Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities. In this learning experience students will learn more about Martin Luther King Jr. and how he marched for causes he believed in. As a result of this learning experience students will choose their own important cause to walk or advocate for in order to honor and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy of advocacy and leadership.

During this learning experience students will analyze and discuss a variety of sources related to Juneteenth and Independence Day. They will compare and contrast the two holidays and grapple with the question, “How do different people and groups celebrate freedom and independence in the United States?”

This learning tool was developed and designed to facilitate teacher/student and student/student discussion and recognition of significant events, holidays and celebrations within their lives, families and communities and those of their peers.

This video is part of the Learn and Grow with WHRO TV series. Watch Patty Larson teach about the months of the year and the days of the week.

Let’s graph our favorite holiday and learn about each other!  This lesson introduces holidays and then allows children to choose their favorite and graph that information as a whole class.

This resource can be used as an anticipatory set to begin a unit on Navidad (Christmas). Ideally, students are familiar with the Spanish speaking countries and where they are located on the map.

Display the image as a warm up activity and have students respond in writing to the following questions:

1) Mira a los platos tipicos de cada pais, ¿Adonde quieres viajar?
2) ¿Qué quieres comer?
3) ¿Cuál país tiene un plato similar a los Estados Unidos?
4) ¿Cómo se llama uno de los platos tipicos de Mexico?

Then, students can pair up to review answers and practice their interpersonal speaking.

Share out as a whole group.

Then, to dive deeper into the image, students can choose a specific dish that they want to research further. Students will answer the following questions:

1) ¿De cuál país es este plato?
2) ¿Es un aperitivo, plato principal, o postre?
3) ¿Cuáles ingredientes hay en este plato?
4) ¿Tu familia come algo similar durante la Navidad?
5) ¿Quieres probar este plato?
6) Describe un plato tradicional que tu familia come en Navidad?

A follow up or culminating activity can be for students to make a dish from a particular country to share with the whole class at the end of the unit.

Use your own favorite creation software to create winter holiday cards for family and friends!  Images, animated Gifs, and audio files are included in these public domain resources, along with directions about how to find other resources you could use.