Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Martin Luther King, Jr Day is January 18. This year, it is especially important to take into consideration how we approach this day with our students. There has been so much trauma and stress due to the pandemic. Most recently, the invasion of the U.S. capitol and the violence that occurred gives us reason to pause and think. The division between the political parties seems to have caused so much discord across the country.

Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote several essays. One of the essays he wrote was the SIX PRINCIPALS OF NONVIOLENCE.

1.    Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.

2.   Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.

3.   Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.

4.   Nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform.

5.   Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.

6.   Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.

There are many activities that can be done to show our students that no matter how we look, skin color, height, hair color, etc; what makes us all the same, is that we are human beings. But to have our students look at and reflect on the Six Principals of Nonviolence takes it a step further.

Focusing on the Six Principals can help students learn about pacifism and the philosophy of nonviolent resistance. The younger kids could work together to identify words associated with nonviolence and choose several words and pictures to design a collage or jigsaw puzzle. The older students can discuss what inclusion, diversity, and equity are like. Then they could write about their ideal world that is inclusive, diverse, and equal.

I have a couple of teacher friends that sell their teaching resources on Amped Up Learning, they have some Martin Luther King, Jr activities.

Karen with Resources and Courses has MLK Puzzle Pair Pack. Beth with Beth Hammett has The Life of MartinLuther King Comic Coloring Book. Enrica with Matemaths has Adding and Subtracting Fractions Pixel Art Activity Martin Luther King.

I have recently posted some new products as well. Fry’s 200 Sight Words Packet is a complete set with a student notebook, flashcards, Sentence Fill-In, board games and brag tags. Winter Onset and Rime has K-1 students identifying the onset of picture words. It has been created as both Boom Cards and Google Slides. I also created the Winter Short Write Freebie as a sample of Winter Short Writes.

Wishing you much inner strength as you return for the next semester of school.

Froggy About Teaching