March on Washington Lesson (Grades K-2)

Objective(s)

Use a fictional text to understand the basic facts of the March on Washington.

Choose a problem we face today, and create a song or artwork that shows how you might use love to overcome the problem.

Standards Addressed

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.1
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2
Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Essential Understandings

  • Dr. Martin Luther King spoke at the March of Washington and called for equal rights, peace, love, and nonviolent change for all.

  • “Regular” people, including children, marched and were inspired by Dr. King’s message.

Key Vocabulary

  • Equal rights

  • Nonviolence

  • Doubt

  • Mistreatment

Materials Needed

  1. “Love” song from We Stood Up

  2. A Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson, illustrated by Eric Velasquez - children’s book available from Amazon, and/ or read aloud on YouTube (A Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson, illustrated by Eric Velasquez)

Introduction

  1. Provide context for A Sweet Smell of Roses: Sometimes people feel the need to get together and march for miles, sing songs, carry signs, and listen to speeches about big things they care about. Do you care about anything so much that you would do that? 

  2. Listen to the story of two girls who found themselves going on a march for freedom and equality.

Lesson

  1. Read aloud: A Sweet Smell of Roses.

  2. Ask: What ‘big thing’ was this march about? What did Dr. King talk about? (peace, love, nonviolence, change for everybody)

  3. Pose other comprehension questions for students. 

    a. What did you see in the book that showed the marchers writing down their beliefs? (they made signs)

    b. What did the marchers do with their signs? (they carried them as they marched)  

    c. What feelings were created in this march? (togetherness, community, love)

    d. Can you imagine things like equal rights having a smell? If equal rights had a smell, what do you think they would smell like? What sweet smell seems to follow the girls wherever they go? (roses)

  4. What did the girls do on the way home? (sing freedom songs)

  5. Let’s sing a freedom song today.

  6. Listen to “Love” from We Stood Up. Explore vocabulary (doubt, mistreatment) as needed. 

  7. Connect the song and the book: In this song called ‘Love,’ a lot of hard feelings are written down and ‘marched’ into town. Where do you think the marchers wrote down these hard feelings? (on signs or placards). Then the song says something about marching into town. How does this song remind you of the book, A Sweet Smell of Roses, that we just read?

  8. The march in A Sweet Smell of Roses happened over 50 years ago. Do we still struggle with hard feelings and equal rights now? What hard feelings do you think are worth writing down and turning into love now?

Assignment

  1. Tell students: Make a sign you would carry that expresses your feelings about what we need to turn into love now—a sign you would carry if you went to a march like the one in this book.

  2. AND/OR Let’s write a new freedom song today. Have the class as a whole write and sing a new verse to the song “Love” using this template.

Dig Deeper/Extensions (Optional)

Use your phone to record the class singing any new verses for the “Love” song. You can find a track with no vocals, containing only the music played by instruments, here.

Journal (Optional) 

Write or draw a picture of a “big” thing you believe in so strongly that you would walk miles and sing songs to keep it. Show or tell why this is important to you.

Online Applications

  • Embed a link of this read-aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLmECaBSNo

  • Use an interactive app (such as Flipgrid) in an asynchronous lesson, or real-time program (Nearpod, Peardeck, Zoom or Meet) to discuss the book using the questions listed in the lesson above. 

  • Have students listen to the We Stood Up song “Love.” Discuss the song using the questions listed in the lesson above, using the same app or program.

  • Make the assignment: In this song, a lot of hard feelings are turned into love. What we need to turn into love now? Make a sign you would carry on a march about a hard feeling that you think we need to turn into love now.

Download PDF of K-2 Lesson Plan

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