Multicultural Family Portrait Sticky Wall

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INSIDE: Here is a fun activity for kids! Create a family portrait sticky wall! This makes a great activity to pair with The Colors of Us by Karen Katz or during an All About Me study unit or anytime!

Yesterday we got out our paints and mixed colours to make all the beautiful browns and peachy tans that make up my family. We used the book The Colors of Us by Karen Katz to help get the conversation started and the results were simply amazing!

Books are an amazing way to get the conversation started about race and racism. But since I’m an activity mom I put together a list of 30+ activities that can also help to spark the conversation. Pair them with a book or do them on their own. Use them as a tool to create the space and time for anti-racism conversations to happen in your home today, next week, next month…

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Making the Faces

To make the heads for the family portraits we mixed black, brown, orange, peach and white washable paints together to make the skins tones of the different people in our family. There was a bit of trial and error here so use a small amount of paint at first until you get the right shades. Then we took pieces of white paper and painted them. After they dried we cut them out in the shape of a head with ears. Then I stuck them on the wall using masking tape. Then I lay the contact paper over top of the painted faces with the sticky side facing out.

Putting Up Your Sticky Wall

Contact paper has one side that is very very sticky, so unrolling it and taping it to a wall can be a little tricky. Here’s how I do it:

Step 1

Stick the sticky wall up on the wall using small rolled up pieces of tape in the four corners. Make sure the paper backing side is facing out.

Step 2

Peel the paper backing off to expose one small corner of the sticky paper. Continue peeling the paper backing off until one side is exposed. Tape that side down fully using Painter’s tape. This will ensure that it doesn’t fall down as your child is playing.

Step 3

Slowing peel back the remaining paper backing and tape down the other side.

Step 4 (optional)

Remove the small rolled up pieces of tape from underneath the sticky wall. These rolled up pieces were just there to help you get the sticky wall set up and can be removed once your sticky wall fully up. But if you don’t mind them there you don’t have to remove them.

Making the Family Portraits

To make the faces we used yarn, foam sheets, buttons, various beans, paper clips, cardboard circles. Use whatever you have at home to create the faces. Consider the colours of the people you are creating, such as eye colour and hair colour of everyone in your family.

Making Different People

This activity can also be used to make not just family portraits but lots of different types of people. My family is very diverse similar to the book The Colors of Us, but if your family isn’t consider creating some of the characters from the books.

Looking for more Anti-Racism Activities? Check out these fun ideas:

Supplies

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