ASSIGNMENTS | SPELLING | EXTENSIONS | LINKS | FURTHER READING

ASSIGNMENTS

Happy Birthday Dr. King

A Personal Essay

Gloria Estefan

Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man

EXTENSIONS

Try one of these fun and educational activities in your classroom.

LINKS

MLK Electronic Classroom
This site is jam-packed with out-of-the ordinary MLK insights and information. There's "Thirty-nine years for freedom," a timeline of King's life; a retrospective by Andrew Young on the progress made in the civil rights movement since King's time; sound clips of King's speeches; dialogue between groups of students about King; and an interactive quiz, study guide, and other tools for the classroom.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scavenger Hunt
" Remember! Celebrate! Act!" This fun and informative site terms Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday "A Day On, Not a Day Off" and provides an interactive forum for students to learn more about the civil rights hero. A series of questions and accompanying photos are linked to other sites that provide in-depth answers.

FURTHER READING

VERY EASY

China's Bravest Girl
by Charlie Chin
Children's 1997 (32p)
Hua Mu Lan persuades her father to let her go to war.
Multicultural

Martha Speaks
by Susan Meddaugh
Houghton 1992 (32p)
Martha, a dog who can speak, saves the day when a burglar shows up. Available in Spanish as Martha habla.

Home Run
by Robert Burleigh
Harcourt 1998 (32p)
A poetic account of Babe Ruth preparing to hit a home run.

César Chávez: Labor Leader
by Clara Sánchez de Morris
Modern Curriculm 1994 (28p)
Chávez brought improvements to the lives of migrant workers.
Multicultural

Dinner at Aunt Connie's House
by Faith Ringgold
Hyperion 1996 (32p)
Melody discovers the portraits in Aunt Connie's house are of heroic African American women.
Multicultural

EASY

Fair Ball!
by Jonah Winter
Scholastic 1999 (32p)
Stars of baseball's Negro Leagues profiled here include Cool Papa Bell and Josh Gibson.
Multicultural

One Giant Leap: The Story of Neil Armstrong
by Don Brown
Houghton 1998 (32p)
Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon.

Maria's Comet
by Deborah Hopkinson
Simon 1999 (32p)
A young girl fascinated by the stars becomes the first woman to discover a comet.

Marian Anderson: A Great Singer
by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack
Enslow 1991 (32p)
Anderson overcame prejudice to become one of the greatest singers in the world.
Multicultural

The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto
by Natalie Standiford
Random House 1989 (48p)
Balto, a sled dog, saved Nome, Alaska, from diphtheria.
Social Studies

The Babe and I
by David A. Adler
Harcourt 1999 (32p)
A young boy selling newspapers to help out his family gets some help from Babe Ruth himself.

ON LEVEL

Sisters in Strength
by Yona Zeldis McDonough
Holt 2000 (48p)
Helen Keller, Harriet Tubman, and Amelia Earhart are among the eleven women profiled.
Multicultural

Out of Darkness: A Story of Louis Braille
by Russell Freedman
Clarion 1997 (81p)
A blind boy's experiments made it possible for the blind to read.

My Heroes, My People
by Morgan Monceaux
Farrar 1999 (64p)
Painter/author Monceaux offers portraits of African Americans and Native Americans of the American West.
Multicultural

The Riches of Oseola McCarty
by Evelyn Coleman
Whitman 1998 (48p)
McCarty never finished school, but after working hard all of her life and saving her money, she established college scholarships at age eighty-seven.
Multicultural

America's Champion Swimmer
by David A. Adler
Harcourt 2000 (32p)
Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to swim the English Channel.
Social Studies

Hugger to the Rescue
by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
Cobblehill 1994 (32p)
Hugger and other Newfoundland dogs are trained to search for and rescue people who are lost or hurt.
Social Studies

Seven Brave Women
by Betsy Hearne
Greenwillow 1997 (48p)
Hearne relates the exploits of seven of her female ancestors.
Social Studies

Colin Powell: Straight to the Top
by Rose Blue and Corinne J. Naden
Millbrook 1997 (48p)
The authors examine the life of the former general who has become a hero to millions.
Multicultural

Heroes
by Ken Mochizuki
Lee & Low 1995 (32p) also paper
A Japanese American boy learns the meaning of heroism.
Multicultural

CHALLENGE

Through My Eyes
by Ruby Bridges
Scholastic 1999 (64p)
Ruby Bridges, who integrated the schools of New Orleans as a six-year-old in 1960, tells her story.
Multicultural

Adventures of Greek Heroes
by Mollie McLean
Houghton 1973 (192p)
The myths of Hercules, Perseus, Theseus, Orpheus, Meleager, and Jason are retold.

Pride of Puerto Rico: The Life of Roberto Clemente
by Paul Robert Walker
Harcourt 1981 (135p) also paper
The famous right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates was a hero on and off the field.
Multicultural