One of the most important lessons to learn as a child is to embrace and celebrate our differences. Fostering a general atmosphere of kindness in your classroom not only helps children improve their social skills but also sets them up fantastically for the rest of their lives. Teaching children to be proud of their differences, whilst also being respectful towards others, can hopefully inspire them to be positive and kind people when they grow older. There's a full range of additional resources available to support this story too. Just like the storybook, they've been written by teachers and designed to be used in the classroom. Take a look at these and see how you can use them in your teaching:

We Are All Different: I Am Special Poem Worksheets - These worksheets encourage children to write a poem all about themselves. The worksheets include a variety of prompts and a word bank, helping children to write positively about themselves. I’m sure this confusion must’ve gripped you at some point in your life. You may have fluctuated between the two schools of thought, depending on your recent observations.Why not start off the project with a class discussion? Facilitate interaction by asking your students to see if they identify with any of the characteristics of the people in the banner. What words come to mind? Can they write any of them down? Making sure each child feels represented is so important. With this diversity poster, the message 'We're all different. We're all friends' encourages children to not judge others based on their differences, and that everyone can be friends even though they may be different to one another. It also provides visual support for your teaching, that differences and diversity are something to be celebrated. This alone has largely made the study of mind possible. If everyone’s subconscious worked differently, we wouldn’t have known whatever little we know about it today.

In the first worksheet, children will fill in the gap of what colour hair and eyes they have, and there is a key to help with spellings. Our evolved behaviours, that make us all the same, result from the ever-present genetic nudges nudging us to reproduce. We don’t have a choice to stop these nudges.

How can I teach my children about diversity?

Even identical twins differ in their learned behaviours because of different life experiences. Still, the fundamental aspects of their personality (such as temperament) are more or less the same as these are controlled by genetics. As they go through preschool, primary school, secondary school and beyond, children will meet many, many different types of people. Not all of these people will be the same or similar to them. Many well-meaning people will sagely tell you we are all unique, that we have our own peculiarities and idiosyncrasies. This makes you believe that no two people are alike just like no two snowflakes are alike.