There has been a lot going on in our world lately. One thing that I feel like cannot go unaddressed on Colorful Pages is the murder of George Floyd and the importance of Black Lives Matter. Another tragedy has struck our country with the murder of George Floyd. Part of our job as educators, families, and librarians is to call out injustice like this and help students have conversations around race, racism, and Black Lives Matter. All lives cannot matter until Black Lives Matter!
Due to current events, I have completely switched around my distance learning activities for my own classroom. It would be another injustice to my students and community if I just stayed silent as their teacher. So, we will be learning more about Black Lives Matter this week and continuing our many conversations around race and racism. I have seen many educators and parents take up a similar calling via social media. To help, I wanted to create something to launch on Colorful Pages that would be free and easy-to-use!
K-8 Distance Learning Activities
I have created distance learning activities to help you talk about Black Lives Matter and Justice for George Floyd as a family or classroom for students in Grades K-8. After I wrote up my own plans and some extra information, I had my fellow colleagues and community members look at it, too. Of course, ALL the resources are completely FREE to use and share! This is about racial justice!
In these Grades K-8 Distance Learning Activities, students and you will learn about and process: Black Lives Matter, racial injustice, and the murder of George Floyd. To do this, you will use discussions and videos or read alouds. Then, students will get the chance to take action and stand up for Black Lives Matter and George Floyd by picking a Black Lives Matter Project to do. There are four choices for them to pick from including: art, writing, and letter writing.
PLEASE remember that these are NOT the only activities you should be engaging your class and family in. There are many more discussions that need to be had surrounding Black Lives Matter, race, and racism. Use these activities as a jumping off point or to add to your conversations!
We would love for you to use the resources here while also using your knowledge of your students/kids to meet their needs during this time. Feel free to change up the activities in our lesson plan/directions. Check out the following free resources we have created:
- Lesson Plan/Directions
- “Black Lives Matter means…” Art Worksheet
- “Black Lives Matter means…” Writing Worksheets [differentiated for different ages]
- Letter Writing to the Floyd Family Worksheet
- Letter Writing to the City Council Worksheet
I would LOVE to see pictures of your kiddos’ Black Lives Matter Projects! Please tag us on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter using @ColorfulPagesOrg or email us your photos at colorfulpagesorg@gmail.com. It always warms my heart when I see people using our resources and taking a stand for racial justice!
Other Resources
These distance learning activities are just one of MANY resources out there to help talk about Black Lives Matter to your kiddos and also help you along your own racial justice journey. Here are some more amazing resources to check out:
- https://www.naacp.org
- https://blacklivesmatteratschool.com
- https://blacklivesmatter.com
- https://www.tolerance.org
- https://www.equityliteracy.org
- http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/research/understanding-implicit-bias/
- “Kings & Counternarratives: 8 Books Featuring Black Male Characters”: https://colorfulpages.org/2020/05/08/kings-and-counternarratives/
- “Taking Black History Beyond February: 13 Picture Books and Young Adult Lit”: https://colorfulpages.org/2020/03/16/taking-black-history-beyond-february-13-picture-books-and-young-adult-lit/
- “Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk About Race: Resource Roundup”: https://www.prettygooddesign.org/blog/Blog%20Post%20Title%20One-5new4
- “15 books to help kids understand that Black Lives Matter”: https://www.rebekahgienapp.com/black-lives-matter/
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I hope this helps in our community’s fight for racial justice! Black Lives Matter! We stand with you!
Colorful Pages 
Why not teach them about Tulsa being burned down or institutional racism or ALL the people killed this year by police?
Who vetted this lesson? It’s surface level
Typical Seattle Schools pretending to care and offering something anemic
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Hello Natasha. Thank you for your comment and your feedback! I do agree that it doesn’t go nearly as in-depth as I would have liked to, but I wrote it not knowing who would use it and teach it. I teach deeper into Black Lives Matter and racism and Ethnic Studies within my whole class but that’s when I was able to build up a classroom community and their racial equity literacy in a physical classroom. Unfortunately, due to distance learning and the difficulty of building a classroom community online, I did not feel okay publishing that curriculum because I did not want an educator or someone using it and furthering traumatizing their Black, Indigenous, Students of Color. Teaching Ethnic Studies and Black Lives Matter requires culturally responsive teaching, racial equity literacy, and anti-racist pedagogical knowledge to do it the full justice it deserves, which I do not have the ability to ensure in those who use our curriculum.
I am offering these learning activities as a jumping off point, not an ending point. Black Lives Matter at School has really great curriculum too that goes deeper and, when schools are no longer closed, I hope to provide more as well.
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possibly we should include information for young black students on white rules and laws and how to avoid getting killed by police.
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I think Kaitlin did a good job providing the information that would draw out discussions in the classroom, and the rhetoric surrounding “white rules and laws” is systematic oppression. I’m not looking to turn this into a forum, but I believe the suggestion on including information on white rules and laws in and of itself is allowing for the perpetuation of a system that has targeted and failed black people in innumerable ways. and no, i don’t think anyone or any group of people should “avoid” getting killed by the police. Police has time and time again proven that they’re the ones who should avoid putting excessive force on civilians, specifically the unequal use of force on Black Americans and other people of color.
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I appreciate you taking the time to organize this information into a manageable format. I teach middle school special education and would like to present “big picture ideas” for my students. Many of them have ASD and have difficulty with perspective, making it very difficult for them to comprehend injustices. For students with disabilities or young children this is a wonderful place to start. Thank you.
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What would that look like? When a man is face down and handcuffed, what was it that he should have done to avoid being killed by the police? What are “white rules” anyway?
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