The holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave first graders a natural opportunity to discuss the idea of being change makers. The students read several books about Dr. King’s life and work and learned about the important changes he helped make. They also discussed Ruby Bridges and Rosa Parks and watched a short segment of the stirring “I Have a Dream” speech. 

“After listening to the speech,” said teacher Nicole Schoentag, “we connected Dr. King’s words to our opinion writing, learning that he repeated words to make his opinion very clear and powerful. Most of all, we talked about how we are all change makers like Dr. King. We all have the power to take on problems, big and small, and try to fix them.” 

Each child wrote about being a change maker and the finished products are on display in the hallway. A few of their thoughts: "I am a change maker. I can change the world by planting more trees and not littering the whole entire planet"; "I can help the world by making women equal to men"; "I hope that I can build a school for peace"; "I hope that people with dark skin and people with light skin will be treated equally." MORE PHOTOS