Black History Month is one of my favorite months during the school year. There’s really not even enough days in the month to discuss all the historical figures, so some of women get moved over to Women’s History Month! With pretty much all of my history lessons, I use a 3-pronged approach that really rounds out our project based learning methods – video, discussion, and hands-on project. We typically start with a video or three from YouTube. For Black History Month, we go through and watch several of these mini bio’s from Biography like this one:
Then, we’ll open up the discussion about other important black American figures in history. We’ll pull out some of these research brochures. I love these little projects because they are so versatile! They can be assigned to groups or individuals for independent internet research. Or, they can be worked on together as a class project. Teachers might find that their students aren’t quite ready for independent research, or you just don’t have the time/resources, but you can project a teacher-led internet research and have students guide the search.
For littler ones, I like to use these mini-biography coloring pages. They have just enough information to create a lasting impression in developing minds. Younger students are definitely old enough to watch videos and have age appropriate discussions as well.
Be sure to grab this freebie to add to your lessons too!
