Martin Luther King, Jr. activities

With next Monday being Martin Luther King, Jr. day, my class has been learning about MLK and civil rights this week.

On Monday, we read Martin's Big Words and also an easy reader biography about Rosa Parks.  We talked about some vocabulary words such as racism, prejudiced, and boycott.

On Wednesday we met with our kindergarten buddies, watched the video for Martin's Big Words (only 8 mins, so great for a group of 65 five and eight year olds!!).  I highly recommend this video.  It's read by a man with a melodic, deep voice and features gospel music in the background.  It sends chills down my spine - I'm kinda sensy though! :)  After the video, we did this art project, inspired by Pinterest:
Idea from here
The 3rd graders read the poem to the kindergarteners, then glued the poem to construction paper, painted one kindergarten hand to stamp on the page and one 3rd grade hand.  If they got done early, they could decorate around the poem.  They turned out really cute and were perfect reminders how everyone should be kind to each other, no matter their differences.  In addition to the kids making connections to their difference in age, our school is really diverse, so they noticed that students of all colors and languages could get along and be friends.  It was sweet to see them all working together! 

And tomorrow, if all goes well, my class will be making this awesome art! 

It looks simple enough, but I'm not sure if it will work out ok.  I'll post next week either way.  It's fun to see something turn out awesome, but then good to learn from a fail as well.  I'll keep you updated!! :)

And one more thing - I'm linking up with Meghan over at Oh Boy Fourth Grade


What are you currently thinking?  What have you been up to this week?  Anything to do with Martin Luther King. Jr?

2 comments

  1. We just started back from our holidays. Our class (grade 2/3) also watched Martin's Big Words and did some blog-inspired activities related to MLK. I am going to post responses to "I Have a Dream" on our bulletin board along with black and white photos of each student.

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  2. Great idea to use photos of the kids! Can't wait to read about their dreams! :)

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