Must Do Activities, Resource, and Ideas for Teaching About Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader who sacrificed for a worthy cause.  Our students really benefit when they learn about leaders who fought for something worthy and did so peacefully.  The school I teach at is named after this great man, so naturally, we make a big todo around his birthday.  Here are some of my favorite ideas.  I hope you find them useful.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Videos

Our Friend Martin
A movie that shows kids traveling back in time to meet young Dr. King. This movie is a favorite in my classroom.  It's very engaging and brings up a lot of interesting talking points.

Kid President (The Story of Martin Luther King Jr.)
I just adore this kid!  My students really enjoy his messages.  They are always positive and inspiring!  Also, coming from a kid's perspective, I find them more relatable to my students.

Books About Martin Luther King

These are affiliate links which means if you click and purchase, I will get a small commission.  Of course, you are under no obligation to click these, but these are some books I use in my classroom.  I use them as read alouds and mentor texts. I display them over my bookcases too.  I love displaying them because my classroom looks decorated and students know where to access them easily.

Activities You Can Try For Dr. King Day

• Have a multi-cultural feast with your students.  Provide a sampling of different types of foods from different cultures. Celebrate each other's differences. Bring in a cake and celebrate Dr. King's birthday. Parents love to get involved with this because who's not proud of their heritage? To be honest, this is when I get most parental involvement. 
• Make a bulletin board that shows off your students' dreams for a better world. You can do this by making collages using old magazine cut-outs or pictures printed from the internet. Send it home and make it a family project.  Make sure you instruct the kids that the topic is a better world otherwise you'll get collages of mansions, cars, and nonsense! LOL
• Make a diorama.  Students can use old shoe boxes to display different peaceful protests and scenes from events in Dr. King's life.  The dioramas can be presented and described by students. This is also a project that can be done at home to involve parents. 
• Make it a day of service. Have students in your class donate small items to an organization. In my school we have collected canned goods for the food bank, gloves, scarves, and socks for the homeless shelter, dog food for the animal shelter, and toys and toiletries for the women's shelter.  All of the collections have been hugely successful and celebrated by the local community.  

My Own Resources for Teaching About MLK

 

This is a timeline project. 

When it's closed it looks like this.

A letter writing template we use to write birthday letters to Martin Luther King Jr. We do this to update him on some of the things going on in the world today.

A comprehension booklet that focuses on his letter from Birmingham Jail. This resource is for teaching opinion editorials.

A peaceful protests vocabulary word wall.  I keep this by the door. As my students line up, I often hear them reading the words and discussing their meaning. I didn't intend this but it was a happy accident. Even the second-grade group I tutor does it. Word walls are pretty effective ways of introducing and developing vocabulary in students.

This is a biographical booklet about Martin Luther King, Jr. This resource includes comprehension questions and graphic organizers that my class uses to turn into a bulletin board display every year.

Word find, crossword, fill in the blanks activities packet.

A fun, yet rigorous way to get students to practice vocabulary found in many writings about Dr. King.

Each of these products is available individualy however, I do bundle them all for a significant savings. Just click the link. 

My MLK BUNDLE

I hope you found some useful ideas and resources to include in your Martin Luther King Jr. lesson planning. If you decide to use these, let me know how they went. I'm always interested in seeing other teachers' points of view. As always thanks for stopping by!