Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

To honor MLK Day, we did a variety of activities. First we read a book called, A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. by David Adler. As we read it together, we became "fact finders". After reading each page, we would stop and see if anyone found an interesting fact. We made a class list of facts from the reading. Then we made a paper resemblance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When the picture was done, a student would pick one of the facts and rewrite it on another piece of paper. The written fact was attached to bottom of their MLK portrait.

I provided them with a sample one. During the process, we talked about how we can use shapes to help us when we are drawing or creating something. For example, the upper body of MLK was a half circle and his shirt was an upside down triangle. We also figured out that you can make a really nice tie with two small triangles and a circle.

They worked so hard on these portraits. They turned out fabulous! Later in the day we did the white egg and brown egg activity. We looked at the two eggs and made a venn diagram demonstrating how the eggs were alike and different. The only differences they found was that the eggs were different colors and one was a little smaller. Then I asked them if I were to crack the eggs open would I know which one was from the brown egg and which one was from the white egg. A few kids thought the yolk might be darker. So we cracked them to find out and the eggs were the same inside. We couldn't tell the difference. Just like the eggs, people have more things in common and we are all alike inside - we have feelings. It was a great discussion and a great connection to MLK's message. We followed up by reading Martin's Big Words.

I have a classroom full of artists! Aren't these wonderful? It was great how they used shapes to make their MLK portraits. Tomorrow we will follow up with a few more MLK activities and a discussion.