Celebrating Black History Month

I always try to include lots of cross-cultural projects into my classroom to help my students learn more about other races and cultures. So, Black History month is no different. I didn't want to go with a boring report, but I did want to do something with my ELL 2nd graders that incorporated reading and writing, while still giving the kids a chance to be creative. While I did this with 2nd grade, it can easily be adapted to work with grades 2-6 (or even higher) by raising the level of the text students use for research. For middle school, you could add a report to the project and have them make this the visual aid.

First, each student got an easy book about a famous African American to read, and a graphic organizer to fill out. The graphic organizer asked them for information about the person's birth and death, family, accomplishments, and interesting facts.

After finding all the required information, students then wrote a paragraph about their person. I provided a paragraph frame for those who struggle with writing. Then, they made and decorated a paper person, and wrote their paragraph inside the paper person's shirt.

The kids really had a blast with this, and the other teachers have not stopped complimenting! Here's what they look like:

 

Here's a video that tells you how to create your own paper people!