Fairness for Kids: Walk In Their Shoes Activity with Free Printable

Start a conversation on fairness for kids with this Family Dinner Book Club activity and free printable.

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." - Atticus Finch

This is one of my favorite quotes from one of my all time favorite books: To Kill a Mockingbird. Written nearly 60 years ago, Harper Lee's words are as relevant today as they were in 1960. And they form the inspiration for this month's Family Dinner Book Club activity on fairness for kids.

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Fairness for Kids

This month's Family Dinner Book Club theme is Fairness. It's a tough topic to tackle with kids, but so important.

If you're new to our Family Dinner Book Club, its a way for families to connect around a children's book, a great meal, and engaging activities and conversation. Along with my co-hosts, Jodie from Growing Book by Book and Sarah from Chef Sarah Elizabeth, we have everything you need to plan your total book club experience.

Every month, we are highlighting a new character trait with a featured book. Then Jodie will give you more books to choose from around the theme, plus conversation starters. Sarah will give you a delicious themed dinner menu and table crafts. And I will give you activities and service projects to complement the theme and books.

We also have a free printable planner to keep all your Family Dinner Book Club plans in one place. It includes the full theme and book list for the year plus planning pages for each month. Get yours by clicking the button below!

FREE

This month's book is New Shoes by Susan Lynn Meyer.

In this story of the Jim Crow era, Ella Mae is excited to buy her first pair of new shoes. Unfortunately, she finds that she's not even able to try on the shoes at her local store. But she and a friend come up with a way to fight back. Read more here. 

Walk a Mile in Their Shoes

As I read New Shoes, the quote from To Kill a Mockingbird kept coming back to me. Actually, the more common version: to really understand someone, you need to walk a mile in their shoes. 

This advice, first thought to have been given around 1895, is especially true today, and an important lesson for our children.

No matter what side you fall on the millions of issues that seem to divide us these days, one thing is true. People have stopped listening to each other. We seem to be less willing than ever to "walk a mile in someone's shoes" to try to understand their point of view. But if we can teach our children the importance of this lesson, then perhaps we can open up new conversations and find more common ground.

To help get these conversations started, I have a creative activity that everyone in the family can participate in. 

Start by downloading our free printable activity set - simply click the button below to grab yours.

FREE

The set has 2 pages total: the first is a blank set of shoe prints for your children to decorate, plus letters they can color.

Encourage them to decorate their shoes, and as they do, you can begin to talk about the concepts of fairness and what it means to "walk in someone else's shoes."

And when they are finished, you can hang up their shoe print art as a reminder to always try to think of other people's point of view. This makes a great visual for when siblings are disagreeing: encourage them to look at each other's shoe prints and think about what their brother/sister might be feeling.

The second page includes more activities to encourage fairness as well as our monthly service project ideas.

Complete Your Family Dinner Book Club Experience

For the total Family Dinner Book Club experience, start by heading to Growing Book by Book for a list of books on Fairness for kids and conversation starters.

Then visit Chef Sarah Elizabeth for a themed dinner menu and tablescape.

Finally, be sure to share your Family Dinner Book Club pictures with us on Facebook - we'd love to see them!

Love this? See all our Family Dinner Book Club activities here!