Martin Luther King Day activities

Here’s a roundup of 40 great ideas for Martin Luther King Day kids’ activities.

Martin Luther King Day activities

Martin Luther King Day provides a wonderful opportunity to focus on the best in all of us.

Not just with activities that help us reflect on the bravery it takes to overcome injustice but through a day of actual volunteering.

So much has changed since King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

And as the years pass it becomes harder for new generations to understand what life was like before Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement.

So it is even more important to use Martin Luther King day to encourage children to be active historians.

First, perhaps, by letting them listen to original audio of MLK’s speeches or watch footage however grainy and distorted.

And secondly, to actually go out and research the ordinary memories of life before the civil rights movement and of the momentous changes Martin Luther King helped to bring about from the generations who do remember.

I have collected here a whole list of different activities that hopefully explore all these different aspects of  Martin Luther King Day.

Take a look at the list and get inspired for ways in which you and your family can celebrate the life of this great man. 

Martin Luther King Day ideas for kids activities

1. Volunteer for the day as a family or class or with friends and pledge to volunteer throughout the year
2. Listen to excerpts of Martin Luther King speeches
3. Talk about how MLK uses imagery in his speeches
4. Write “I Have a Dream” or “We Shall Overcome” speeches
5. Watch footage of the March on Washington
6. Organise a sponsored walk or “march” and make speeches outdoors at the end
7. Create MLK patchwork – decorate paper squares around themes of peace, love, freedom, equality with side holes that are then connected up with ribbon or string
8. Make chains of paper dolls to symbolise people living in peace
9. Talk about times when we have to be brave, what it feels like to be brave and what we can do to help ourselves be brave
10. Create personal I have a dream posters
11. Make murals of different coloured hand prints
12. Read about Martin Luther King’s life – popular biographies for kids include Who Was Martin Luther King?, Martin’s Big Words, I Have a Dream
13. Create timeline of Martin Luther King’s life
14. Interview older members of the family or friends about what they remember about life in the 1950s and 1960s and the civil rights movement and record their memories
15. Write letters to MLK as if alive telling him about the changes that have happened since his death
16. Read books that celebrate diversity such as All the Colors of the Earth, Whoever You Are, We’re Different We’re the Same
17. Create peace doves from multi-coloured finger prints
18. Collect old photos from the 1950s and 1960s and make a collage with pictures of MLK
19. Make posters about how life has changed since the 1950s and 1960s
20. Read newspaper cuttings from 1963 covering MLK’s I Have a Dream speech
21. Talk about whether things are just or unjust
22. “We’re all the same on the inside” brown & white egg experiment
23. Create multi-cultural stick puppets
24. Read about life before the civil rights movement in books such as Hear My Cry
25. Make peace themed lunch boxes
26. Talk about non violence and other leaders who have achieved great change without violence
27. MLK word search
28. Write acrostic poems around words such as peace, bravery, dream, overcome
29. Learn and sing We Shall Overcome
30. Create a peace wall from hand prints
31. Create a kindness jar
32. Colouring a rainbow with MLK image and quotation
33. Create MLK inspired peacemaker badges
34. Create a flap book about being a peacemaker
35. Create a Martin Luther King quiz
36. Make a freedom bell
37. Create a map of key events in MLK’s life and the civil rights movement
38. Make the world’s a rainbow post card
39. Watch films of MLK’s life and work such as the original documentary From Montgomery to Memphis or the History Channel’s King
40. Research and write about other members of the civil right’s movement whose personal bravery and service made a difference

I hope you’ve found at least one activity in this list that will work for you and your kids. 

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Luci McQuitty Hindmarsh

Luci is the founder of Mums Make Lists. She has written about all aspects of organising family life for ten years. Her main areas of expertise are family finance and budgeting, simplifying housekeeping and family admin and kids’ party planning. Read more.