Teaching Heart's Martin Luther King Day Theme!
Ideas, Books, Songs, Lessons, and much more for your classroom...
Martin Luther King was a man who believed
in using nonviolent methods to gain justice and equality
for all people.
Updated January 2012
|If You Lived
at the Time of Martin Luther King
Young Martin Luther King, Jr. : 'I Have a Dream' (First-Start Biographies)
|Martin's Big Words: The Life
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
My Dream of Martin Luther King
|Dear Dr. King
: Letters from Today's Children to Dr. Martin Luther
|Oh, Freedom! :
Kids Talk About the Civil Rights Movement With the People
Who Made It Happen
|Martin Luther King, Jr. : Young Man With a Dream||
See Ideas For This Book Below!
Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historic address to civil rights marchers that took place on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. You can find it at The History Channel's Great Speeches Web site. (You will need RealAudio Plug-in to listen to the speech.) Talk about Dr. King's dream for the future. Then think about your dreams for the future. Draw an outline of a cloud, and inside the cloud, write a sentence or two that describes one of your hopes and dreams.
He is a unit filled with ideas Presidents'
Day & Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Thematic Unit
Create a timeline that shows the important dates in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (See The Dr. King Timeline Page at Buckman Elementary School to get some ideas.)
Watch this VHS with your class ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. - "I Have a Dream" (1986)
Martin Luther King: Civil Rights Leader - Students read about King's life, and answer questions about his contributions. Printable handouts are provided
Arts and Crafts
Things To Print and Share With Your Class!
The sheet above and below are From The Teaching Heart CDROM - Click to learn more!!!
You can download the sheet above for free. Just click here! Students read the text and illustrate a picture in the thinking cloud.
Many Wonderful MLK ideas like the below
from Preschool Daze!
Click to see even more on their blog!
Finally in First has a Great MLK post with
many ideas like the one below. Click here to see
Check out this cute Freedom Bell from Kids Soup. You can learn how to make it here...
Sing these songs with your class.
(Children are clapping hands)
Dr. King, Dr. King, Dr. King was a civil
Happy Birthday, Dr. King
Dr. King was a man
Harmony and Peace
Dr. King taught us to live
A special thanks to the teachers who are
always willing to share with others!
use the book The Land Of Many Colors to open
Last year I created a book about 5 African Americans who were inventors. Each day the children created a project and glued it into the book I developed. I don't remember all the inventers but off the top of my head they invented the traffic light, icecream scoop and golf tee. Posted by M&M on 1/03/03
I do an activity with brown eggs and white eggs. I have the students each choose one and look closely at their egg. We discuss similarities and differences in the outside appearance of the eggs---color variations, some are bumpy, some elongated, some almost round, some are grainy-looking, some have ripples in the shell, some are spotted, etc.
Then I ask if they think the eggs are different on the inside?Depending on the time frame I have to do this in, I sometimes create a graph with paper eggs and placing the paper eggs under titles, "Same" or "Different". And, again, I've done this next part a couple of different ways. I like to have each child crack their own egg into a clear plastic or glass container so that each child can readily see that the eggs when cracked open are all the same. It is a bit messy, but I think the lesson learned is very valuable. Sometimes, if there are no allergy problems to worry about and if I have time, I will cook the eggs and let the kids eat them for snack. Otherwise I have a refrigerator and just take them home to cook. It is a wonderful opportunity to talk about our differences and how we are much like the eggs---all a little different on the outside, but the same inside. I have had very positive comments from parents about this activity. It seems to teach the concept better than any other method I've found....that and also discussing Ruby Parks and asking children how they would feel if I created a rule that only children with blond hair could go to recess or only those with blue eyes could jump rope, etc.----this never fails to get them to respond with, "That's not fair!" and then we discuss why it isn't fair and the fact that many years ago, we had some very silly rules. Posted by Jacque/WA/K-1 on 1/03/03
For MLK day, a third grade teacher and I usually make a Friendship Snack with the kids. Each food has a meaning. I have the recipe at school. will post it next week.I usually make a red, white and blue bell with the kids. We take a blue sheet of construction paper and paint it using balloons and red and white paint. When it dries, we trace a bell onto the paper and cut it out. On a white bell shaped piece of paper we write our dreams for society. I connect them by punching a hole in the top and use red and white curling ribbon to tie them together. I also punch a hole in the bottom of the blue bell and add a jingle bell to it. I post them with the "Let Freedom Ring" caption. Lisa/1/PA Visit our classroom: http://www.geocities.com/mrslisamaried/welcometoourclassroom.html
I have a picture
of MLK and we usually start a few weeks before his
birthday talking about charactertraits he had. We talk
about perserverance especially
Read, Read, Read to Your Class
1.) Introduce these words below and discuss the meaning of them before reading the book. You may choose to place these on cutouts of clouds or on chart paper. protests, freedome, fair, character, marches, peace, slaves, & prejudice.
2.) Pose the thought and question; People are often treated differently because of their skin color. Why do you think this happens? What can we do to treat people equally?
3.) Ask the class if they have ever been treated unfairly by someone, how did it make them feel?
4.) Begin your lesson on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., by assessing your students' prior knowledge using a K-W-L chart. List on a chart the facts that your students know about King. Next, ask them to tell you what they want to know about him. After you read a variety of books, have students tell you what they have learned about him.
1.) Ask the class why they think MLK's was important to people of our country?
2.) Make friendship collages from old magazines. The children can cutout things such as smiles, hands, people together, friends, hearts, and other helpful or friendly looking pictures. To make this even more special; have each student pick a friend in the class to get their picture taken with. They can place the developed picture in the collage. Have each child glue his/her pictures to a heart of their choice. You may wish to display the hearts in your hallway as a reminder to spread love through friendship!
3.) Discuss with the class MLK's famous quote; "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Ask you students to share their dreams for their families, friends, themselves, and the world. Brainstorm some of the dreams onto chart paper as a group. Next click here to print a dream pattern for your students. Now have each child write an I have a dream sentence on the lines provided. After they have completed their sentence allow them to illustrate it in the space provided. Finally glue the finished product to a paper plate and have each student decorate the outside of the plate.
4.) Click here to print out a sheet needed for this activity. Discuss with your students how everyone is different. You may start out by pointing out a difference between yourself and a few other students. "I have blonde hair and Sally had red hair. I am a girl and Russell is a boy." Then discuss how differences make us special and what it would be like if everyone in the world was the same. Next hand out the sheet and instruct the students to draw a picture of themself and a friend. Then have them write about one difference and one thing that is simular between them and their friend.
|Only Passing Through: The
Story of Sojourner Truth
|Uptown (Coretta Scott King
Illustrator Award Winner)
|Let It Shine: Stories of Black
Women Freedom Fighters (Coretta Scott King Author Honor
||Francie (Coretta Scott King
Author Honor Books)
|Harlem: A Poem (Caldecott
||Duke Ellington: The Piano
Prince and His Orchestra (Caldecott Honor Book)
||In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall:
African Americans Celebrating Fathers
|Soul Looks Back in Wonder
||Bright Eyes, Brown Skin (A
Feeling Good Book)
||In the Time of the Drums
(Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner)
I have a dream mobile. Give each child a hanger. On a large cloud shaped paper have them write I have a Dream... Then on smaller clouds have the child write 4 dreams they have. Attach the large cloud to the open area of the hanger with tape. Attach the smaller clouds with yarn.
Teaching Heart - 2012