black history month continued

The Black History Month unit I put together is pretty awesome if I do say so myself. It is probably my favorite unit that I teach all year for several reasons. One, I have always been interested in Civil Rights and slavery. Two, it's one of the few times the kids come in with NO knowledge of any of this, so they are really interested and get excited for social studies everyday. (It's really fun watching them learn all of this new stuff.)

So this year I put together a learning walk where there were 5 stations and at each station they would read about that area, answers questions about their reading and then do some activity with it. The 5 stations were: 

1. Escaping to Freedom where they read about escaping slavery, and they had to create their own map of where they started and where they went to get to freedom. The following week they wrote a journal entry telling about one of their days journey to freedom. One kid kept writing about how he was wiped (whipped) all the time and he escaped and his mean white slave owner kept dragging him back to the big house for more wipings.
2. Underground Railroad where they read about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad and different ways they communicated. They then created their own quilt piece that had a secret message within in it like when to escape, where to go, etc. and we made a big quilt out of it that's now hanging in the classroom.
   
3. Civil Rights where they read about Rosa Parks and then had to write a journal entry either as Rosa Parks or as a white person on the bus. They had to write about how they felt, what was going on, and what they would have done if they were that person on the bus. One kid started his journal with "Yo, Rosa, get outta my seat! Stop the bus, bus driver, she won't move. Let's arrest her!"
4. Langston Hughes where they read about his life and then they had to create their own dreams poem based off of his poem. One kid wrote a poem about his dream of having lunch with a hockey playing monkey. All of the poems were equally ridiculous so as a class we started over after analyzing Langston Hughes' poem again.
5. Harlem Renaissance where they read about this time period and famous artists and people that made it what it was. They then looked at several pieces of art created during that time and they then created their own. It was quite interesting to see what they would do if they lived in that time period.

Most did pictures like these two where there are African Americans playing instruments or dancing.

Or of singers on the stage.

More than half of the class didn't get the memo that they should NOT be drawing white people. I mean come on kids, we're studying the Harlem Renaissance for BLACK History Month.

And then there was this interesting one...I don't think this kid is going to be an artist when they grow up...

Yes, I am being braggy, but get over it. Their slave journals and maps look pretty awesome. All we have to do next week is make them look old by tearing them up and getting dirt on them. If I remember I'll take some pictures to share when they're all finished.