1-2-3 Come Do Some MKL Day Craftivities With Me

I know a lot of my visitors, also enjoy scrapbooking, so I wanted to design an easy craftivity for MLK Day using the simple pinwheel design.  If you don't celebrate MLK Day, these make wonderful Valentine's Day cards too. 

I chose a black and white theme to symbolize racial conflict, but you could use whatever colors you like. Simply pre-cut 2 large black squares + a variety of light and dark contrasting scrapbook paper.  Each student needs 4 light patterned pieces and 4 dark.

Using my photo tutorial, demonstrate how to glue the pieces down, so they look like a pinwheel.

Add the white writing prompt square to the back, or have students think of their own.

If you need MLK writing prompt ideas, I have a list of 60 they can choose from.  

For more pizzazz, students can choose another set of 4 different patterned-squares and glue them to the back, providing a border under their prompt.  A school photo adds the finishing touch.  

Punch a hole in the top point; make a yarn loop, and hang from the ceiling.   Click on the link to view/download the MLK Pinwheel Prompt Craftivity.

I have two more "danglers" to share with you today.  Since I had no problem filling up my monthly bulletin board, I needed some other ways to hang up my students' craftivities.  Because of this, I designed quite a few things that could "dangle" from the ceiling in the hallway. 

Both of these files were done before I had all of the software programs and fonts I use now, but I think you'll find the hand-drawn patterns easy to follow.

A very simple dangler that my Y5's enjoyed making was the MLK Letter "I Have A Dream" one.  It was a nice way to review letters and provided much-needed cutting practice to strengthen hand muscles and improve dexterity.

Turn it into a more in-depth writing prompt for older kiddo's, by skipping the heart on the back, and giving them a longer writing prompt for them to record on the back.  Click on the link to view/download the MLK Letter Dangler.

Finally, one of my personal favorites, was the "stained glass" dove of peace dangler.  

I pre- cut strips of colored construction paper. My Y5's snipped them into squares and glued them in whatever pattern they wanted.  More fine motor practice was achieved by having them accordion fold the dove's wings. 

To incorporate a bit of poetry and cover the "genre" standard, I ran off the Langston Hughes poem.   Click on the link to check out the background of this outstanding and prolific poet. 

You could also turn this into a writing prompt and have the poem be the cover that flips open to reveal your students' thoughts about peace and how to achieve it.  Click on the link to view/download the Martin Luther King Dove Of Peace Poem Dangler.  

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. " -Martin Luther King Jr.

10 pages.

For an awesome, yet quick and easy MLK Day craftivity, have your students make this MLK Pinwheel Prompt. 

6 pages.

Students have a choice of 5 different MLK Day stationery pages to write on.  For a wonderful January bulletin board, mount completed work on a variety of colors of construction paper.

6 pages.

Here's a list of 60 interesting writing prompts to jumpstart your students' creative minds.

1-2-3 Come Write About Martin Luther King With Me

Even though TeachWithMe.com is geared towards lower el, I have quite a few visitors who come for the writing prompts and activities, which can certainly be used for higher grades. 

Getting students to WANT to write is one of my passions.  It's pretty easy for me to whip together interesting writing prompts, because I LOVE writing.  I truly believe that if you give students some creative, think-outside-the-box writing activities, they too will get excited and want to get started.  

I've learned that having a list for students to choose from, is extremely helpful.  Giving one a choice, seems more satisfying, and is a lot less overwhelming than to simply say: write about anything. Staring at a blank sheet of paper, can be quite inhibiting for most students, where as something specific, gets them started.

With that in mind, I put together a list of 60 writing prompts especially for Martin Luther King Day, and hope your kiddo's will find something that really interests them.  Click on the link to view/download the 60 Martin Luther King Day Writing Prompts.

Yesterday, I posted a list of 35 of my all-time favorite quotes from Martin Luther King, and mentioned that many of these provide a great spring board for writing. 

I thought it would be interesting to make some quotation papers for students to write on. 

After they share their work, mount the writing on a variety of colors of construction paper and scatter on a bulletin board with a black background.  Click on the link to view/download the MLK Stationery Prompts.

Finally, I had a request for Martin Luther King alphabet cards, so Stacy's preschoolers from Detroit, could play some letter games on MLK Day.  Click on the link to grab some for your kiddo's too.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.

"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.  Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.  Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

3 pages:

Another way to emmerse students with new vocabulary, is by searching for words in a word find.  Here are 2 word searches for Martin Luther King Day (1 for lower el, as well as an upper el version).

7 pages

Ideas for the quotations: Make an overhead of the quotations; have students choose one or two to write about.  Through out the month of January, write one of MLK's inspirational quotes on the board.  As a Daily 5 activity, have students record the quote in their writing journals and comment on it. Have students design a poster around one of their favorite quotations, before you hang them on a bulletin board, have students carry their posters in a peaceful mock-march through the halls of your school, or on the playground.

12 pages.

There is a ton of new vocabulary involved when learning about Martin Luther King.  To help build your students' vocabularies, select whatever words you'd like them to learn, (there's a list of 62) and have them add the words to their MLK Dictionary, where they write, define and use the word in a sentence.

6 pages.

Challenge students to make as many words as they can, using the letters in Martin Luther King.  I purposely did not include Jr.

I've included a list of the 525 that I thought of.  While I was making my list, I thought how appropriate that many of these words could be directly associated with Dr. King's life, so I decided to have the extra assignment of having students highlight words that they thought were relevant to MLK.

15 pages.

Help your students show what they've learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  by making a flip for facts booklet.  I've included a list of helpful MLK websites, as well as 95 Fast Facts about MLK, along with a page of Public Domain pictures if students would like to include a few.