It’s Black History Month, y’all!
I’m so excited for the themed activities I have planned for Leana & I’m sharing them with you all.
It took me a while to think of a way to introduce this month to Leana, in a way that she could comprehend. & honestly, no matter what books we read or activities we do, she obviously won’t understand the actual history behind it all. But I still wanted to have some fun with it, while making it as relatable as possible. So I made a list of inventions by black people, ones I already knew of + ones I found by searching on Google. I wrote down inventions that Leana is able to recognize, which is surprisingly a handful of items!
This first set of inventions gave me all the summer feels! I picked the invention of the refrigerated system for vehicles, by Frederick McKinley Jones & the water gun by Lonnie Johnson. We had a couple of family water gun fights last summer, so every time Leana sees a water gun, she remembers those fights & will run while we chase her around with them! & ice cream is of course, easily recognizable by kids. Leana doesn’t eat much of it but she still knows what it is.
I printed a coloring sheet for Leana to paint, that I cut out & pasted to an ice cream cutout I made from cardstock. Then I attached it to our bulletin board! I’m pretty excited to fill it up this month, with more artwork of black inventions.
We used a mini water gun to make a painting craft! Leana has one of those magic doodle mats that Orlando will sometimes use a spray bottle on & that gave me the idea to use a water gun as a painting tool. I taped a piece of cardstock to Leana’s chalkboard + put paper down on the floor to catch the dripping water. I put tempera paint + water in the gun & helped Leana spray away! The artwork turned out pretty good.
Be sure to check back next week for another set of Black History Month activities!