Inside: Use this Martin Luther King Jr Day Emergent Reader to celebrate MLK’s Legacy and his kindness.
When we learned about Martin Luther King Jr. when I was a student, we listened to his I Have a Dream Speech and colored in a picture of his face.
But we didn’t really get to the meat of who he was and what his message meant.
And when we teach young children about Dr. King and his legacy, we can explain his message in a way that makes sense to them because small children understand concepts of fairness, and kindness, and compassion and love.
At the end of the day, that is what Martin Luther King’s message is really about.
So if we want to help our young students understand who Dr. King is and what he stood for, we have to help them understand why we get the day off for his birthday.
And to make that easier, we can use this I Have a Dream Emergent Reader Set to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Other Ways to Celebrate Kindness in January
We love to use the winter months to celebrate kindness.
We start January off right with lots of kindness with our Kindness Resolutions.
We use this Winter Kindness Challenge and these Winter Kindness notecards.
We play this Mittens Kind or Unkind Sort and do this January Volunteer Challenge.
To focus on Dr. King and kindness we use this Birthday Wish for Martin Craft project that helps kids understand what his I Have a Dream Speech was about.
We can focus on celebrating our differences (rather than just tolerating or accepting them) with this so all of our students are celebrated with our Rainbow Colors of Me.
We can also learn about and celebrate our differences with our Emergent Reader and Early Reader sets:
And we use this I Have a Dream Emergent Reader Set that focuses on Dr. King and kindness.
How to Use the Martin Luther King Jr Day Emergent Reader
1. Purchase and download the Martin Luther King Jr Day Emergent Reader Set.
2. Print out the version you wish to use: color or black and white and cut them apart. I swear by my paper cutter I bought my first year teaching because I can’t cut a straight line.
If you use the black and white version, use these skin color crayons so students can color in the people.
4. After you staple the pages, read the book together. You can follow up with partner reading, silent reading, group reading, or reading to a class pet/stuffed animal.
6. Use the Discussion Starters to further the conversation about Dr. King, his I Have a Dream Speech and what he stood for.
6. Students can write or dictate about what they know about kindness and treating others with respect and equality.
And then celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day the way he might have wanted: by acting with kindness towards others, learning about others, and making friends with people who are different from you.
Ready to get the Martin Luther King Jr Day Kindness Emergent Reader Set?
Purchase the I Dream of Kindness MLK Jr. Emergent Reader on Teachers Pay Teachers.
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