As I posted on the MakeHappy Facebook page last night, I gave the kids a small lesson today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At ages 4 and 7, I didn't have high expectations, but wanted to get the ideas of unity and equality across.
Sweetpea surprised me. She knew quite a bit about Dr. King. Kudos to her teachers at school! Little Mister knew nothing, and was pretty resistant to my lesson. For him, I kept it simple. I gave a little background on the mistreatment of people who looked different and discussed why that is wrong. We watched a short clip of Dr. King's “I Have a Dream” speech, so they could see who we were talking about and hear his powerful voice. (I also used this transcript.) We talked about how he encouraged others to stand up peacefully with him for what they believed and how, together, they helped to change our country for the better.
Then we did a little craft to, hopefully, cement the lesson. I made up a little printable of people holding hands (thank you, Photoshop auto shapes). I dramatically poured out all our crayons on the table and had them sort through to find all the colors that could be used for skin.
Little Mister chose red. I was confused, and asked him why he chose that color.
“Because cheeks get red when we're warm and when we exercise.”
Good point! We gave all his people red cheeks. He was very resistant to the coloring, as it's not his favorite activity, but he offered to add green and yellow Oregon Ducks gear after I filled in the skin colors. Funny kid. Go Ducks!
As for my girl, well, she never ceases to amaze me. She has such a big heart. I love what she came up with for her people.
We usually do a small service project on this school holiday, and had planned to walk our route from home to school with a garbage bag and latex gloves, gathering littered wrappers to improve our community. But with a layer of snow on the ground, that would be difficult, so we're postponing it for the next dry day after the thaw.
Do you do anything to celebrate Dr. King? I'd love to hear about other kid-appropriate projects.
If you're interested, I made our printable into a pdf to share.
Just click the link below the image.
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| Download MakeHappy's People Holding Hands PDF |
(If you're having trouble opening it, you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. It's free.)
