His own life story is fascinating, but what he went on to accomplish is even more impressive.

Use this elementary Frederick Douglass history lesson to teach your students about this American activist!

This resource is a perfect fit for Black History Month. But it’s also excellent for teaching American history all throughout the year.

And it comes in a digital or printable format!

Read on to see how to get your copy of this elementary Black history resource.

And, for more about African-American history, take a look at our list of Black history books to share with kids!

Elementary Frederick Douglass History Lesson for Kids

To use this Frederick Douglass lesson, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are used below. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer paper
• Pencils
• Colored pencils (optional)

Inside this resource is a two-page biography of Frederick Douglass’ life.

It’s written in age-appropriate language for students to comprehend.

There’s also a blackline version of the biography included.

Along with the life story, there are three comprehension and review activities for students to complete.

An answer key is included for each activity.

And a teaching script is inside too!

How to Use this Frederick Douglass History Lesson with Students

When you’re ready to introduce this Black American to your students, start by reading the biography together.

Be sure to stop frequently to check for student understanding as you go.

If you choose, you can print the blackline version of the biography. Then students can color the pictures as you read through his life story.

The review activities include:

• A fill in the blank activity (based on the biography)
• A timeline sequencing activity (based on the biography)
• And a word unscramble activity (using words taken from Frederick’s life and career)

You might choose to complete one or two in class and send the rest with students as homework.

The answer key makes it easy to grade student submissions!

This resource is also available as a digital product for use with Google Slides!

All of the activities are included and students can either type on the slides to answer the questions or drag and drop their responses.

Get a look at the printable resource in the video below!

Scroll down to get your copy of this Frederick Douglass Elementary Lesson!

Add more Black history teaching ideas to your lesson plan with these activities!

To get the digital version of this Frederick Douglass elementary history lesson, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store! You can also get the digital and printable version as a bundle!

The post Elementary Frederick Douglass History Lesson for Kids appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

That’s a great thing!

One of my favorite Black Americans to study is George Washington Carver. He’s best known for his scientific work with peanuts, but his early life is truly inspiring.

This elementary George Washington Carver history lesson for kids is a great way to introduce students to this American scientist!

This is a fantastic resource for Black History Month, but it’s an excellent American history lesson for any time of year. Especially if you’re talking about STEM and scientists through the years.

Read on to see how to get your copy. And check out the digital version too!

Be sure to take a look at our list of 20 children’s books about Black scientists and inventors while you’re here!

George Washington Carver Elementary Black History Lesson

To use this George Washington Carver Black history lesson, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are used below. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer paper
• Pencils
• Colored pencils (optional)

This elementary Black history resource includes a two-page biography of George’s life and career – both color and blackline versions.

There are also three review and comprehension exercises for students to complete afterwards.

And an answer key is included for each activity!

How to Use This Elementary George Washington Carver History Lesson with Students

When you’re ready to use this resource, there’s a teaching script included to make introducing this topic easier.

Read through the biography with your students.

Pause throughout the reading to check for understanding. At the end, discuss the “What can you learn from George Washington Carver?” question with your class.

If you will be using this as a take-home lesson, print the blackline version and let students color it in.

All of the activities’ answers can be found in the biography.

You may wish to complete the “Fill in the Blanks” activity in class and send the word unscramble and timeline activities along as homework.

Use the answer key for easy grading!

If you complete the fill in the blank activity in class, walk students through the questions and help them find the answers as needed.

This history activity is also available in a digital version for use with Google Slides!

The biography is included, as well as all three review activities. Students can simply drag and drop or type in the fields to complete the exercises.

Get a look at this Black history resource in the video below!

Scroll down to get your copy of this George Washington Carver lesson!

Try some of these other ideas for teaching Black history to elementary students!

To get the digital version of this George Washington Carver lesson for elementary students, pick it up from my Teachers Pay Teachers store! You can also get the printable and digital version as a Black history lesson bundle!

The post Elementary George Washington Carver History Lesson for Kids appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

And there’s a good reason for it. The accomplishments of Black Americans are certainly worth studying, particularly in early grades.

Some educators, though, might feel a bit unsure how to introduce this topic to primary students. Especially if they’re not very familiar with this subject themselves.

The good news is that there are several easy ways to teach Black history in early grades and I’m sharing five you can try today!

Learning about Black history should be a fun, engaging activity.

The more we know about this subject as educators, the easier it will be to convey the inclusive, welcoming attitude we want our students to reflect as they learn.

Read on to check out these five tips – and to see some helpful resources that making teaching this subject a breeze!

Why Teach Black History in Early Grades?

Images c/o: Wavebreakmedia & weedezign / Deposit Photos

Before we get into the easy ways to teach Black history with early elementary learners, we should answer the question: Why is teaching Black history important in the first place?

Historically, the work and accomplishments of Black and Brown Americans have not been included in American history lessons.

There has been some progress in this area in the last decade or so, but many curriculum providers and school districts are still highlighting just a couple of figures each year (Dr. King, Rosa Parks, etc.) and not talking about many, many other Black people who have contributed to our society.

Black History Month, while valuable, is often viewed as the only time when it is “necessary” to talk about these individuals. Which is unfair to them and to our students.

Learning about Black history all year would really be the best way to combat this. And, as educators, the way we cover this topic can help to either broaden or narrow our students’ perspectives.

5 Easy Ways to Teach Black History in Early Grades

Now that we know why Black history is an important subject for our learners, even our primary students, how can we teach it? Try these five simple ideas!

Add an art twist.

Anytime I want my students to remember something new, I try to add an art component.

We can keep talking about the topic as they color, draw, or make a craft. But the act of creating does wonders for our memory.

So, if you add an art aspect to your Black history lessons, your students are more likely to remember and enjoy what they learn.

These Living Color History! Black History Coloring Pages are perfect for this. Check them out for yourself!

Embrace digital resources.

Digital resources have transformed the way we teach, particularly since so many schools have begun using distance learning as needed.

There are some excellent digital Black history resources available, even for primary grades.

Using these can make it simple to incorporate hands-on activities in a Black history lesson, without the need for physical supplies. And they’re simple to grade too!

Take a look at our digital Ruby Bridges mini lesson for an example!

Read engaging, factual picture books.

I am a total and complete book nerd. Anytime I can use a book in a primary grades lesson, I’m going to do it.

Another easy way to teach Black history with young students is to include some factual picture books you can read with the class.

I want to add a note here: It is essential that the book is factual.

All information about Black Americans is not accurate, even if it’s complimentary. We need to complete our due diligence as educators to make sure that what we are sharing is correct.

Over the years, we’ve read some excellent picture books about Black Americans. Take a look at our booklist to read about some of the greatest Black scientists and inventors in history!

Try some hands-on history ideas.

Another way to teach Black history in primary grades is to turn it into a hands-on activity.

Let your students dress up in period clothes and do a living “wax museum”. Each one can represent a specific Black American and prepare a one or two-sentence statement about what they did in history.

A timeline activity is another great way to help students remember important events in each person’s life and career.

You can also have them memorize a quote or two and recite them. These quotes are readily available online. (Again: Do your due diligence to make sure the quote is correctly attributed.)

Invite parental involvement.

The best way to help kids learn about Black history in primary grades is to involve their parents.

Educators can teach children about Black Americans all year long (and they should!), but if they’re hearing or seeing negative portrayals of Black culture in the home, it’s difficult to counteract that.

Many parents aren’t actively discouraging these conversations. They simply don’t know how to talk about race with their children.

This parents’ cheat sheet for talking about race is an excellent resource for helping parents have these kinds of conversations with their children.

Topics such as racial differences, civil rights, racial protests, and Black history are included with sample questions and responses.

These responses may also be helpful for answering student questions when you teach about Black history in early grades.

To get your copy of this resource free, click the image or the link below to have it sent to your inbox! You’ll also get our weekly newsletter – coming this Sunday!

**IMPORTANT** If you have a pop-up blocker enabled in your web browser, you will need to disable it to complete the email address window.

>>> Cheat Sheet for Talking about Race <<<

With these fun and simple ways to teach Black history in early grades, you can enlighten your primary learners about the Black Americans who contributed to our society!

Looking for more Black history resources for primary students? Take a look at these!

The post 5 Easy Ways to Teach Black History in Early Grades appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

Black History Month only comes around once a year, but we like to learn about it all year long!

With all of the important accomplishments African-Americans have made to U.S. history, it’s hard to fit it all into one month. 

So we don’t even try. 

Instead, we talk about notable African-Americans as often as possible. And there are new people to learn about all the time!

If you’re ready to introduce your students to African-Americans who’ve made history, these black history figure puzzles are a perfect way to get started!

These history puzzles are so fun for elementary students who are getting to know about the important achievements of black Americans!

Plus, there’s a digital version for distance learning!

Read on to see how to get your set.

And, for more ways to teach students about black history, don’t miss our Living Color History! Black History Coloring Pages!

History Maker Matches! Black History Figure Puzzles

To use the printable black history figure puzzles, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer Paper
• Laminator (recommended for durability)
• Scissors

This product includes:

• 36 color black history figure two-piece puzzles
• 36 line art black history figure two-piece puzzles
• A teaching script
• And a chart of all of the Black history figures featured!

The left puzzle piece shows each person’s name and picture.

While the right puzzle piece has a picture and brief description of how the person impacted American history.

As students learn about each person, they can test their knowledge by completing the puzzles.

How to Use the Black History Matching Puzzles with Students

If you are using this resource as part of a year-round Black history unit, you might start by using the chart to acquaint students with each person.

Read through the name in each square and have students guess what occupation they think the person had.

Then you could talk about each person’s accomplishments – one at a time.

Once students are more familiar with each person, cut the puzzle pieces apart and let them practice matching them up!

Need to save on ink? Use the line art version instead. Students can color them with colored pencils or crayons!

Get a look at the printable black history puzzles in action below!

Digital Black History Figure Matching Activity

Are you distance learning? Or just looking to use less paper products in the classroom?

This activity is also available in a digital version that is compatible with Google Slides!

There are 12 slides with three puzzles each.

Students can move both parts of each puzzle to match up each person.

A full answer key is included for easy grading!

Get a look at the digital puzzle activity below!

Scroll down to get your copy of these black history puzzles!

Don’t miss these other ideas for teaching black history!

To get the digital version of these Black history matching puzzles, click the image or link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

> Digital Black History Figure Matching Activity <

The post History Maker Matches! Black History Figure Puzzles appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

As the kids and I have been studying black history, we’ve found so many incredible stories of great jazz musicians.

I knew of all of these music pioneers, but learning about their lives and experiences has been so enlightening and it’s been a wonderful lesson for our children.

So I thought it would be nice to put what we’ve learned together into a printable black history unit study that’s all about jazz, bebop, and scat!

We are very proud to announce the release of We Got Jazz! – Exploring the Pioneers of Scat, Bebop, and Swing! 

We Got Jazz! is a jazz unit study packed with jazz history, comprehension reviews, and listening activities for kids in grades 1-3!

Read on to see how to get your copy! And, if you need a digital version for distance learning – there’s one of those too.

If you’re looking for more black history lessons for kids, don’t miss our African Kingdoms unit study for elementary students!

We Got Jazz! Black History Unit Study

We have always enjoyed the sounds of jazz.

While we knew about all of these famous musicians, we didn’t know much about how they got started making music or the challenges they faced during their careers.

As we started exploring these figures with the kids, we found out so many interesting things.

Which is why I hope that your students find this black history unit enjoyable too!

We Got Jazz! features five biography units of jazz greats:

• Dizzy Gillespie
• Nat King Cole
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Miles Davis
• and Duke Ellington

The section for each artist includes a comprehensive, age-appropriate biography of their life and career.

This is followed by a question and answer review activity to see what students have learned from the biography.

Then there’s a crossword puzzle, a timeline sequencing activity, and a listening activity (with a link to where to find each artist’s music) to help students learn even more about each artist.

Depending on what your lesson plan includes, you could take one artist a week.

You might try covering the biography with the class. Then students can complete the activities on their own.

Or you could spend a week discussing them all!

Read the biography with the class and then assign them to complete the review activities for homework or independent work.

Plus, a full answer key is included for easy grading!

See the full product flip through below!

Digital We Got Jazz Black History Unit

Are you distance learning this year? Or just looking to save on printer ink?

We Got Jazz! is also available in a digital version!

The digital version, which is compatible with Google Slides, contains all of the information and just as many activities as the print version.

After reading about each artist, students can type their answers to the review questions – directly on the slides.

They can drag and drop the events in each artist’s life into the correct sequence.

Instead of a crossword puzzle, there is a word unscramble activity for each person.

And you can use the digital answer key (which is delivered in a separate file) to grade student submissions in no time!

See the video preview of the digital version of We Got Jazz below!

Scroll down to get the print or digital version of We Got Jazz for your students!

Check out more black history learning activities below!

Looking for the digital version of We Got Jazz? Pick it up in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Digital We Got Jazz Unit for Elementary <<<

The post We Got Jazz! – A Jazz Black History Unit Study appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

Ruby Bridges has always been an interesting history figure to me. 

She was such a young girl when she made history and she managed to handle it with grace and class. 

Naturally, I wanted my children to learn about Ruby Bridges but I also like to share her story with my students.

And that’s why this mini Ruby Bridges history lesson is one I’m excited to share with all of you!

This is a fantastic history activity for early elementary grades! 

It’s a great fit for Black History Month, but you could really use it any time of the year, because it’s also American history.

And it’s so easy for early grade students to relate to her experience as well.

Plus, this activity is now available as a digital Black history lesson too!

Read on to see how to pick up your copy.

And, for more black history resources, take a look at our list of 20 Books about African-American Inventors and Scientists!

Elementary Ruby Bridges History Lesson for Kids

To use this Ruby Bridges history lesson for kids, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer Paper
• Pencils

The printable Ruby Bridges mini black history lesson includes the following:

• A two-page Ruby Bridges biography
• A page of Fill-In-the-Blank biography review questions
• A Ruby Bridges word unscramble activity
• A Ruby Bridges history timeline sequencing activity

A full answer key and a teaching script are also included!

The biography comes with a blackline version as well.

Digital Ruby Bridges History Lesson

Are you using virtual or distance learning with your students this year?

This Black history lesson is also available as a digital activity for use with Google Slides!

The digital Ruby Bridges history activity includes:

• A five-slide biography
• A two-slide fill in the blank review
• A two-slide word unscramble activity
• And a history sequencing activity for students!

A complete answer key is also available for easy peasy grading.

Read the biography in class with students and then let them complete the review activities on their own!

How to Teach Elementary Students about Ruby Bridges

If you’re unsure how to introduce Ruby to your class, the teaching script offers a sample teaching script to try.

Read the biography together with your students. Be sure to stop and check for understanding during the reading.

Afterwards, you might choose to complete the fill-in-the-blank activity together. Then you can send the word unscramble and the timeline sequencing activities along as homework.

If you decide to send the biography as part of a take-home assignment, let students color Ruby as they read about her!

Use the enclosed answer key for simple grading!

Get a closer look at this resource in the video below.

Scroll down to get your copy of this print or digital Ruby Bridges History Lesson!

Don’t miss these other Black history learning ideas for students!

To get the digital Ruby Bridges History Activity for use with Google Slides, click the image or the link below to get it from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Digital Ruby Bridges History Activity <<<

The post Ruby Goes to School! Mini Ruby Bridges History Lesson for Kids appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

Black history is one of the reasons I taught my children at home for the early grades.

Black History Month is wonderful, but I wanted my children to learn about the accomplishments of African-Americans all year round. 

When we homeschooled, we learned about so many fascinating people right from the start.

Since I’m passionate about the topic, I still like to share black history resources for educators who observe Black History Month. And that’s why these black history figure coloring pages are so helpful for early grade education!

These are a fun and simple way to introduce students to 36 African-Americans they may not have learned about. 

They’re simple enough for early learners, but they also include facts about each person for older students.

And they’re a great springboard for further research!

Read on to see how to get your set.

If you’re looking for more ways to introduce these notable Black Americans to students, take a look at our printable and digital Black History matching puzzles too!

Living Color History! Black History Figure Coloring Pages

These are wonderful for art extension if you’ve been learning about any of these figures with your class.

And, if you’d like to broaden your black history knowledge, these figures are a great place to start! 

To use this set of black history figure coloring pages, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer Paper
• Crayons or colored pencils
• Comb binding machine (optional)
• Binding combs (optional)
• Astrobright paper (optional)

These coloring sheets feature realistic depictions of 36 different notable African-Americans!

Plus, a blurb about what they accomplished in their careers and in history.

This resource includes coloring pages for:

• Arthur Ashe
• Barack Obama
• Condoleezza Rice
• Jackie Robinson
• Mae Jemison
• Oprah Winfrey
• Ruby Bridges
• W.E.B. DuBois
• and many more!

How to Use Black History Coloring Pages with Students

There are several ways to use this resource with your students.

Naturally, they’re a great fit for use during Black History Month.

But, if you’re planning a year-long unit, there are 36 individuals featured. So you can bind the entire resource and focus on one individual per week.

You can print the resource at half size and place the pages on a ring for review.

Or, print the pages on colorful paper at 25%. Students can cut the pages apart and make a Black history booklet!

You can even challenge students to find out an interesting fact or two about the person on their sheet. Let them share what they learned the next day in class!

Get a look at all of the Black Americans featured in these black history coloring sheets below!

Scroll down to get your copy of these black history coloring pages!

Take a look at these other black history learning activities!

The post Living Color History! Black History Figure Coloring Pages appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

We’ve always been passionate about Black history in our family. In fact, most of American music history includes accomplishments by amazing black musicians and artists.

Which is why we try to teach our kids about Black jazz musicians from an early age. 

And there’s no way to talk about early American jazz without discussing Billie Holiday. She was a true pioneer of songwriting, performing, and vocal styling. 

So I thought this mini Billie Holiday history lesson would be a great resource to share for your Black history lessons too!

This is an excellent resource for Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Jazz History Month, and more!

Plus, it’s a short lesson with simple activities, so you can use it without needing time to prep it in advance.

Need a digital copy for distance learning? There’s one of those too!

Read on to get yours.

And, for more about the work of Black musicians, don’t miss our We Got Jazz! Black History Thematic Unit!

Lady Day Learning! Mini Billie Holiday History Lesson for Kids

To use the printable Billie Holiday resource, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer Paper
• Pencils

This Black history resource includes a two-page biography about the life and legacy of Billie Holiday.

Three comprehension activities are also included – a fill-in-the-blank exercise, a word unscramble, and a timeline sequencing activity.

Answer keys are included for each review activity.

And there’s a blackline version of the biography too!

How to Teach Elementary Students about Billie Holiday

To begin this lesson, start by reading the biography through with your class.

If you use the blackline version, kids can color in the pictures as you read.

Then begin the review activities.

Depending on the age of your students, you may wish to complete the fill-in-the-blank exercise as a group.

Then you can send the word unscramble and sequencing activities along as homework.

Use the answer keys to make grading a snap!

Get a closer look at this resource in the video below!

Digital Billie Holiday History Lesson for Elementary

Are you using digital resources with your students this year? This product is also available in a digital version!

In this digital Billie Holiday history activity, which is compatible with Google Slides, students can read the biography of her life and career.

Then answer the review questions by typing directly on the slides!

Digital versions of the word unscramble and timeline sequencing activities are included too.

And there’s a separate answer key for you to use when grading.

Scroll down to get this elementary Billie Holiday history lesson for your students!

Check out these other Black history learning ideas!

Grab the digital version of this Billie Holiday activity in my Teachers Pay Teachers store! You can also get the print and digital versions as a bundle!

>> Digital Billie Holiday History Lesson <<

The post Lady Day Learning! Billie Holiday History Lesson for Kids appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

We’ve always encouraged our kids to learn about their history, so I thought it would be cool for him to read some books about black inventors and scientists. That way, he learns about history and he finds out that other people like him have had big ideas that they turned into real things that helped society.

Talk about a self-esteem boost!

I wanted to share these storybooks with all of you because we’ve enjoyed reading them. (Some are even in our home library.) But they’d also make excellent choices for a STEM unit or a Black History Month lesson. In our family, we like to read about them all year.

Read on to see these inspiring black inventor books for kids. And for more black history lessons, don’t miss our We Got Jazz unit study! It’s packed with over 120 pages of black history for elementary grades!

20 Fascinating Books about Black Inventors and Scientists

This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.

1. Garrett Morgan: Historically by Maria Mas

2. What Color Is My World? The Lost History of African-American Inventors by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

3. Katharine Johnson (You Should Meet) by Thea Feldman

4. Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton

5. What Are You Figuring Now? A Story about Benjamin Banneker by Jeri Ferris

6. Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed

7. National Geographic Readers: George Washington Carver by Kitson Jazynka

8. Vision of Beauty: The Story of Sarah Breedlove Walker by Kathyrn Lasky

9. What If There Were No Black Folks? A Story About African-American Inventors and Pioneers by Toni Abasi Hill

10. Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

11. The Man Who Invented the Lawn Mower: And Other Inspirational Black American Inventors and Their Inventions by Christopher Davis, Jr

12. All Aboard! Elijah McCoy’s Steam Engine by Monica Kulling

13. The Doctor With an Eye for Eyes: The Story of Dr. Patricia Bath by Julia Finley Mosca

14. Lewis Latimer: Black Americans of Achievement by Winifred Latimer Norman

15. Great Black Heroes: Five Brilliant Scientists by Lynda Jones

16. The Woman Who Invented Weaving by Christopher Davis, Jr

17. Gary and the Great Inventors: It’s Laundry Day! by Akura Marshall

18. Black Pioneers of Science and Invention by Louis Haber

19. Look What Brown Can Do! by T. Marie Harris

20. Have You Thanked an Inventor Today? by Patrice McLaurin

Did you like this list of books about black inventors and scientists? Check out these other history learning ideas!

See even more activities on my Living History for Kids Pinterest board!

The post 20 Fascinating Books about Black Inventors and Scientists appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

We’ve been studying African kingdoms of the past with the kids and we’re thrilled to share what we learned with you! It’s fascinating (and tragic) to me that Africa is the largest of all the inhabited continents and yet it is largely overlooked in history programs for kids.

In fact, I use the “What Your ____th Grader Needs to Know” series with our children and there is no mention of African history outside of Egypt until fourth grade. This means that kids are first introduced to Sub-Saharan African history with a discussion of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

I feel that initially presenting Africa in the light of slavery tends to bias children to the beauty and historical significance of African rulers and people. We’ve decided not to cover the subject in that way with our children and we’ve found out some incredible things so far.

For starters, Africa is so much more than poverty, oppression, and slavery. In fact, these things were fairly uncommon until colonialism started. So before we got into our lesson about African Kingdoms with the kids, we decided to learn more about the African continent – as it is today.

Take a look at this Introduction to Africa lesson plan you can share with your kids too! And if you want to learn even more about Africa with your children, don’t miss our African Kingdoms printable unit study!

Introduction to Africa Lesson Plan for Kids

Let’s begin by tackling some common misconceptions about Africa.

The original name of Africa is not “Africa”!

First, did you know that Africa was not originally called Africa? That name was based on the name “Afri“, which was a Latin name given to the inhabitants of Carthage by the Romans in the second century B.C.E.

In fact, the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio was renamed Scipio Africanus after his victory against Hannibal at Carthage at the end of the century, because the name “Africa” was only used to denote the area surrounding the indigenous people who lived in and around Carthage at the time.

Somehow over the centuries, the name Africa was expanded to refer to the entire continent, but that was not the name that the inhabitants of Africa used. There is some disagreement about what the original name for Africa was, but some say that the original name was “Al-kebulan“, which is an Arabic name meaning “Land of the Blacks”.

How big is Africa?

After finding out that the name of Africa wasn’t even originally Africa, we had to re-examine our entire view of the area. We decided to sift through popular images of Africa and compare them to the reality of life on the largest continent on Earth.

The free resource “Exploring Africa” by Michigan State University is an excellent introduction to African culture, history, and geography. We started with the beginning exercises about the size of Africa and the common portrayals of Africa in popular culture.

We also found an incredible graphic showing the enormous size of the African continent:

Africa is a Culturally Rich, Civilized Continent

What kind of landscape comes to mind when you hear the name “Africa”? Do you think of people who live in huts? Do you picture extreme poverty and dirty surroundings? Those are the images commonly used in the media. And Africa does have poor people and slums. (Like literally every other continent, except Antarctica.)

I live in the U.S. and if I wanted to show the U.S. as a country of poor, impoverished people, I’d have no trouble finding photographs to support that story. We see homeless people in our area on a regular basis. So it’s unfair to paint this as a situation that’s unique to the African continent.

African countries have huge cities, beautiful buildings, and incredibly rich historical sites.

Antananarivo, Madagascar

Cape Town, South Africa

Kampala, Uganda

Marrakesh, Morocco

Nairobi, Kenya

Windhoek, Namibia

The People of Africa

The Exploring Africa lesson plan makes an excellent point that I had not previously realized. Most of the images of Africa in modern culture are either of animals, nature, or buildings. The people of Africa are not widely highlighted, unless they are shown looking malnourished or unhappy.

When I thought back to my childhood, I realized that this was definitely true when I was growing up. Of course, it’s important to publicize the extreme poverty that ravages much of Africa, but those images are not representative of life for all Africans. Seeing those pictures over and over can make us feel that life in Africa is miserable for everyone, which is not true.

Here are some of the images of Africans we shared with our kids:

Young Men in Ethiopia

Mother and Children in Angola

Young Maasai Women

Ugandan couple

Best Friends

 The Natural Wonders of Africa

We also discussed the incredible diversity of geography on the African continent. Utah State University hosts a very thorough resource list of Africa lesson plans and we explored one to learn about the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa.

Here are a few of these natural wonders:

Victoria Falls

Table Mountain

The Serengeti Plains

Books and Resources about Africa

Here are some of the resources we used for this lesson. They’re definitely worth a look. (Affiliate links are listed below. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• University of North Carolina: How Do We Represent Africa? – A free PDF file with color pictures of life and nature scenes from Africa. Great for broadening common views of Africa to include people of all kinds.
• Afrobets: First Book About Africa by Veronica Freeman Ellis
• Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions by Margaret Musgrove

Learn even more about Africa with these learning activities!

Ready to dive into the royal history of Africa? Don’t miss our African Kingdoms unit study! It’s packed with unit activities to help elementary kids learn about the rich and regal history of African kingdoms!

>>> African Kingdoms Elementary Unit Study <<<

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