A Martin Luther King Jr. kind of week!

This week my students and I really dug deep into the life and death of Martin Luther King Jr. We used the subject of Martin Luther King to cover both Language Arts, Social Studies and Art. For Language Arts I used a poem from the Panicked-Teacher TPT store. It was such a wonderful resource to find and use, because I was just telling a colleague earlier this week how we needed to have more interaction with poems. While my students didn't dig into the poem and break it apart as much as I would have liked them to, they did ask more questions than what I am accustom to with this group. They usually read through and then when I ask for comments and questions, I hear crickets in the background. However, with this poem they had questions about words they didn't understand and about Martin Luther King himself. It was extremely refreshing to see them really asking good questions and having a good dialogue with each other.

On Tuesday I introduced something in art that the students told me they had never done before. Although it took us a while to get going and really explain what I wanted them to do. Once they got the hang of it they loved it. I stole this idea from The Polka Dot Desk and it was truly a hit with my kids. Many of them kept going back to it throughout the week and adding things to it as they learned more about King. They asked at the end of the week if we could do more art projects just like this.

On Thursday we completed another fun Martin Luther King Jr. art project. I found this fold-able idea at Classroom-Creations-By-Melissa TPT store. This one was not quite as messy as the last one. I loved this one because it allowed the students to tell about what they thought about King, and if they had a dream what it would be. Some of my students really put a lot of work into theirs and it showed. While they completed this fold-able I walked around and asked them why they chose a certain quote from King and what they thought about King. The answers they gave showed me that what we had been talking about had stuck with them!

Finally on Friday we brought all our Martin Luther King knowledge together and worked on some compare and contrast with another civil rights activist Rosa Parks. I found this awesome item at Kalena-Baker TPT store. It was Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks trading cards and questions to go along with them. While my students didn't particular enjoy having to create a timeline, do the Venn Diagram or answer questions. They loved the last item in the packet, it was a two facts and a fib game. Basically you write down two facts about Martin Luther King and two about Rosa Parks. You then write down one fib for both of them, finally exchange with a partner and see if they can find the fib you created. Some of my students put a lot of thought into them and were able to stump or at least throw their classmates off a bit. Others were not as creative and their fibs were detected easily. Students again asked if this was something we could do with other stories. Makes this teachers heart feel good when you find not one but two projects that your students truly enjoy.


It was a busy and exciting week in fourth grade and I hope my students left with more knowledge on what was a truly amazing man in Martin Luther King Jr. I hope that I can continue to find activities and work in the classroom that my students truly enjoy and want to complete. Sometime we have to do things our students don't enjoy, but it makes teaching so much easier and more fun when your students are enjoying what you are asking them to do. I also feel you are going to get better work overall when your students want to complete that work, because they want to put their best work down.

Miss. B