Hi everyone! We're gearing up for Martin Luther King Day! I wanted to share with you some of my favorite ways to teach my students about Martin Luther King, Jr.
(One of my kiddos is still working on that missing piece!)
First, I LOVE this collaborative poster product by Art with Jenny K. I've used it the past couple of years and it always a big hit. Plus, it looks great up on the wall! For morning work, I have each student pick a paper and color it according to the instructions on the top. The page also gives them a letter-number combination that corresponds to a grid, so they know where it goes in the final poster.
Then, I have them place their letter-number combination on the BACK of their sheet, so that when they cut the directions off, I still know where it goes! (Don't learn this the hard way!)
You can have your students do this part together, or you can do it yourself. Just line them up on a piece of bulletin board paper according to their grid placements, then glue them down! It comes together so beautifully.
The next thing I LOVE to do is read "I Have a Dream" to them. This is a GORGEOUS book. It uses excerpts from King's speech and has the best paintings. You can snag it on Amazon for $11. (It's hardback and comes with an AUDIO CD of his speech. I love to play my students the last few minutes after reading the book. Most of them have never heard what his voice sounded like!)
After we discuss the speech, I tell them they are going to be writing speeches of their own! For this, I use a great freebie from Apples and ABC's! I write out a few sentence stems (straight from King's speech) and give them time to work on a rough draft and peer edit. Here is an example of one that is almmmossst done!
I hope you enjoy teaching about Martin Luther King as much as I do! I also love to do a lesson on Ruby Bridges, using the book "The Story of Ruby Bridges." I will try to do a post on that in the future!
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