for one of the ideas generated in the language arts section. Display them around the school.

Title of piece: What Color is Your Mama?

Grade level:  K-2

Summary: During an art project, a group of first grade students learn not to make assumptions about people or their families based on their skin color.

Key ideas: Some children may have a different skin color from their parents because they are adopted.

Vocabulary: adopted, self-portrait, katillion, biological parents, borned

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

1. How would you describe the color of your skin?
2. Is it exactly the same as your parents?
3. Does everyone in your family have exactly the same color of skin?
4. How many different colors of skin are there in the world?

After the Play

Discussion Questions

1. How many parents does Charles have?
2. Does a person have to be your biological parent to be called your father or mother?
3. What makes a person a good mother or a good father?

Extension Activity

Just as they do in the play, make self-portraits using “people color” construction paper. Display them in the classroom and compare the various shades and hues.

Other Related Activities

Social Studies

Invite an adopted person, either an adult or child, to the class to talk about his/her experience. Invite the children to ask questions.

Math

Have students cut out a circle of the same color construction paper they chose for their self-portrait. Make a graph of the different colored circles. Which color has more? Which has fewer?

Social Studies

Have the students ask their parents to tell them a story about the student’s early childhood. The students can share the story as a storytelling with the class while sitting in the “sharing chair.”

Title of piece: What’s With the Dress, Jack?

Grade level:  K-2

Summary: A boy and girl play dress-up and tell stories about how the Assiniboyn, a Native-American tribe, encourage their children to wear the clothes that suit them best and play the games they most enjoy, without the limits of stereotypical gender roles.

Key ideas: Boys and girls can dress and participate in any activity they want. There are no “boy things” and “girl things.”

Vocabulary: Assiniboyn tribe, Sioux Nation, Native American, spirit, two-spirit, gender, stereotype, American Indian

Before the play: (activities and/or discussion questions)

The teacher should solicit/ chart “boy’s” activities, things, and dress and then “girl’s” activities, things and dress. The teacher can then discuss all the student responses. Possible questions might include the following:

1. Do you think boys could like some things that are on the girl’s side and vice versa?
2. What makes us think of certain clothing, activities and things as being only for girls or only for boys?

After the Play

Discussion Questions and Activity

The teacher should have pictures and photos of atypical gender roles both From today and in history. Examples from today might include police, fire And military women or male nurses, fashion designers, and ballet Performers. Examples from history might include men in dresses, robes, Kilts or with wigs, earrings and long hair.

1. Why were men able to wear dresses in the past and not today?
2. Why do you think women were not allowed to wear pants? Why did this change?
3. Discuss hairstyles, make-up and jewelry and how it fits into gender roles.
4. Is it all right for women to be in the military, police, etc.? Why or why not?
5. Would it be alright if a boy wanted to play jumprope or hopscotch or if a girl wanted to play soccer and kickball? Why or why not?

Extension Activity

First chart “boy” and “girl” P.E. activities. For P.E. have the girls teach the boys how to play one “girl game” and the boy to teach the girls how to play one “boy game.” Then let them play the game for the day or week. After they have played the new game for the week, ask students if their views have changed.

Other Related Activities

Language Arts

Referring to the class chart, write the pros and cons for allowing boys do “girl things” and girls to do “boy things.” 

Social Studies

Research and write a biography about some of the “two-spirit” Native Americans such as Running Eagle and WeWa.