Martin Luther King, Jr. Activity
This is one of my favorite projects that I look forward to every year. This Martin Luther King, Jr. Activity incorporates two important Social Studies standards: learning about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and timelines.
You will want to have two days to complete this project.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Activity Day 1
I partner the students up and give each set of partners one of the MLK timeline pages. I set out multiple books, pictures, etc. of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I also use a a quick internet search to display some photographs on my interactive whiteboard. I find having a partner and providing references for their illustrations really helps with the quality of their work. I also give the students plenty of time to work on their illustration.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Activity Day 2
- I have hung a piece of yarn about 10 feet long in the hallway.
- I have preprinted the years of key details of Martin Luther King, Jr’s life on index cards.
- I have a big roll of tape ready to go! You may even want to have some tape loops hanging on the wall for quick taping of the projects.
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Now we are ready to begin! We work together to order the events of Martin Luther King, Jr’s life. It is a bit tricky for students to order the years, but this is good exposure for them. I use lots of guided talk to walk them through the process. They bring up their Martin Luther King, Jr. activity pages and we tape them in order, making a large timeline of his life.
I love that this project makes the concept of a timeline come to life for my students in a way that a worksheet cannot. I hope your students will love this Martin Luther King, Jr. activity as much as my class does! You can download the pages for the timeline by clicking here!
