Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and this week I have several good resources I’d like to share with you!
Books
There are tons of picture books out there about Dr. King, but one of the best I’ve read is written by his sister, Christine King Farris. My Brother Martin tells about the famous man as a child and the events that shaped his young life and made him into the man he became. (If you are interested in reading more about the book, I recently wrote a review of it for the Homeschool Share Blog.)
If your children are already familiar with Dr. King, you might want to choose a book like Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins by Carole Boston Weatherford. This is a story about eight year old Connie, who just wants to be able to sit where she wants to when she has lunch. Homeschool Share has a unit for this book, too, if you would like to spend some time on it!
Videos
If your children haven’t seen Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, take some time to watch it together and talk about it. We’ve watched this clip on YouTube—just remember that you might want to hide the comment section if you can since some people post some pretty awful stuff!
Also on YouTube, you can watch the video version of Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport. Even though this is a picture book, even big kids can enjoy it!
Activities
There are tons of activities out there, so I’ll just share a couple. Teach Preschool has a post on an art project for younger kids as well as an activity for kids of all ages to do after talking about Dr. King.
Thriving Third Graders has a free printable to use with older kids to help with details and sequencing. It’s always so nice to find a great activity where all you have to do to prepare is click the print button!
Other Neat Stuff
You can take a tour of Dr. King’s childhood home without leaving your house! This would be a great thing to do after reading My Brother Martin!
National Geographic Kids has a nice collection of photographs of Dr. King. These would be great to give kids an idea of how things really looked back then—in case your kids think the 1960s are ancient time!
Happy Learning!
