Ways to Teach Children About African American History

For those of you who are teachers and need to come up with some ideas on how to teach your children about Black History Month there are many websites that have great ideas. While browsing the internet I came across one that had some fabulous ideas. The name of the website is http://www.ehow.com. I liked what this person had to say about teaching 5-6 year olds. He felt that it was not an appropriate time to share with the preschoolers about the past as far as the topic of slavery. He came up with a solution though that I thought was great. He talked in his article about how teachers could explain to the children that there was a time that African Americans could not play professional sports. He gave some names of books and DVD's that could be read to the children. Some of the books that he recommended were the Jackie Robinson picture book, the Elmira Express, and a book about Tiger Woods. He also recommended showing the kids a DVD of the Harlem Globetrotters. He recommended following up by reading a book about Barack Obama and explain to the children about how he is the first African American to become President of the United States. Explain why this is important and a historical event. He also said that there were free coloring pages on the internet of Jackie Robinson. He explained that all that needed to be done was to do a web search on him.

Another article at http://www.ehow.com. talks about how important it is to talk about Martin Luther King, Jr. The reason why it is important is because the children can learn about civil rights this way. The children can learn that everybody is equal and that everyone should be treated the same. Some ways to teach about Martin Luther King, Jr. would be to show the children a movie about him and have the children color some pages of him. If the children are old enough they can do a small report on what they have learned from the movie. One thing that I thought was really inspiring is that the author of this article had an idea of lighting a candle in the memory of Martin Luther King.

Another website that I found that is amazing and very helpful to teach children about black history month is a website called http://www.nickjr.com. This site has some awesome items that can be copied to teach the children. One of the printable items is called Innovators and Educators. These cards talk about African Americans that have invented things and that were teachers. One of them was even an astronaut. Another set of cards shows African Americans that were writers, artists, and musicians. I love this site because it shows the children that it does not matter what color you are; you can accomplish anything that you want to. This site also has coloring books to download for the children too. There is so much at this site to look at. I encourage you to check it out.

I know that these three ideas are going to help you this month when you want to teach your children about Black History. These sites are educational as well as a lot of fun. They are also very inspiring. They will help children to know that they are able to overcome any obstacles and accomplish anything that they truly want in life.