Martin Luther King Jr Craft, Experiment and Quotes

MLK Day is approaching and as I was planning a Martin Luther King Jr craft and activity, I decided to quiz my kids a little to see what they knew about him. My littles really had no idea and their answers were as follows:

5: I saw him at my school once.
Me: Like, a picture of him?
5: No, the real him.
Me: I don’t think that was him, kiddo, Martin Luther King Jr isn’t alive anymore.

4: Umm, I knew when I was a baby but I forgot now.

2: I see those M&M’s mom. Can I have an M&M, please?

With those kinds of answers, our 12 year old was on his own. He was the most knowledgeable, of course, and gave us the run down. In case your kids are still a little too young to already know, here is a run down you can summarize for them.

Who is Martin Luther King Jr?

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr had a dream of equality and worked hard to make that happen in America. As a husband and father of four, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr wanted his children to live in a world where they wouldn’t be judged by the color of their skin.

To give his kids the life he dreamed for them, MLK lead the civil rights movement by leading peaceful protests, marches and bus boycotts. His most famous march was the March on Washington where he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in front of 250,000 people.

He went on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and, after he died, the Congressional Medal of Freedom. Since 1983, we celebrate MLK Day in honor of his birthday. While his birthday was the 15th of January, however, we observe MLK Day on the 3rd Monday in January.

Martin Luther King Jr Book

We started our MLK activities with a book called Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It focuses on the dream idea and kids in the book tell what their dreams are. I think it really helps kids understand that Martin Luther King’s Dream speech wasn’t about dreams when you’re sleeping because my littles struggled with that at first.

MLK Day Craft

Our craft, like the book, went with the dream idea.

Materials:

• Blue cardstock or construction paper
• White paper
• Glue sticks
• Markers
• Glitter

Directions

1. Cut the blue paper in half

2. Cut out a cloud from the white paper.

3. Write the dream on the cloud

I wrote Josie and Liam’s for them. Syas insisted on doing his own and who am I to say no, so a translation is on the back. He dreamed that everyone would be nice. Liam was just not participating well and only wanted the M&M’s that we were going to use on the experiment.

4. Glue the cloud to the blue paper, leaving space at the top to write.

5. Write “I have a dream…” at the top of the blue paper, above the cloud.

6. Add glitter.

Martin Luther King Jr Experiment

I’ve seen so many of these experiments that use one brown egg and one white egg, but since my little guy has an egg allergy I needed a different option. We decided to use some Christmas M&M’s we had leftover. You could use any color M&Ms, and I honestly would have preferred using a regular pack with more colors.

In the first box of the printable, the kids laid out their different coored M&Ms and drew what they saw. Then, they took one bite of each M&M and put them in the second box where they drew what they saw on the inside.

Once they were done, we talked about how, like M&Ms, we all look different on the outside but the same on the inside. The kids loved this and really seemed to get it!

Heres the free Martin Luther King Jr printable that I created! Feel free to print it for personal use or to share.

Final Thoughts On Martin Luther King Jr Day Craft and Activity

I feel like Martin Luther King Jr Day doesn’t get enough attention sometimes, so I want to ensure that my kids know and understand the sacrifices Martin Luther King Jr made and how much courage he had. MLK changed America for the better and left us with an amazing message to pass on to our kids.

What do you and your family do to observe Martin Luther King Jr Day? Tell me about it in the comments.