Community Reading Project: The Colors of Us (online)

Fun with Food at Home!

The session will be prerecorded and uploaded to the library's YouTube channel. Only one staff member is needed and they will be recording from their home and from their kitchen. The video will be approximately 20 minutes in length. There is no requirement for a library card or password to access the video. It will be posted in the "Children's Corner" online activities page.

The video with start with a read aloud of The Colors of Us. After reading the book, ask how seven year old Lena talks about her friends and neighbors. She compares them to food! Lena says she is the color of cinnamon. Her mom is the color of French toast. On a walk through the neighborhood with her mom, Lena encounters friends, relatives, and shopkeepers along the way. Some of the different foods she describes are: peanut butter, chocolate, peaches, honey, cocoa, butterscotch, pizza crust, ginger, chili powder, coconut, coffee, and toffee.

Do you have some of these ingredients at home? With the help of an adult, look in your kitchen cupboards and take out some of the food that Lena describes that you may have. Look at the differences and similarities in their colors. Do you maybe have coffee beans or grounds? Honey? Peanut butter? Do you have any friends or neighbors whose skin may look like these colors? Does your skin look like any of these colors? How does Lena paint the colors of these foods when she's painting all of her friends and neighbors? Does she just use one color brown, or does she blend different colors together to get the various shades? What does it mean to blend? That's right---it's a mixing together! Lena mixes yellow, red, black and white paints to get her shades of brown just right.

All of Lena's friends and neighbors are unique. This means that they are special in their own way. All of your friends and neighbors are unique, too. People may look different from one another and that's okay. Recognizing our differences is a big part of understanding others.

Don't forget to clean up any food messes you made! I can't wait to eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich!