Martin Luther King lessons

With Martin Luther King Jr. Day coming up, I was wondering if anyone had lessons they wanted to share. I teach 4th grade.

Re: Martin Luther King lessons

This is not the most creative lesson that I have ever done, but I taught my class about Martin Luther King (who he was/what he did, etc.). Then, I had an audio of the speech that I played for them while they followed along on a printed copy of it. We discussed the speech, its importance, and its meaning. Finally, we made a bulletin board titled "We have a dream.." They wrote four paragraph essays that included their personal dreams for themselves and thier families ( one paragraph ), and their dream for the world (one paragraph). + an introduction and a conclusion.

I did this with a sixth grade writing skills class.

Re: Martin Luther King lessons

*I do a minilesson on identifying "big words" in the book "Martin's Big Words."
*I write poetry from MLK's perspective (I have a template they use.)
*I read/play part of his "I Have a Dream" speech. The kids sketch what they feel as they listen.
*Each of them makes a "My dream for the world" writing/illustration.
*I also tie in parts of the Kindness and Justice Challenge. It is run by dosomething.org, a foundation run by his son and the adorable Andrew Shue.

This is fourth grade.

Re: Martin Luther King lessons

I am working reader's theater into my lessons. So I took the "I Have A Dream" speech and turned it into a reader's theater script. They will rehearse and perform it in groups of 4.

Not sure how I am going to introduce it, or when exactly (i.e. before or after the long weekend.

Re: Martin Luther King lessons

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