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Activities for Martin Luther King Day

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Each year, on the third Monday in January, citizens of the United States honor the life and dreams of Martin Luther King Jr. Take advantage of this opportunity to teach civil rights to your students, and to emphasize the role of Dr. King. The Civil Rights Movement was an important time in our history, and the children should be aware of Dr. King’s legacy of tolerance, equality, and respect for everyone.

Activities for Martin Luther King Day:
· Mapping Martin Luther King Jr.(for grades: 3-8)
Students will discover the places in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, where his activism and passion made such a difference.

Use a variety of resources to learn about the life Martin Luther King Jr. Create a U.S. map that shows where those places are and what happened there. It is preferable to use a large map of the US that all the children can work with—in addition to smaller maps for each child.

Students can complete this activity for Martin Luther King Day independently, in pairs, or in small groups.

First ask the children to point out cities they know were important to the Civil Rights Movement and to Dr. King—after they have named a few point out cities such as such as Atlanta, Georgia; Montgomery, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; and Washington, D.C. etc. and why these places are significant. Write the names of each location on the board.

Then write the name of the location next to a star on the map. Record on a separate Map Key, in this activity for Martin Luther King Day, that includes a sentence or two explaining the importance of that place.

Lastly, provide a time to display the maps to share with the class what they learned.

Another Activity for Martin Luther King Day:
· Write Your Own "I Have a Dream" Speech (grades K-12)

Have your students listen to King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Students will then use a fill-in-the-blanks work sheet to write their speeches. These speeches will imitate the form and content of the "I Have a Dream" speech.

Older students doing this Activity for Martin Luther King Day will simply look at a copy of the speech and write their own without the assistance of a worksheet, first discussing the structure of the speech.

For such activities for Martin Luther King Day you will need the following:
A recording of King's "I Have a Dream" speech:
A text version of the speech:
The "I Have a Dream Too!" work sheet (optional)

Explain to students that they are going to do activities for Martin Luther King Day that concern Dr. King’s dream for the future—and then think about their own dreams.

Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is very powerful, hearing it should create a certain measure of excitement in your students.

Afterwards, the students present their speeches to their classmates. If this activity for Martin Luther King Day was done in groups or pairs and not individually, average the peer scores to come up with each their final grades.

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