Hair, It's a family affair by Mylo Freeman

 

The original lesson plan for this text is in the "No Outsiders: Everyone different, everyone welcome" resource (2020). However, after listening to Liz Pemberton speaking at a conference I attended in 2022, I asked her advice on improving the plan. Liz helped me to re-frame the way I used this book, think about the language I used, and the way I talked about race within the context of the story. Together we re-wrote the lesson plan and I recommend people use this plan in place of the version in the original resource. Thank you to Liz for your work and inspiration. Liz does anti-racist training and consultancy in the early years sector and can be contacted at www.theblacknurserymanager.com/

Lesson plan Y1

Text: Hair, It's a family affair by Mylo Freeman
Lesson plan by Andrew Moffat       www.no-outsiders.com
Edited by Liz Pemberton                 www.the blacknurserymanager.com
Learning Intention: Proud to be me
Success criteria: I know we are all different / I know I belong
Starter: Show the front cover of the book and ask children what they think the book is about. Everyone on the front cover has Afro-textured hair. Look at the inside cover page where there are lots of different head/ hair pictures. Does anyone in this class have Afro-textured hair, plaits, beads in their hair, cornrows, locs? What are the different hair types in our class? Does anyone in our class have exactly the same hair as you?
Source and show images of the above hair types on the board so that children are clear what they mean.
Main: Read "Hair, it's a family affair" and discuss
- look at the picture of the class on the first page; what do you notice about the children and their hair?
- Why has Grandma's hair changed?
- Look at the picture of Macy's sister and her friends. Do you think they are proud of the way they look? How do you know?
- How does Mum cut little brother's hair? Has anyone here seen hair cut that way?
- Why do you think Mum says hair is a family affair?
- What does Macy want to be when she grows up? What does her best friend Troy want to be?
- Do you think Macy is proud to have Afro hair? How do you know?
- How do you think Macy would feel if people in her class kept touching her hair? Is it ok to touch someone's hair? (No. We respect each other and we don't touch.)

Activity: In the story, Macy tells the class about her family and their Afro hair. Ask children to think about their own family or about the people who live in their house; does everyone have the same hair? Do some people wear hats or scarves? In pairs, children talk about their experiences of different hair and then feed back.

Children draw a picture of people in their family with a focus on hair. Label each person and think of words to describe each person's hair.

Plenary: In every picture we see of Macy, she looks happy. Why do you think Macy is so happy (because she is proud of who she is; she feels happy to be Macy) What does proud mean? If you are proud of yourself, what does that mean? What does Macy know about belonging? Where does Macy belong in the story? (she belongs in her family, at school, with her friends)
Why is this story about No Outsiders? (because everyone belongs.)
Here is a useful background article for teachers on this subject. It incudes a really good short video that children could watch at the end of the session and then discuss, why is this video similar to the story, what can we learn from the children in the video https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/58971403

 

 

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