Last week, the Hoot Owls read the book The Colors of Us, by Karen Katz. In the story, a little girl notices all the beautiful and different skin colors of the people in her community. Her mom is an artist and teaches her how to mix black, white, red and yellow paint to make the skin colors of the people that she sees. She then paints portraits of the members of her community, declaring them “the colors of us!”
After reading the story, the Hoot Owls mixed paints to create their own self-portraits. The students tried to get as close as they could to their own skin color; each Pre-K student decided when the color was correct, or close enough. Next the Hoot Owls looked into mirrors and added their eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth and hair to their portraits.