Story of the World, Vol. 4, Chapter 36 is rather dark, covering the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. On the bright side, we have the Civil Rights movement and the victory over segregation.
When the chapter mentioned Rosa Parks, we Googled it and found the famous pictures of her bus protest and subsequent arrest. Also, we pulled up a copy of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech, “I Have a Dream.” I would start crying just reading it, so I let them do the reading to themselves. What is it with me and crying these days? Am I getting soft in my old days?
For a craft, the children were interested in creating pop art. One of the things I appreciate about this curriculum is that in the Activity Book we also cover some side issues going on at the time of the historical events presented in the main Story Book.
In this chapter, Ms. Bauer brings up Andy Warhol and his 32 cans of Campbell soup painting. I pulled it up online. It was like a light bulb went on for the kids. Suddenly, they were inspired to create pop art.
My son wanted to color a strip of comics from the local newspaper. He found Garfield and colored it with his new, fancy, neon markers, which he got for Christmas.
My daughter chose to draw from the cover of one of her Warriors books. She loves cats in general and reads every Warriors book she gets her hands on.