School Age Storytime: Martin Luther King Day

A storytime for Kindergarten-3rd grade celebrating the life of MLK

Book: Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport (beautifully illustrated short biography complemented by MLK quotes)

Song: “Martin Luther King” (to “BINGO”) Song Lyrics: http://tinyurl.com/singalong-black-history-month  

Book: The Other Side -- Jacqueline Woodson (fictional account of how two girls, one white and one black, gradually get to know each other as they sit on the fence that divides their town.) Alternatives:  Sister Anne's Hands --MaryBeth Lorbiecki – (Seven-year-old Anna has her first encounter with racism in the 1960s when an African American nun comes to teach at her parochial school)   or Freedom Summer – Deborah Wiles (In 1964, Joe is pleased that a new law will allow his best friend John Henry, who is colored, to share the town pool and other public places with him, but he is dismayed to find that prejudice still exists.)  or Goin’ Someplace Special – McKissick

Song: “Martin Luther King had a dream”  or “Black And White”

Read Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney  323.1196 PIN – Splendid writing filled with food metaphors telling the story of the  4 college students who inspired a movement with their patient wait at a Woolworth’s lunch counter for their order of “doughnuts & coffee & cream on the side.”  (With some classes, sang “We Shall Overcome” when the protagonists are singing in jail; other classes sang this after We March(below))  Emphasized the line on the SNCC page: “We are all leaders” – asked did it mean only grown-ups?  Whether age7, 17, 47,  or 107, if they see something not right in the way we treat people, animals, environment or anything in our world, they can work to change it…

Read This is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander – summarizes in verse and magnificent paintings by James Ransome segregated America and the changes brought by activists and the resulting civil rights legislation. or  

(unavailable 2019) Be A King: Dr. Martin Luther King's Jr.'s Dream and You by Carol Boston Weatherford, illustrated by James E. Ransom -- urges kids to emulate MLK telling kids "You can be a King" in their own lives -- fighting bigotry, feeling empathy,  banding together against bullies, stamping down hatred, seeking justice, walking tall, having a dream "great enough to grow into," closes with "Set your sights on the mountaintop. Climb a little higher every day."

Some classes: departed singing “We Shall Overcome”

1/2019 Bedm.  See also: School Age Storytimes: Black History Month

https://kateywrites.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/raisingreaders-monday-martin-luther-king-junior-edition has a great post on Martin Luther King day:

 

She writes "A new study by the Southern Education Foundation (widely publicized by an article in The Huffington Post) shows that over half of American public schoolchildren are living in poverty. According to FirstBook.org, “Most of these children have no age-appropriate books at home, and the classrooms and programs they attend are woefully under-resourced. Approximately two-thirds of these schools and programs cannot afford to buy books at retail prices.”

 

How do we fight the darkness of ignorance and illiteracy? What light do we have to shine for the 51% of American schoolchildren living in poverty, without adequate access to books?

 

I said to my children, ‘I’m going to work and do everything that I can do to see that you get a good education. I don’t ever want you to forget that there are millions of God’s children who will not and cannot get a good education, and I don’t want you feeling that you are better than they are. For you will never be what you ought to be until they are what they ought to be.’  – Martin Luther King, Jr. , 7th January, 1968

Check out her blog post (link above) to see her suggestions on how kids can make a difference.

(Great ideas for libraries as well)

 

If you are looking for great read-alouds for Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month – check out my storytimes: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Martin%20Luther%20King

 

Additional book suggestions and author interviews:

http://www.smartbooksforsmartkids.com/happy-birthday-mlk-jr/

http://www.readbrightly.com/12-books-carry-legacy-dr-martin-luther-king-jr/

Josephine : the dazzling life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell and Little Melba and her big trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown tell the stories of two black girls who wouldn't bow down to discrimination's limitations.

Booktalked: I Have a Dream J305.896 KIN
Other titles to consider:
Rosa's Bus: The Ride to Civil Rights -- Jo S. Kittinger  or Rosa –Nikki Giovanni -- excellent versions of Rosa Parks’ story
These Hands -- Margaret H Mason
Giant Steps to Change the World - Spike & Tonya Lewis LeeGranddaddy’s Gift by Margaree King Mitchell. (In 1965, a law was passed saying Black people must be allowed to vote, but white people in Southern states tried to make it very difficult.)

1/2009 Lincoln, MLK, Obama: 

 

"Take a journey through time -- starting 200 years ago" (with the birth of Abraham Lincoln -- bicentennial next month):

Book: Abe's Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Doreen Rappaport (lots of good writing here, and food for thought)
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation & the passage of the 13th amendment freed the slaves in 1865, but a hundred years later black people still didn't have the same rights as white people even when I (Carol) was their age --  segregation/discrimination-schools, restaurants, buses, water fountains, voting -- until Dr. Martin Luther King & many brave people staged non-violent demonstations. (Younger classes sang "Martin Luther King" before we read the next book) 

Book: Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport

Stretch -- song "We Shall Overcome" In 1965, a law was passed saying Black people must be allowed to vote, but white people in Southern states tried to make it very difficult (tests, threats) -- Booktalked Granddaddy's Gift by Margaree King Mitchell.

Look how far we've come. Today, 40 years later, we are 12 days away from the inauguration of a new President -- from Illinois like Lincoln, black like Martin Luther King: Book: Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope by Nikki Grimes (poet -- wonderful figurative language) (I only read the main story not the secondary one.)

At the core of all three books was each man's passion for education and for making the world a better place through his actions.