Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Printables

There are a lot of ways to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. on King Day, from doing acts of service to listening to his speeches, reading his letters or talking about our own dreams for the nation.

These printables are a good way to start discussions or to use in the classroom as activities around King Day. And if you need more ideas check out my MLK Day for kids post from last year, or use the search bar to search fro more King Day posts.

The Keele Deal has a small printable book about King that gives some basic information about his life and legacy and also has some illustrations kids can color. They also have an I have a dream craft project kids can use to reflect on on their own dreams for the world. Print out, color and write on the pieces, then make it into a mobile to hang in the classroom.

Kids Craft Room has some lovely color by number coloring pages that are great to use this time of year. One of them could be King from the back, while another says Dream. There are hands reaching for each other, a raised fist, one that says Peace, a dove with a heart, a hand doing a peace sign with hearts and the peace symbol.

Another nice printable book is available from 123 Homeschool 4 Me. This one covers his early life, early work in civil rights and the Montgomery bus boycott, his work for equal rights and the “I Have a Dream” speech, his assassination and legacy. Some of the pages have vocabulary words that kids can trace and you can talk more about such as boycott, preacher and civil rights.

These King Day printables are great to use at home, too, if you kids have the day off and you want to make it more meaningful.

My brother went through a phase where he was obsessed with maps. He loved to look at maps and he would draw maps of places real and imagined. He even drew maps that followed our route when we’d go to visit our grandparents in another state!

I assume there are still kids who go through map phases, and kids with an interest in history and how things got to be the way they are. Both kinds of kids will enjoy the book Borders: Understanding the Lines that Unite and Separate Us by Karim Ressouni-Demigneux, with illustrations by Karine Maincent.

The book describes how the original borders were natural, such as oceans, rivers, mountains and deserts, and while some of those borders are still in use today, many borders are human made, decided by treaties or carved out by colonizers. It covers the history of people congregating in one place and how city-states evolved into empires, how maps are drawn and how human conflicts can reshape borders.

There are stories about walls that reinforce borders, how borders work in the air and at sea, how people cross borders with passports or as refugees and how climate change is altering the borders of some countries.

You’ll also learn some fun border facts like the fact that if you stand in the middle of the bridge over the Zambezi River you can be in four countries at once because that’s where the borders of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe meet. Or how there is only one border crossing between India and Pakistan that’s closed each night in an elaborate ceremony.

The book talks about time zones, border towns and places where countries and parts of countries are inside other countries and places where borders are less important such as the European Union.

While there are serious subjects in the book, it’s still a fun read that’s sure to interest those kids around ages 8-12 who like travel, maps and weird but true facts.

About the book: 72 pages, hardcover, published 2026 by Blue Dot Kids Press. Suggested retail price $21.95.

Have you read?

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