Why do people have different skin color?
From Rainbow Children by Poinsett & Burns

Goal:
To think about the human race as the rainbow race and to experience how individual efforts contribute to making a whole.

Materials:
light blue poster board or a long piece of white paper (44 X 66”)
poster paint or watercolor paint in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet
paint brushes and sponges
one aluminum pie pan
bowls of clean water and towels

Preparation:
Paint the large sheet of white paper with a blue watercolor wash. Mix a small amount of blue paint with a large amount of water and brush or sponge it onto the paper. Allow it to dry thoroughly before touching it.

Make an arc on the paper (or blue poster board), using a pencil and string as a large compass.
Use the template to cut one or more sponges into the shape of a human figure. One sponge can be used to print several colors of paint if you rinse it out well between printings.

Activities:
Introduce this activity by saying something like:

People all over the world have stories about rainbows. Some people say there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They say if you could ever find the place, very far away, where it touches the ground, you would find that pot of god and be rich. That story comes from the Irish. Jewish people tell a story about the rainbow, too. They say the rainbow is a sign, a promise from their God that the world will never be destroyed. They say the rainbow first appeared after a great, angry flood that nearly destroyed everything. When they see the rainbow they know their God is keeping a promise made long ago. Here’s another story about the rainbow, and this one will help answer your question.

Read: The Gift of Color

After the story, say something like: We’re going to make a people rainbow. Sometimes the human race is also called the Rainbow Race because people come in so many colors. Even in our family, we have different skin tones. Let’s hold our hands next to each others so we can really see the differences. Like the people in the story, all real people have some color or we wouldn’t be able to see them. We are going to make a big poster to remind all of us that we’re proud to be part of the Rainbow Race.

Use a paintbrush to apply each paint color (one at a time) to the human shaped sponges. Then press the sponge lightly to the paper along the arc.