Students at MCS had a half-day of school on Martin Luther King Day. The early morning was spent honoring King’s legacy with a prayer service, and students spent the second half of the morning learning about the parallels between MLK and Jesus Christ with their “mass buddies”, visiting nine different classrooms – all of which had activities prepared for them.
In the weeks prior to MLK Day, teachers spent time preparing for the prayer service that would establish the atmosphere for the MLK event, and then collaborated with each other to create and prepare the activities. During this planning time, the teachers had been struck by the parallels between the lives of Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King, and it seemed fitting to help the students see this phenomenon by having them trace the ministerial lives of these two “Kings” by traveling from one station (classroom) to another.
The nine stations the students visited in the classrooms each represented the themes of:
- Jesus and Martin Luther King, Jr. as Peaceful Warriors
- How did Jesus and MLK communicate their message of Peace?
- Society’s resistance to the message of Peace and Brotherly Love
- Friends for Good
- Sacrifice
- Humility
- Faith in Humanity
- The Impossible Dream
- Self Reflection
Kindergarten through grade 8 students, along with their teachers, traveled from station to station where other teachers met them and gave some background on the theme and described the activity they would be doing. At one station, students were invited to write on a huge orange paper sun surrounded by battery-operated votive lights how they could be a light for other; at another station, teachers chatted with the students about the Hopes and Dreams of Jesus and Martin Luther King, Jr. and then had the students wrote their hopes and dreams for a better world on some “clouds.”
At another station, students were introduced to the World Food Program, a program sponsored by the U.N., which donates 10 grains of rice to help end world hunger for every question answered correctly on Freerice.com. Questions were in Humanities, English, Math, Chemistry, Language, Geography and Science.
After the day’s prayer service and activities, students had a greater understanding and appreciation for these two inspirational men in history.