February will soon be upon us, which means that it will be time to celebrate Black History Month. One great way for teachers to help their students learn more about important people and events in black history (all year ’round) is by using coloring pages and other printables which can be found on the internet.
Apples 4 the Teacher has coloring pages that feature individuals from entertainment and politics. Sidney Poitier, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Frederick Douglass are among the individuals represented. Besides the coloring pages, this website also has an interesting word jumble where children can unscramble the names and terms related to Black History Month.
ABC Teach has wonderful and interesting printable for Black History Month – a report planner. The planner allows students to think about not only who they will report on, but the person’s contributions to society and how to map out their entire report.
For other word related printables, check out the homeschooling page on About.com. There you will find About.com’s Famous Firsts series which has a word search and crossword puzzle including individuals like Nat King Cole and Madam C. J. Walker. About.com also has a vocabulary page which is basically a fill in the blank sheet. For example students are given a clue such as, ‘First African-American to play in the major league’ and would need to fill in the name, Jackie Robinson.
Family Education is a website that expands on the coloring pages of the other sites with information about lesser known African-American inventors such as John Winters, inventor of the fire escape ladder; Garrett Morgan, inventor of the traffic light; and Sarah Boone, inventor of the ironing board. This site also has a civil rights timeline that goes from Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) to the assignation of Martin Luther King Jr. (1968). Additionally, there are quizzes and articles about Black America’s struggle for civil rights.
While the above websites provide their materials for free, the following websites charge for full access to their content. Enchanted Learning charges $20 for a year’s worth of access. Some items such as a fill-in-the blank printable sheet for Jessie Owens can be previewed for free. One of the more interesting black history month printables on this page is a calendar which can be printed in its entirety (for subscribers) or month by month. The calendar has a picture (that can be colored) of an important African-American figure (such as Thurgood Marshall), a biography and the birthdays of the famous African-Americans born in the particular month. One of the other great things about this site (in addition to its inexpensive cost) is t he fact that it does not engage in automatic renewals.
Teach-nology is another subscription site which charges between $29.99 and $49.99 for annual membership. One of the great printables on the site is its Revolutionaries of African-American history. This set provides a one page biography of individuals such as Marcus Garvey, Prince Hall, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass and then has a second page in which students answer questions such as what the person is famous for, the time period in which the person lived and how the person’s achievements affected African-American history.
Teacher Vision’s annual subscription is $49.99 and has a ton of activities from coloring pages to crossword puzzles, word searches, biographies, suggested reading lists and more. This site allows a free seven day trial, but you will still have to provide your contact and credit card information. Free trials that aren’t canceled will incur an automatic subscription charge.
So if you are a teacher, or just someone looking to introduce a child to information about the contributions of African-Americans, the above mentioned websites are a great place to start.
