Everybody is Welcome!

“Treat others kindly.” “Everyone is welcome here.” “Everyone is different.”

These are the positive messages on the welcome sign that hangs about Jocelyn Lividini’s classroom door, in the fourth-grade wing of Increase Miller Elementary.

Lividini recounts the thought process behind the poster.

“First, we learned about melanin using the book ‘The Colors We Share’ by Angelica Dass. We talked about how it is difficult to ‘group’ people since we are all different shades and colors.  Then, we discussed civil rights and the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. Finally, we each traced our hands and wrote positive message on the cut-outs,” said Lividini. “We also worked to combine crayon colors to create our skin color.  We learned together that no one color fits us best but that a combination of colors forms our identity.”

The students put the hands and messages on poster board and suggested it hang in the hallway so everyone knows their room is a safe space.