What Are You Doing For Martin Luther King Day?

If you plan on celebrating Martin Luther King Day with your students, you may want to take a peek at the 40-page MLK mini unit I’ve put together.

It includes several “craftivities” that are quick, easy and make lovely bulletin boards or hallway decorations.

The 1^st is a stained glass window, where students  can glue colored tiles in a pattern or simply keep it random.

I’ve included one of my favorite Langston Hughes poems on the back.

I chose a dove to top off this “dangler” because I feel that Martin Luther King's beliefs are synonymous with peace, which the dove is a symbol of.

My Y5’s enjoyed accordion folding paper, to make the 3-D wings, which was a great fine motor activity for them.

The MLK  Letter Dangler, allows students an opportunity to express what their dream is, and is a nice review of those capital letters as well.

Click on the link to view/download the Martin Luther King mini unit.

Snowflakes are a huge theme for me in January, so I combined making a strip snowflake for a Martin Luther King activity.

If you cut strips in a variety of colors, your students will create a rainbow blizzard for you, that looks truly awesome on a bulletin board. 

Use aluminum foil for the background for that extra bit of pizzazz and suspend cardboard or plastic snowflakes from the ceiling , so that they dangle just in front of the top of your b. board.

Click on the link to view/download the Martin Luther King snowflakes.

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful.

“Your success and happiness lies in you.  Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you, shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” –Helen Keller

A Winning Lesson With Word Art!

Verbs are something that can be a bit boring to teach, so liven up your lesson with Word Art!

I made these New Year word art pictures using a list of positive verbs and then turning them into a picture using Tagxedo.

Turn it into a reading and writing lesson by showing your students the posters and my alphabetical list of 88 positive verbs.

Read the words aloud and have students circle the ones that they want to promise and do in the New Year.

They need at least 1 for each letter of the alphabet.  Challenge students to make their own word art poster and list. This is a nice way to incorporate technology in your day.

Students can also make a New Year’s dictionary of their promise words.  I've included a cover, simply add lined paper.

For more skill building, I’ve included trace and write pages. 

Fill in and laminate a set and then cut them apart and store in an envelope, so students can arrange them in alphabetical order.

Make up 2 sets so students can play “Speed” against each other to see who can alphabetize the words the quickest.

Any of these activities make fun Daily 5 Word Work lessons. Encourage students to look up any words they don’t know and to use their new vocabulary.

Make a copy for your word wall.  Make sure you do your own to use as a sample.  If students do the word art activity, you have an awesome January bulletin board.

Have them mount their finished work on various colors of blue construction paper.  Arrange on a background of aluminum foil and sprinkle some paper snowflakes on the corners of each one.

At the end of the month or school year, ask students to re-visit their list.  Have they done all of the words they circled? Have they added anymore?

This evaluation can then become a writing prompt of why or why not, and how they can improve etc.

Click on the link to view/download the New Year Word Art activities packet.

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful. I hope these New Year's ideas have helped and that you have the best New Year yet.

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us." -Hal Borland