Getting to the Heart of Black History Month + Freebie!

Black History Month is just around the corner! February is a short and busy month so I try to get more bang for my buck with this Valentine-ish Black History Month bulletin board.  I love it because I can leave it up the whole month!

 It drives me CrAzY to have decorations up after a holiday passes.  (I think I get that from my mom who was a manager for Hallmark for many years.  They are nuts about getting the next holiday up ASAP! I digress!!)

Anyhoo... I think Black History Month is a great opportunity to introduce my students to biographies.  They can do them individually or in pairs or cooperative groups. I start with a simple graphic organizer:

Then they create final drafts, which are displayed on the board. 

For a different twist, I have also had them do fact searching for each person to create an acrostic poem. Those are really fun and the kids don't think they are doing "research."  This is another great cooperative project. 

Click on the picture below to grab this Martin Luther King Acrostic FREEBIE! 

If you are interested in the whole writing and bulletin board set, here it is:

I also have a set of just the poem templates. You can check them out here: 

Happy writing!!