Black History Primary Unit: Day 1

Day 1 in this unit came smoothly because we had just talked about MLK, Jr. They were aware of the fact that things were  different a long time ago which made this transiton easy.

Day 1 in my unit is all about our uniqueness and celebrating how we are alike and different! We kick off the unit with what I believe is one of the best books and authors around, Amy Krouse  Rosenthal's Spoon.

If you do not have this book you MUST go get it. I literally bought two copies of it because it's so awesome. It's a friendly reminder that we all have our gifts and talents and that we shouldn't envy others.

After reading this book, we learned a "Spoon Tune!" Then, we made Spoon Puppets to use as a retelling tool and a pointer for one to one match. They. Had. A. Blast.

We then partnered up and discussed reason why we were special and different, but wonderfully awesome!

I also did the whole crayon activity after reading The Crayon Box That Talked and I've included a crayon template for that as well.

Also included in the unit is a parent letter. I included this because a lot of students go home and share what they learned in school- and I wanted to tell parents up front that we are leanring about Black History. While some of the information is sensitve, it is our history and will be dealt with in a grade level apporproate manner. The letter is ready for anyone to add a date and signature to get the unit going!

The unit is a 5 day unit but it could go as short or as long as you'd like it. For example, for the day we'll spend celebrating the arts, I included four different artists (Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Duke Ellington) but I didn't cover each on in depth on that day. I wanted to be sure to include lots of options. It worked out well because It worked well because I had a group of girls who really wanted to know who Marian Anderson was, so I was able to do a small group with them and they were ready to read her books and google her photos! We even listened to her sing a song online!

So anyway, that is the gist of day 1. I usually have a thematic studies time in the day and this all happened in about 35-40 mins. I will post soon for Day 2: Black History in the Arts! It's exciting =)