Black History Month Bulletin Board Research Project: 32 Famous African Americans
- PDF
- Easel Activity
What educators are saying
Description
Explore the lives of 32 African American leaders and create a striking photo bulletin board. Your research project can be short, detailed, or differentiated. It's great for studying famous people during Black History Month.
Open the preview to get a closer look.
This project is scalable. If you're short on time, you can use less pages. Want a full-blown research project? Use them all. (Or you can do something more in the middle.)
- For the quickest activity, print the templates with large pictures of the people. Distribute one to each student, and ask them to write their contribution beneath the photo. Then hang for a beautiful bulletin board.
- If you'd like kids to conduct a little research, assign the first page (basic information).
- To add complexity, also assign the second page (challenges faced and people who helped).
- For the most thorough assignment, add the third page (how history changed the person’s life, how the person changed history).
- A double timeline also helps kids visualize the cause-effect relationships between lives of famous people and history.
It allows you to differentiate. Meet the needs of each you teach! You can assign the same number of research sheets to every student or vary requirements for differentiation.
You can let kids collaborate (or not.) Fourth, fifth, or sixth grade students may work independently, as partners, or in small groups to complete this informative writing project.
Printed pages make a stunning bulletin board or classroom display. They’re perfect for showcasing African American leaders during Black History Month – or anytime.
- For each person, you'll receive a page with a large photo of the person. Kids simply write important contributions at the bottom. When you only use this page, your class can whip up a beautiful display - or collective biography of African Americans - in one class period.
- Themed writing paper with a small picture of the leader lets kids write. Whether it's a bulleted list or research paper, it also makes a great display.
- For the largest bulletin board - and most wow factor - staple both pages side-by-side on a large piece of construction paper.
It's digital too. Want to go paperless? Two options await you.
- Share forced Google Slides with your students.
- Let them respond with Easel Activities.
Everything you need for your class or homeschool group is included. Just print (or share) and go!
- Lesson plans
- Lists of famous Black Americans (for student assignments)
- 3 sheets of research questions (use all or vary to differentiate instruction)
- Double timeline
- Works cited sheet
- 32 contribution pages, each featuring the name and large photo
- 32 themed writing pages, each featuring the name and small photo
- Cover sheets for bulletin board or collaborative collection
- Editable rubric
Each student or group explores one African American leader:
- Muhammed Ali
- Marian Anderson
- Maya Angelou
- Louis Armstrong
- Josephine Baker
- Benjamin Banneker
- Ruby Bridges
- Gwendolyn Brooks
- Kobe Bryant
- George Washington Carver
- Frederick Douglass
- Charles Drew
- Langston Hughes
- Michael Jackson
- Lebron James
- Katherine Johnson
- Michael Jordan
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Thurgood Marshall
- Barack Obama
- Michelle Obama
- Jesse Owens
- Rosa Parks
- Jackie Robinson
- Wilma Rudolph
- Sojourner Truth
- Harriet Tubman
- Madame C.J. Walker
- Booker T. Washington
- Ida B. Wells
- Oprah Winfrey
- Malcolm X
The project is interdisciplinary.
- You can use it to teach research skills in your ELA class or to extend learning about people in American history for social studies.
- It’s a great way to hit multiple skills and standards with one project.
Your fourth, fifth, or sixth grade students will love it – and you will too!
- Guiding questions let kids work independently. They love the independence – and learning about a specific African American leader in history.
- Activities address the intent of your ELA standards. Kids conduct short research projects (CCSS W.4.7, W.5.7, and W.6.7), gather relevant information from multiple sources (W.4.8, W.5.8, and W.6.8), and write informative/explanatory texts (W.4.2. W.5.2, and W.6.2.)
- It’s no prep!
Listen to what teachers are saying about this resource:
- This product is print and go ready for Black History Month. It has enough African Americans for each of my students. Nothing for the teacher to do. – Patricia S.
- My students greatly enjoyed being able to choose someone to research, and the display looked great in the hallway! – Mrs. S.
Looking for a more specific group of people? Check out my Black inventors research project.
Enjoy teaching biography!
Brenda Kovich
Standards
Reviews
Questions & Answers
