MLK

Martin Luther King day is always one of my favorite days to celebrate. A have a few activities that I do every year to show equal rights and what Martin Luther King did for our country.

We started the lesson out by each student getting a stamp on their hand. I had a red stamp and a green stamp. The students with the red stamp had to sit in the back of the classroom in their desk and the red students got to sit on the carpet with me to hear the MLK story. The students with red stamps were sad that they couldn't sit with us as we read the story. About half way through the story when I started reading the part about the bus, I invited the red students to sit with us. We discussed how colored people were not treated fair and that it was not right that people were treated differently. We all put our hands together and discussed how we all have a different special color to our hands. I told them that God created each of us to be treated the same and that each of us has a beautiful color to our hands.

Once I finished the story we continued to talk about equal rights and how MLK along with many other supporters changed the world. We are not all able to go to school together and to do the same things.

Next, we discussed how important color is to us. Without having color it would be difficult to see everything black and white. Many students said it would be difficult to color a picture without many different colors. At this time, each student wrote about why it is important for them to have many different colors to drawing. Many said that wouldn't be able to color themselves without many colors, or they wouldn't be able to make a rainbow. We all decorated a color crayon and put our photos in the center of the crayon. We displayed our crayons and why colors are important to us in the hallway. Come by and check them out.

 Then, we discussed the dream that MLK had and how he was able to change the world to make it a better place. Each child in our class brainstormed one idea they dream for the world that would make it a better place. We wrote these and put them into a folder that opens up with a white hand and a colored hand to show that if we all dream together, we can make the world a better place.

Finally, we ended our MLK unit by looking at two different eggs. The class realized they were different because one was brown and the other was white. Once we cracked open the two eggs, they all said they were the same too. Even though we all look different on the outside, we are all the same on the inside.....a beauitful child of God!