Black History Month or African-American History Month is February, this observance originated in the United States and is now observed in Canada, Ireland, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It started out as Negro History Week in 1926 when historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History announced the 2nd week of February to be Negro History Week. This week was originally selected because on February 12 Abraham Lincoln and February 14 Fredrick Douglas were both born. From there the first proposal for Black History Month was proposed by BLACK EDUCATORS and the Black United Students at Kent State University in 1969 and in 1970 Kent State was the first to celebrate! Go Educators!! Six Years later, Black History Month was being celebrated across the country when President Gerald Ford recognized Black History Month.
NearPod: There are lessons for Black History Month K-12 in this library they have. Remember to start in the Nearpod Library and check out their Featured section. It always has relevant information for holidays and current events.
EdPuzzle: EdPuzzle has a library of EdPuzzle Originals. Take a look and select Holidays and Events. There you will find all kinds of holiday resources. Scroll down to the bottom and you will find Heritage, History, and Awareness Collections. This is where you will locate the resources for Black History Month.
Discovery Education: Has an entire channel dedicated to Black History. As with any DE resource, you can watch a full video or look up the segments to bring in parts of it which correlate to your curriculum. There are also many activities and interactive resources for students.
Swank K-12 Streaming: When looking in Swank for Black History Movies, you will need to filter by Subject & Themes, then Black History/African American. Once you do that, you will be able to see all the resources available and if it is not in our library, you will be able to request. See your Librarian to get the login for Swank as it is different from just going to Swank online.
Scholastic Journals: Paid Subscriptions
- Junior Scholastic - The Secrets of Their Success: Follow Four Black Leaders and how they used their business skills to change lives.
- Scholastic Scope - Into the Poison Cloud - Recounts the life of Garrett Morgan, whose inventions have saved countless lives. This is a paired text with multiple reading levels and comes with a lesson plan and lots of resources which can be downloaded in Google Docs/slides/forms.
- Science World - This journal has an entire section of Celebrating Black Scientists! Check out these spotlight resources, such as John Urschel - who left pro football to become a Mathematician. There are several resources to choose from so take your pick.
Other Resources:
- Amanda Mleczko Niaves created this slidedeck so she could share one slide each day with her students. Take a look to see if it is something you could share with your students. Make a copy, add to it to your drive then make it your own! Post from Bitmoji Craze Educators.
- Vicki Tseng- Found this incredible library for Black History Month and changed most of the videos to links to play automatically without ads! Original Creator Christine Fleeman curated this library. Thanks to both! Make a copy, add to it to your drive then make it your own! Post from Bitmoji Craze Educators.
- Janelle Luna - Created this resource to support the efforts of educators wanting to go deeper and broader in their Black History Month Experience. Make a copy, add to it to your drive then make it your own! Post from Bitmoji Craze Educators
- Kim Jansen created this slidedeck which highlights African American Leaders with a slide for videos, books and a Spanish version. Make a copy, add to it to your drive then make it your own! Post from Bitmoji Craze Educators
- Sarah Renae created this slidedeck with videos which explain the struggles African Americans encountered. Watch the videos before showing to class as some may be disturbing for younger students. As always, you know your students and maturity level. Make a copy, add to it to your drive then make it your own! Post from Bitmoji Craze Educators
- NPR - Series on Black History Month 2023
- We are Teachers - 34 Black History Month Activities for February and Beyond
- C-SPANCLASSROOM - Black History and Civil Rights
YouTube Videos for elementary students:
Use, don't use, up to you! But, now you know.....
