Must-Have Multicultural Art Materials for your Classroom
10 art materials to help all students celebrate and represent their individuality in your classroom!
At the end of every school year, our Senior Kindergarten students meticulously create beautiful chalk pastel self-portraits that we use to decorate the gymnasium for Kindergarten Graduation. We encourage students to look in a mirror while they make the portrait so that what they are drawing looks like them. The portraits are always so bright, creative and loved by the families.
However, every year, when we are making the portraits, I hear the term “skin colour” to refer to the beige-coloured pastels, and occasionally, a student will point out that there is no colour that quite matches their skin. I’ve always felt awkward when that happens, but hey - there are only so many pastel colours in the supply closet, right? What am I supposed to do?
Turns out, there is a lot that I could - and SHOULD - be doing.
Have you experienced anything like this in your own classroom? If yes, check out these awesome multicultural art supplies that you can use to make your classroom a more multicultural and inclusive space.
I love these packs. They come with a little colouring book that has a lot of people in it (I realized that most of our colouring books at home are either animals or Disney characters)! I think it’s great that my daughter will be using a bunch of different colours to fill them in! Older grades could use them to make a project such as a Heritage Self-Portrait!
This pack of markers is so perfect for a whole class of little learners!
Multicultural Construction Paper
There are some beautiful ideas for multicultural crafts in the classroom, and this pack of large multicultural paper is perfect for them. Check out @thepeacefulfawn’s “Peaceful Wreath” for an example of a beautiful craft to make with this!
Crayola hits the nail on the head again with this one - a beautiful set of washable (AMEN) paints in eight different skin tones. They would be perfect for an “All About Me” craft, like “The Colours of Me” craft from Haley O’Connor!*
These tempera paints would be great in an upper elementary classroom, and could be used for a variety of projects! Deep Space Sparkle uses them for her Chalk & Tempera Portraits!*
These multicultural people cutouts are fantastic additions to any art centre. I love how Nadia from Fun With Mama makes paper doll puppets to accompany books about other countries and their special cultures!
I love to use tissue paper in my classroom; it’s a forgiving material no matter how you use it! This tissue paper would be beautiful for older children to use to make a mask craft!
My absolute favourite way to use acrylic paint is on Peg Dolls. No one does this better than Mme. Mariah! She has used acrylic paint and modge podge to make multicultural peg dolls, and has even recently made some with water colours. Check out her guide on Rainbow Peg Dolls, here!
I love using pastels for the Kindergarten Self-Portraits that we do. I look forward to using more varied colours for the next time that I do them! Again, Deep Space Sparkle has hit the nail on the head with this with her Chalk & Tempera Portraits!*
Mr. Giannetto has many fun ideas for multicultural crafts, including these 3-D self-portraits!* The self-portraits can be made and then painted, or created with multicultural clay, like the one pictured!
Do you have any favourite multicultural activities? I’d love to hear about them!
*Used with permission from original creator/author.
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