Teaching Black History Month (free file)

Black History Month Lesson Plans for kindergarten through second grade.  February is a perfect month to explore the genre of biographies.  Learning about the courageous men and women in black history while diving deep into reading comprehension provides an ideal opportunity.

Biographies

These are the three books we used to help guide our exploration into biographies:

• Rosa Parks by Kitson Jazynka
• Frederick Douglass by Barbara Kramer
• George Washington Carver by Kitson Jazynka

We created book questions to help guide our conversations.

Biographical Timelines

Part of our genre study involved looking at timelines.  We created our own to go along with each biography.

And then students use these timelines to create their own versions.  Here is the Rosa Parks version.

Biographical Anchor Charts

We also used the text information to construct these anchor charts.

Here is George Washington Carver.

Correction: I kind reader reminded me that the words we use are important. She wrote, “People weren’t born Slaves…They were born People and forced into slavery! It’s important the verbiage we use when shaping young children minds.” As teachers, we should also be constantly learning and updating our practices. I appreciate this friend who took a moment to bring this to my attention.

Frederick Douglass (I really would have loved to have met him).

Correction: From this point forward, I will no longer use the expression “born a slave” but rather, “was born and forced into slavery.”

As we approach Black History Month (and every month thereafter), I think it is important to have conversations with our students about race and bias.  However, sometimes it is hard to know what to say or fearing that you will say the wrong thing.   So I wanted to share a resource that may help guide you.

• WHY CONVERSATIONS ABOUT RACISM BELONG IN THE CLASSROOM

Thank you to USC Rossier for reaching out to me!

Here is Rosa Parks.

The students use these anchor charts to work on writing their own version of a biography.

You can find these activities in our Black History Month Nonfiction Reading Comprehension Unit.  

You may also be interested in the following:

• President’s Day Biography Unit of Study

FREE File

Last year, I created a Black History writing station unit for free!  These follow the same format as my other Writing Work Station Units.

You can download it for free by entering your email in the box below.  The file will be sent directly to your email.