Black History Month

Happy February (and Year of the Tiger!)

This week is Black Lives Matter at School week (we interpret the “week” part loosely and will probably spend 2-3 weeks introducing BLM, going through the 13 principles, and crafting our own class statement). You can read some important reminders in our Black History Month past posts here.

As always, try to focus on relating whatever you learn to the present so students can make the connection to their own lives and the current world we live in. And remember that Black history is American history.

Here are two examples of stories that help students to make the connection to now:

Maya Angelou will be first black woman on US quarter: this is the Newsela link, so if you sign up for a (free) account, you can access the article at different reading levels. We had students read this article and then design their own quarter featuring someone inspiring. You can see their quarters above!

We Are Not Asking Politely: How letter writers won the campaign to name the library after Dr. King | District of Columbia Public Library A great, local story about action, persuasive writing, and libraries!

Some book recommendations that will help students think about the present (and are just great books!):

M is for Melanin by Tiffany Rose

Don't Touch My Hair! by Sharee Miller (a huge hit in my 3rd grade classroom!)

Stay tuned as we try out some of these ideas and take part in Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action in our classrooms.

Black Lives Matter.