Rosa Parks & Ruby Bridges---Black History Month Activities

This week we've started learning about Black History Month and a variety of leaders who have impacted the Civil Rights Movement and how it has impacted school environments and society as a whole.

I teach in an inner city school where our population is 95% free and reduced lunch and come from a variety of backgrounds. Many of my students live in the "projects" that are just across the railroad tracks. Each student has so much to offer and sometimes education isn't as important as it could be. I want to ensure that my students understand how important education is. And how they can grow and learn and become leaders who might change the world. 

So being able to provide role models to them such as Rosa Parks or Ruby Bridges is important and for them to understand that ONE person can be the change.

We started yesterday with learning about Rosa Parks. Although I teach K, we used Scholastic's activities about Rosa Parks to spark discussion. Many of my students were already familiar with her and what she represents.

Here's the link to those activities.  

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/activity/rosa-parks-how-i-fought-civil-rights

After reading and learning about Rosa, we completed a writing activity. The students created a bus and then their writing was placed behind it. 

We began our discussion of Ruby Bridges today. We used links from Scholastic as well to learn about her impact in our schools and how it changed for us today. 

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/unit/ruby-bridges-everything-you-need

There is a great kid-led interview, an interactive Scholastic News magazine and more! Very kid friendly so it definitely helped with discussion today.

After--we discussed what Character Traits are. My students are tough on each other sometimes, so I want them to understand it's not about what's on the outside, but the inside. 

So we created a character traits poster (forgot the picture). Basically, I drew a sketch of a child. Students gave me words that would describe someone on the inside, I wrote it on a sticky note, and stuck it to the poster. I explained a lot to help them to understand, but they came up with words such as: respectful, kind, nice, happy, have manners, etc.

Don't Forget!! It all starts tomorrow!!