Becoming a Purple Person

I am excit­ed to start year two of Bookol­o­gy! I con­tem­plat­ed doing themes around COVID-19 and then I thought why not write about the impor­tance of being a pur­ple per­son? Some of you might be ask­ing your­self the fol­low­ing ques­tions: Does this relate to sci­ence? Do you become pur­ple by eat­ing egg­plants or beets? Do you paint your­self pur­ple? Let me explain.

The World Needs More Purple PeopleI was walk­ing around the children’s depart­ment at the library where I work. I combed through some of our new books. I stum­bled on The World Needs More Pur­ple Peo­ple by Kris­ten Bell and Ben­jamin Hart. This is an inter­ac­tive sto­ry that adds humor, empa­thy, appre­ci­a­tion, and curios­i­ty. This book empha­sizes that pur­ple peo­ple paint a world where accept­ing your­self is impor­tant and help­ing oth­ers is essen­tial. Here is the link to the inter­view Kris­ten did with ET Cana­da about this book. This book also helped me gen­er­ate new pro­gram oppor­tu­ni­ties that encour­age chil­dren to explore who they are and the world around them. Enjoy.

Pro­gram 1: Make Me Purple

Set up a table with paper, crayons, and/or mark­ers and then read the book, The World Needs More Pur­ple Peo­ple by Kris­ten Bell and Ben­jamin Hart. Fol­low­ing the book, have chil­dren write and draw what they learned from the book about what it means to be a pur­ple per­son. Post these up on a wall or the refrig­er­a­tor to help them remem­ber the impor­tance of being purple.

Pro­gram 2: The Puz­zle of Me

For this activ­i­ty, chil­dren will cre­ate a puz­zle of them­selves. To do this, have them draw puz­zle pieces, mak­ing sure the pieces are able to be put togeth­er. For each piece, have them draw some­thing that is unique about them or a word or phrase. Once com­plete, encour­age them to give their puz­zle to a fam­i­ly mem­ber or friend to put together.

Pro­gram 3: I Am Game

This game is sim­i­lar to cha­rades. Instruct chil­dren to think about words that describe who they are and to write them down. Next, have them draw a pic­ture of them­selves on a piece of con­struc­tion paper and post it up. Gath­er fam­i­ly and friends and have the child act out the word that describes them. When some­one gets a word cor­rect, have the child glue it to their draw­ing. Once fin­ished have them say, “I am” fol­lowed by all of the words that they act­ed out that describe themselves.

Resources to Help Spark Ideas on Individuality

  1. Kids in Ser­vice: Teach­ing Kids Empa­thy 
  2. Kids World Cit­i­zen: Videos about Empa­thy For Kids 
  3. The Child Devel­op­ment Institute
  4. Edu­ca­tion World: Every­one is Unique 
  5. Penn State Exten­sion: We are dif­fer­ent, we are the same 

Mr. Z’s Book Selec­tions on Indi­vid­u­al­i­ty:

Books on Individuality

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