Martin Luther King Jr. Day Crayon Story Time

For my first story time of the year I searched for something unique to tie into Martin Luther King Day (which we celebrate on Monday - YAY another day off of school - not!) and I found this lesson plan (on an art teacher website, no less!)

I decided to use mix the lesson up a little bit. First, I showed the students the two books I was going to read to them - Martin's Big Words, The life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport (you can read any book about MLK, this just happens to be my favorite) and The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane Derolf (we do not have this title in the media center, but I did have a WORN OUT paperback copy that I bought through a Scholastic book order when my oldest was in kindergarten, see above picture) and I told the students to think about WHY I was reading both of these books, I told them that they went together and they had to figure out why. I read the books then we had a discussion about how the books are similar (and even my kindergarten students got it!)

After I read the stories we went to the tables and each student colored their own crayon. I used this crayon pattern, but in the interest of saving paper, I reduced the size so that two crayons fit on one piece of paper. For the K & first graders I had them draw a picture of themselves in the middle of the crayon. For the second grade students they had to write 4 things that make them unique in the middle of the crayon. After they were done I glued the crayons into a class crayon box. As usual, I over thought this and making the crayon boxes was more of a project than I thought it would be (especially since I am art challenged!).

It was a fun project and I think really helped to convey Dr. Kings message of love to the kids.

MLK day bulletin board