Black History Month Activities

I love finding great multicultural literature to integrate into my reading instruction.  When I’m teaching making predictions, I use Ruby’s Wish as a mentor text.  Teaching Theme or Point of View?  White Socks Only is one of my all time favorites!😍

One of my favorite reading skills to integrate with science and social studies is nonfiction text structures and features.  Here in Indiana, February can be a LONG month.  My kids and I need AND enjoy a nice change of pace by focusing on nonfiction during cold winter months.  

Here are a few of my favorite mentor texts!  

Back of the Bus is about A boy and his mother are riding the bus in Montgomery, Alabama like any other day—way in the back of the bus. The boy passes time by watching his marble roll up and down the aisle with the motion of the bus…Until a big commotion breaks out from way up front.

Let the Children March  is set in 1963 Birmingham, Alabama. Thousands of African American children volunteered to march for their civil rights after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak. They protested the laws that kept black people separate from white people. Facing fear, hate, and danger, these children used their voices to change the world.  

 
28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World  Each day features a different influential figure in African-American history, from Crispus Attucks, the first man shot in the Boston Massacre, sparking the Revolutionary War, to Madame C. J. Walker, who after years of adversity became the wealthiest black woman in the country, as well as one of the wealthiest black Americans, to Barack Obama, the country's first African-American president. 

While learning to identify and understand nonfiction text structures, my kids love using paired texts!  They are like little sponges absorbing all the things and I can't get enough of it!  These paired texts are from 28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World and Black History Month Activities.  This book is definitely where I get the most bang for my buck.  Lets face it, building your library of great mentor texts is expensive!  This book allows for several opportunities to use paired texts with your class.  I would definitely put it at the top of your list! 

From a young age, I was extremely fascinated by The Little Rock 9.  I think it is because my uncle was actually bused from a "white school" to a "black school" when Indianapolis began integrating their public schools.  Then, I could not imagine the bravery that it would have taken for the Little Rock 9 to do what they did.  Now, I think about the teachers and staff of the school and how that impacted the students.  

 Let the Children March can be paired with more than one passage, but my favorite is the Nonviolent Protest passage.  I would recommend reading the passage first, as I have found that providing the background information first helps the students have a deeper understanding of the book.  

She Persisted is about women in American history, who have spoken out for what's right, even when they have to fight to be heard. This book includes Harriet Tubman, Claudette Colvin, Ruby Bridges and many more inspiring women.

Hidden Figures  Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden were good at math…really good.  They participated in some of NASA's greatest successes, like providing the calculations for America's first journeys into space. And they did so during a time when being black and a woman limited what they could do. But they worked hard. They persisted. And they used their genius minds to change the world.

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History educates and inspires as it relates true stories of forty trailblazing black women in American history.

If you want to learn more about Black History Month Activities and passages, click here.

Nonfiction Text Structures

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