Have kids write a mock letter from the perspective of an African American in history.
Black History month in February is a time to celebrate events and historic figures in African American history. A number of educational activities for kids help them learn about African American history during Black History month, or throughout the year. If you plan to teach kids about African American history, learn a few activities that can assist you.
Biographies And Presentations
Assign a figure in African American history for each child to write a short biography. Kids can present biographies in front of the class, which is a great way to teach the whole class about a number of important figures. To add to the project, have kids create a poster board display to go along with their papers that contains pictures, timelines and famous quotes about and from the person.
Trivia Tournament
Hold a trivia tournament about facts and figures in African American history. This motivates kids to learn and you can offer small prizes, like candy or little toys, to the winning team. A basic format is to have each team take a turn answering a question and, should they get a questions wrong, the other team has a chance to take that point by answering the same question correctly. Set a point maximum and give more points for harder questions.
Group Timeline
Making a timeline with kids is another activity to teach about African American history. Set the timeline to history in the U.S. and give each kid a period of time dating from when African Americans were first brought to the U.S. to the present. Kids can document significant occurrences of their time and, when completed, kids can put together their times to make a larger timeline for the class to view. Post the timeline going across a wall, or several walls, in your classroom.
Letter Writing
Another project that involves crafty skills is having kids write a mock letter from a famous person in African American history. Or from African Americans at different periods in history for a prospective of what life was like at those times. For example; write a letter from the prospective of an African American using the Underground Railroad, from the prospective of an African American who has just been brought to America, or from the prospective of an African American civil rights leader.
Tags: African American, African American history, American history, about African, about African American