Idaho Falls Preschool Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day
As I prepared for this week’s lessons on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and our theme of Friendship and Sharing, I couldn’t believe how seamlessly these two themes seemed to blend together. I would love to say that putting the two of these together was completely planned and that I am just that good, but in reality they just fell together on the same week in my planning schedule. With that being said, I could not have been more pleased with how they have come together.
The neat thing about these themes is that they mirror each other. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to live in a world were people were judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. He wanted a world filled with peace and love. Keeping that in mind as we look at friendship we find similar ideas. True friendship is all about what is on the inside and not the outside of people. If you have ever seen little kids make friends, it looks like one of the easiest things possible. “Want to be friends?” “Okay.” It’s usually that easy for little ones.
As we age, it seems to get more difficult though. Thoughts from other kids, adults and media that kids are exposed to, can sometime make kids second guess this once easy process. This is why we need to touch on the tough subjects while they are young and in Idaho Falls Preschool, so that they are already prepared to handle tough situations as they become older.
This is one of the reasons we spend a whole week talking about friendship and sharing in our Idaho Falls Preschool. It is a great start for these kids to understand that all kids are the same on the inside, no matter how they look on the outside. They need to know that all kids want the same things; to be accepted and loved by their friends and families.
To illustrate this for little ones, gather one of each of the following supplies for each person in your family or activity group:
- A small treat-like a fruit snack, or individually wrapped snack (you’ll want to use the same snack or treat for everyone)
- Box for each treat
- Wrapping Paper–Some beautiful paper, some overly plain paper
Next, wrap each treat in either the pretty paper or the plain paper.
Lastly, have each person pick a present randomly, but do not let anyone open their present yet.
Have a conversation about who’s present is the best. Lead the discussion to the point that everyone agrees on the simple truth that you can’t tell which present is the best, because you don’t know what is on the inside. Let everyone unwrap their gift. After the excitement of the treat wears off a bit, circle back around to the idea that it didn’t matter what the outside of the present looked like, the inside was all the same. Let everyone in the group know that this is the same with people. We all look different on the outside, but it’s what is on the inside that counts. This means that we can be friends with anyone. No matter how they look, their social or religious status, we are all the same on the inside. What an awesome thing to know and hold in our hearts.
Lastly, I’ll leave you with this powerful quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Himself.
