Colorful + Vibrant Rainbow Flag Story Time To Celebrate Pride
Before June has totally passed us by, I’m excited to share a bright + colorful story time I put together for #thelittleone recently. In celebration of June’s gay pride month, I was inspired by a sweet board book, Our Rainbow. Kids will get a priceless lesson in tolerance and community, as well as have the opportunity to practice some fundamental skills. Be sure to keep reading to check out our super fun rainbow flag story time!
RAINBOW FLAG STORY TIME FOR PRIDE
Reading Our Rainbow
I happened upon Our Rainbow while browsing through the book store one day. The board book is visually stunning, featuring artwork from an assortment of artists. (C.G. Esperanza, Mohammed Fayaz, Love is Wise, Dylan Glynn, Joy Yang, Chris Kindred, Beena Mistry, Cynthia Yuang Cheng, Jeromy Velasco.) Kids and adults will love checking out the colorful illustrations in a variety of styles. The board book format makes it perfect for little hands to hold and turn pages. And the rainbow flag shape of the book adds extra interest and appeal for kids.
The story is simple, straightforward, and 100% appropriate for kids of all ages. It’s the perfect choice to introduce concepts of diversity, acceptance, tolerance, and community to kids. Although it’s clear to adults that the main focus is gay pride, that may not be entirely evident for children. I love that approach, because it doesn’t make varying gender identity or sexual orientation unusual, shocking, or weird. They’re all just simply variations of ‘normal’, just like the many skin tones in the book, etc. I’m a firm believer in teaching by example and exposure- kids don’t always need to be hit over the head with the main idea. This choice for rainbow flag story time addresses the topic subtly, in an approachable way.
Plus, bonus! This book was produced in partnership between little bee books and glaad. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Our Rainbow are being donated to accelerating LGBTQ acceptance. Talk about a win-win!
Crafting A Rainbow Flag
This fun craft project is simple to set up, and easy to complete. It’s a great choice for kids who are working on some basic skills. Children making their own flag have the opportunity to practice cutting with scissors, gluing for fine motor practice, and color recognition + sorting. This craft is basic enough to lend itself to many books about gay pride. Another great option to check out is Pride: The Story Of Harvey Milk And The Rainbow Flag.
Materials:
- Kid-friendly scissors.
- Plain paper. (1 piece per flag)
- Glue stick or craft glue.
- Paint chips in rainbow colors, available at home improvement stores.
- I chose shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. You could choose to include black and brown like the book mentions.
- We looked for paint chips with 3 or 4 shades on the chip, to give my son a chance to practice his newly developing scissor skills.
- Colored paper would also work, but since I knew we were going to focus on cutting, I wanted the built-in lines.
- Paint stirring sticks. (1 stick per flag) Also available at home improvement stores.
Instructions:
- Gather all necessary supplies.
- I chose to cut each column of paint chips in half vertically. This gave my son extra practice cutting.
- Encourage your child to cut each paint chip along the line that separates shades.
- Reinforce color recognition skills by having the child sort the chips into piles of each color. (Reds, oranges, etc.)
- Kids can glue smaller paint chips along the paper in stripes of each color.
- After the flag’s stripes are completed, attach the paint stirrer stick to the back of the paper, so your flag has a handle.
- Wave your flags proudly, or hang them in a window to show your support for so many of your neighbors, family members, and friends.
Have you celebrated with or taught your kids about Pride? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.
