Three Black History Month Lesson Plans

Black History Month is a time of the year for everyone to celebrate the influential black men and women who have forever changed America. There are many different things you can do to celebrate Black History Month but one of the things you can do is to make some lesson plans for your class that deal with Black History Month. If you need some ideas on lesson plans to help celebrate Black History Month, then here are some great suggestions.

For a great lesson plan you could use two stories, Back of the Bus and Welcome Home written by Dorothy Jones Scalzo to tell the stories of unfair rules and laws regarding segregation. These two stories basically show how even though people did not know about or understand the segregation laws, they still followed them without asking questions. These two stories will probably be available at the local library or are on the Internet so you can probably print the stories out so you can read them to your class. Use the ideas in the stories about unfair treatment or laws and how they affected the black people along with why the white people never spoke out. You can relate this to current times by asking the students to write a list of unfair rules or laws that they know of and see if they are justified or not. You can ask the students to talk about the rules they know of to be unfair aloud to the rest of the class and then have a discussion about how it related to segregation. If you need an example for the children, you can use one like why you have a curfew in your town or why you can not wear certain clothing to school. This lesson plan would be good for any children who are in the 3rd grade or above.

A lesson plan on Kwanzaa is also a great way to celebrate Black History Month. You can explain to your class how Kwanzaa was a reflective holiday that started during the civil rights movement in the 1960's and how this holiday is all about recognizing and celebrating African-American culture. Kwanzaa begins on December 26th and lasts until the first week of January, where each day you light a candle of a different color to represent a part of the African culture. Day one a black candle is lit to show togetherness and sharing of feelings, on the second day a red candle is lit which symbolizes togetherness and sharing of traditions. On the third day a green candle is lit to symbolize togetherness and sharing of a common goal, and the fourth day is when a red candle is lit which means togetherness and sharing a family gift. The fifth day of Kwanzaa, a green candle is lit which symbolizes togetherness and sharing of dreams or hopes. On the sixth day of Kwanzaa, a red candle is lit which means sharing creativity and togetherness. Finally, on the seventh day of Kwanzaa, a green candle is lit which stands for togetherness and sharing of a meal or big feast. You can explain this to your class and have them write a paper on their family traditions or have them write their own objectives during each of the days of Kwanzaa. You could also have your class make their own list of reasons why togetherness and sharing of things in a culture is important to society. This lesson plan would be good for children who are in middle school or high school due to the nature of needing to understand the importance of heritage and traditions.

Another great lesson plan you can do for Black History Month is you can read poetry of Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes wrote his poems while he listened to traditional jazz music. Have the students listen to jazz music while they read these poems aloud and then assign the class into groups and have each group pick a certain poem to read out loud to the class. Make sure you have the jazz music playing while they are reading the poems because this will give them the feel of how Langston Hughes wrote and composed his material. This is a great lesson plan because Langston Hughes is a prominent part of the African-American culture and his poems talk about a lot of the tribulations of the African culture. This would be a great lesson plan for middle school students or high school students because they will really be able to understand the poems and the meanings within them.