28 Days: Moments in Black History That Changed the World (dates, cards, script)

I'm so excited about this resource! This packet was designed using the picture book, 28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World by Charles M. Smith & Shane W. Evans.

The 28 events highlighted in this book are for each day in February in honor of Black History Month. (Day 29 - leap year - is "today" and the students can write their own fact). The people mentioned are in chronological order from Crispus Attucks in 1770 to Barack Obama in 2009.

Packet Table of Contents:

• pg. 3-9: Reader’s Theatre Script 
• pg. 10-67: February Calendar date cards (#1-29 and the 29 historic dates featured in the book)
• pg. 68-96: 29 Fact posters/cards about moments in Black History (each card includes the fact, a picture, and the historic date it occurred. Card #29 is blank and is labeled “Today”.)
•  pg. 97-125: 29 People posters/cards that only include the person and name (fact and date have been removed and  #29 is blank.)

Suggestions for How To Use These Resources (plus come up with your own!):

• Daily Dose of Black History on the February Classroom Calendar: Use the square February Calendar date cards inside a monthly wall calendar that has transparent slots. Print the corresponding historic date on the back of the card. For each day in February, flip over the number to reveal the date. Have the students search through the fact posters/cards to find the date that matches the historic date. Read the fact about that person in Black history.

• Matching Game & Assessment: At the end of February, hand out the people posters/cards and see if the students can explain why that specific person is important to Black history. For older grades, see if the students can match up the historic date cards with the people posters/cards (i.e. January 25, 1972 matches with the Shirley Chisholm poster). The class can check their answers using the reader’s theater script.

• Adding to Black History: The blank date card for February 29th says “Today”. Have the students write today’s date (or preferably any date since 2009, since that is when the book ends). Using the blank fact poster/card or blank people poster/card, have the students research their own person, fact, and draw their own picture for a recent moment in Black History that they find important. Have the class present their research and posters.

• Reader’s Theater Script: Assign each student a row from the script below. Cut out each row and give it to the student as his/her speaking part. Have each student hold up the correlating name or fact poster when reading his/her part aloud. Consider changing or omitting the text in the last column. The book has a ton of text (poetry, quotes, facts, etc.) on each page to choose from, and I chose a section that made the script more theatrical so it is not just straight facts.