Resources for Learning about Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., day is coming up, and it’s a great time to learn about the civil rights leader and the civil rights movement in general. This isn’t easy stuff to talk to our kids about, but it is so important for them to grow up with empathy and understanding that we are not as different as some people would like to believe we are.

Check out some of our favorite educational reading books about Martin Luther King

If You Were a Kid During the Civil Rights Movement

The Story of Ruby Bridges

Real Stories – The March On Washington

10 True Tales: Young Civil Rights Heroes

And if you are looking for more printable lesson plans then check these out on Etsy

Playdough to Plato has a nice set of printable banners kids can write on about their dreams, how they can be kind, how King changed America and more. These are great little ways for kids to summarize what they have learned.

No Time for Flash Cards has another cute activity, where kids make a world, cut out handprints and share how they would like to change the world.

Curriculum and Crayons has a step-by-step guide to drawing Martin Luther King, Jr., while It’s About Time, Teachers, has a printable poem and a timeline of King’s life.

I love this foldable King Day activity from Teachers with Apptitude. It includes prompts for the kids to write about and pieces to color and put together.

Scholastic has a great collection of books on the civil rights movement for kids if you want to expand your King Day learning to talk about Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, sit-ins and bus boycotts. And Learning in Wonderland has collected a ton of great resources for learning about and celebrating King.

Education.com has a lot of great printables for King Day, including a crossword puzzle, coloring sheets, stories and activities. I love the collage and handprint art ideas.

And if you’re willing to spend a little you can find some great things at Teachers Pay Teachers, too, like this printable booklet for kindergarten and first grade, handprint book and writing prompts, and mini unit study and craft project.

How do you celebrate King Day in the classroom or with your kids at home? I’d love to hear about it!

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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