Activities About Equality for Kids

Magazine Activities

• Divide children into groups of three or four, and give each group a few magazines to cut out pictures that represent equality; for example, they can cut out several pictures of African-Americans and several pictures of Caucasians. Instruct them to glue the pictures of the people to a sheet of paper. Ask the children to list the similarities and differences between the two races, explaining to the children that the only main difference in the two races is color and color is not important. Children can also cut out pictures of related religious items and the class can discuss the differences and similarities of religion.

Bean Activities

• Pour several different types of dry beans into a large container. Use as many different types, shapes and colors of beans as you can find. You can allow small children to use scoops and cups to play in the beans before starting the activity. Ask each child to pull out five matching beans and five beans that do not match. The children can work together with partners or individually to come up with similarities about the matching beans and differences in the different beans. Ask the children share their thoughts with the class so everyone can have a group discussion.

Gender Activities

• Show children that gender equality is important during playtime. Let the children play with male and female dolls. You might have boy and girl dolls that are both nurses. Explain to the children that men can be nurses just like women. Also present girl and boy firefighter, police and military dolls to show the children that gender doesn't matter in regards to occupations. Tell the children that boys should not be discouraged from playing with dolls and girls should not be discouraged to play a sport like football if she desires.

Other Activities

• Other activities include books and mirror images. Read books like "All the Colors We Are" by Katie Kissinger, "Different and Alike" by Nancy P. McConnell and "Black, White, Just Right" by Marguerite W. Davol. Give each child a sheet of construction paper and a bottle of glue, and instruct him to fold the paper down the middle and write his name on one side of the paper with the glue. He will then press the paper back together to create a mirror image print of his name on the other side of the sheet. Explain to the children that no matter what name or word you write, it is always equal and comes out the same.