Each year we celebrate Martin Luther King Day on the third Monday of January. The day celebrates the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr., an influential American civil rights leader.
Primary
In each Primary classroom, children read picture books about the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and they listened to a small excerpt from his “I Have a Dream” speech. Kindergarteners were invited to write creative writing pieces applying the idea of “I have a Dream” to something that is important to them and to share their vision for a peaceful and more equitable future.
All children were invited to draw a self-portrait in order to encourage thinking about each person’s uniqueness and commonalities to appreciate our differences and recognize our similarities.
Lower Elementary
Lower Elementary students listened to the books “A Picture Book of Martin Luther King Jr.” and “Heroes and She-roes: Poems of Amazing and Everyday Heroes”. They used a creative writing activity prompt, “I will make the world a better place by…”.
Upper Elementary
Upper Elementary students studied the life and accomplishments of MLK, Jr. through a variety of lessons and activities. 3rd graders focused on the timeline of his life as well as watching the movie, My Friend Martin. Fourth graders explored an article featuring a child witnessing racism in the Deep South in the 1950s and took part in an activity that looked at just and unjust situations. 5th graders spent time reading informational texts and building background knowledge of the principles and purposes of peaceful protesting and nonviolent resistance.
Program-wide, the students are engaging in an interdisciplinary art project that has them researching impactful MLK Jr. quotes that they find personally inspirational. They then use those quotes to scaffold their own dreams for the world in the context of social justice and the global community.
Middle School
Middle school students have been studying the history of slavery and the slow movement toward civil rights in their humanities classes. This week, students took a look at Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life, read and analyzed some of his work, and participated in a student-led Socratic circle discussion. Students also watched his speech from the March on Washington in 1963.
