MLK day writing prompts
1-2-3 Come Do Some MLK Activities With Me
Dr. King used nonviolent protest and the power of words, as a weapon for social justice.
The vocabulary associated with this period in history, involves all sorts of “big words”; without knowing these words, one cannot begin to understand the times or Martin's life.
To break it down for my kiddos, I read a variety of stories, so I designed the "Building Vocabulary and Making Connections With Martin Luther King Stories" packet.
I use Martin’s Big Words, by Doreen Rapport to introduce his life. Ms Rappaport has taken the words of MLK and woven in her own, creating an easy-to-understand book for youngsters.
My students also enjoy Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches. It’s the perfect illustration of how unfair and ridiculous prejudice is.
What if the Zebra’s Lost Their Stripes is another favorite, as well as The Crayon Box that Talked, and Sesame Street’s We’re Different, We’re the Same. The packet includes a list of 24 other favorites.
Later, we discuss words like discrimination, prejudice, injustice, unfairness, race, diversity etc.
After reading the books, and referring to the stories, my students understand more clearing these difficult concepts.
Our discussion takes us through connections that we can make with the stories and characters. (Text to Self, Text to Text, and Text to World)
I’ve included worksheets for this that can be done as a whole group, or individual activity.
Encourage students to use some of the “big words” you’ve discussed. I designed this word work packet to reinforce that new vocabulary. Pick and choose what’s appropriate for your kiddos.
The packet also includes: Worksheets, a word search, student-made dictionary, plus 63 trace & write word cards.
From Dr. King’s words, and our word work, we turn to their personal hopes and dreams for the future. They express things in their own words (big and small) through writing prompts and craftivities.
The "67 Martin Luther King Writing Prompts" packet is loaded with ideas. I truly believe that if you provide students with interesting and intriguing prompts, they’ll get excited and want to get right down to the business of writing.
To jump start their thoughts, I’ve included 2 Venn diagrams, which are a quick, easy and fun way to introduce comparison and contrast.
There’s also a set of four, thought-provoking, poster-like worksheets, as well as a list of 60 other writing prompts to choose from.
Because I find quotations very motivational, I often use them to provoke discussion, which leads to writing what the quote means and if you agree or disagree with it and why.
With this in mind, I’ve included a list of my 35 all-time favorite quotations by Dr. King.
Print a copy and pass it around. Students choose one or two to write about. You could also write one each day on the board. Students comment on it in their writing journals.
Another quick, easy and fun thing you can do for Martin Luther King Day is an MLK number puzzle.
If you'd like to mix math with literacy, have children color, cut and glue their puzzle to a sheet of construction paper, leaving a small gap in-between each piece to create a cool mosaic effect, then complete a writing prompt on the back.
Punch a hole at the top and suspend from the ceiling. There are 31 puzzles to choose from. They come in black and white as well as color, reinforcing sequencing numbers from 1-10, counting backwards from 10 to 1, plus skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s, and 10s.
Today's featured FREEBIE is an MLK crafty pinwheel prompt.
The results are awesome and look complicated, but are very simple. Just follow my step-by-step picture tutorial.
I used black and white scrapbook paper, but a variety of color options would create vibrant results. Punch a hole at the top, and suspend from the ceiling.
If you missed yesterday's blog featuring lots more MLK writing prompt craftivities, simply scroll down.
Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful MLK Day with your students next week.
As for me, the wind is howling outside my window, whipping the dusty snow cover into swirling twirling patterns. A good day to snuggle in and craft, a truly rewarding winter "sport".
"In crafting there are no mistakes. Just unique creations." -Unknown
1-2-3 Come Do Some Martin Luther King Activities With Me
Martin Luther King Day is just around the corner, Monday, the 19th, so if you're looking for some ideas, you've come to the right place.
Although I remember the Civil Rights Movement quite vividly, what went on in the 60's is quite different from today. Because of this, I think it’s extremely important to teach a bit of history, taking your students on a trip through the past, to help them get a feel for what that time period was like.
In today's blog I want to feature some of my favorite MLK downloads that have been quite popular. Hopefully they're just what you're looking for.
To peak student's interest, start the day off by leaving a Happy Martin Luther King Day bookmark on their desks. I designed 7 for you to choose from.
Throughout the day, use them as incentives, and pass them out as children complete tasks. Challenge them to collect all seven to share with their friends.
Can anyone tell you who Martin Luther King Jr. was or why we have a holiday to celebrate him? 
Most of my students had no knowledge of Dr. King.
With this in mind, I designed a KWL. Have your students complete their own personal MLK KWL, then gather children together to fill in the larger KWL for MLK.
After your studies, at the end of the day, have students complete their KWL by writing in what they learned.
Reading several stories, is an easy and interesting way to introduce the concept of discrimination and diversity, as well as find out about the life of MLK.
Click on the link for my 24 all-time favorite books for Martin Luther King Day.
These are tried and true resources, to help little ones wrap their heads around complex concepts, and really helped my Y5's comprehend the hard-to-understand stuff.
One of my personal favorites, and my Y5's favorite story for our MLK unit, is The Sneeches, by Dr. Seuss. 
I checked out YouTube to see if they had a video of The Sneeches and found several.
Click on the link to take a look at this short 12-minute full-version of The Sneeches! I think your kiddo's will really enjoy it.
They can easily see the unfairness of "stars on bellies" and in the end, agree with the author that such practices were cruel and pointless.
Another way to make the 60's real for your students is to have them watch some brief videos about Dr. King's life and listen to a portion of his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.
Click on the link for a list of short Martin Luther King Jr. videos on YouTube. Click on this link for footage of his peaceful march on Washington.
To help you give your students more background information, I compiled a list of 95-Interesting Fast Facts About Martin Luther King.
I enjoyed wading through more than 40 websites and reading over 20 children's books, plus a few biographies and then fact-checked discrepancies.
I thought I knew quite a bit, however, I learned many more amazing things! (I was unaware that he skipped 9th and 12th grade and went to college at the age of 15!)
Read through the pages, highlight what you feel is relevant and appropriate for your kiddos, and then share: 95-Interesting Fast Facts About Martin Luther King.
While researching, I also found a short animated clip over at BrainPop, that even early elementary students will understand. This is a wonderful site for children.
Another age-appropriate site is 
The National Georgraphic site for kids. They have an excellent photographic timeline of MLK.
After reading some stories and watching a few videos, toss in some technology, and have your students take a short online MLK quiz.
For more reinforcement, and to further check comprehension, have children show you what they've learned, by making an MLK Flip For Facts booklet.
I've included a list of kid-friendly websites, a page of mini photographs, plus a list of fun facts they can use.
Another way to help your students learn about Martin Luther King Jr., is through vocabulary building. There is a plethora of new words that your students will come across as they listen to stories, read books, search for facts, and watch video clips.
It's important to make sure that your kiddos understand their meanings. For example, diversity is a relatively new word for youngsters. Helping them understand that we are all different, yet we are all also, the same, is a great way to explain things.
The people over at Kids Activites Blog, suggest comparing a brown chicken egg to a white one. I LOVE this idea. They look different on the outside, but what happens when you crack them open? Students discuss how they are exactly the same on the inside, then relate it to what they are learning.
You could also do this with M&M's. Have students suck the colorful candy coating off, then stick out their tongue to check things out. What conclusions can they draw? How is ethnicity similar?
An excellent book to read about diversity is Sesame Street's We Are Different, We Are The Same by Bobbi Jane Kates.
The quirky rhyming format makes it a wonderful read aloud: "We're different. Our noses are different. We are the same. Our noses are the same. They breathe and sniff and sneeze and whiff."
Because of all the new vocabulary involved in studying Martin Luther King, and the era he lived in, I made a list of 62-words that relate to Dr. King, that students will undoubtedly come across while studying about him.
To help build their vocabularies, select whatever words you'd like your students to learn, and have them add the words to their MLK Dictionary, where they write, define and use the word in a sentence.
The packet includes 2 different covers (one for upper and one for lower el), an alphabetical list of 62-MLK-related words, plus 62 trace and write word cards. Click on the link to view/download the MLK "My Words" dictionary.
Another fun way to immerse your students in this new vocabulary, is by searching for words in a word find. I've designed 2 word searches for Martin Luther King Day (1 for lower el, as well as an upper el version).
Students search for words from left to right and top to bottom. Tell students to start with the first word and look for the initial letter, as well as chunks of letters. They will undoubtedly come across other words while they do that.
Have them highlight the words that they find, as well as cross those words off the list. Work from left to right first, and then any words that they haven't found will probably be from top to bottom.
Word searches are great for Daily 5 Word Work, early finishers, sub folders or a fun homework assignment. I've included answer keys as well. Click on the link to view/download the Martin Luther King Day Word Searches.
Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport, is a great book to transition with. It's filled with a lot of my favorite MLK quotes, which is another interesting and fun way to learn about him.
If you'd like to see a list of my favorite quotations of Martin Luther King, click on the link.
Another simple Daily 5 word work activity, is to challenge students to think of as many words as they can, using the letters in Martin Luther King.
I've included a list of 525 words 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. i.e he was a great man, and gave the ultimate sacrifice, so I decided to assign the extra assignment of having students highlight the words they thought of, that were relevant to MLK's life.
Click on the link to view/download the Martin Luther King Word Challenge.
Well that's it for today. Thanks for visiting. I hope you found a few things to help make your Martin Luther King Day celebration special.
Be sure and pop back tomorrow, as I'll be featuring some super-fun, and thought-provoking MLK writing prompts. It's time for me to whip a meatloaf together.
I enjoy cooking almost as much as I do designing activities. Almost.... Actually, they are similar, as they both involve creating something, and then cleaning up a big mess as I go. :-)
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.
