MLK for all ages

This week's library lessons for the most part focused on honoring the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. I used a different book for each grade as a jumping off point and did a variety of different activities for each.

Kindergarteners were the one outlier. Two K teachers came in to check out books about MLK, so I decided to switch up my focus this week. I'm starting Caldecotts with most grades next week so I started a week early with K and read a wordless Caldecott winner, A Ball for Daisy. This is a really cute book, and they did a great job helping tell the story.

1st grade heard My Brother Martin, written by his sister and shares stories and memories that not everyone knows about him. To introduce this idea, I shared a little memory box of some things that only my close family and friends would know which I think worked to get them to know me a little better.

In 2nd grade, we read Martin's Big Words. Before reading the book, I introduced the KWL chart and we filled out what we knew about MLK and what we wanted to know (cutest 2nd grade question: Who were his friends?). This book is unique in that it features snippets of some of his speeches, so I had students take turns reading the quotes that were sprinkled throughout the text. Following the book, we finished our chart by logging anything new that we learned about MLK.

3rd grade read A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. While pretty basic, it is a good book to use to work on sequencing. So, we read it through first and then each student received a page of the book and we created a human timeline of MLK"s life. All in all, it worked pretty well and was a nice way to mix up some of the activities we've been in 3rd grade over the past several weeks.

4th grade will be working on their US State research projects soon, so I have been looking for ways to preview some of the research tools they'll have available to them. This week, I created a few stations for students to travel to, giving them a chance to practice their Destiny and Britannica skills.

5th grade continued to make progress on their Passion Projects. I think some students will be ready to present in a few weeks - exciting stuff!