Celebrating important women in history ALL year long but in March, I make sure to share celebrate Women’s History Month by sharing about as many inspiring and influential women as I can. Here are three tips on ways to share and celebrate women for Women’s History Month with your students.
Read Alouds
Picture book read alouds are a great way to share a lot of information in a short amount of time. I schedule read-aloud time with my students daily and in March, I read aloud picture books about influential and inspiring women of history. I have some of my favorites in my classroom library and some I use read-aloud videos on YouTube to share the book. I’ve curated a list of a few of my favorites:
- She Persisted: Brilliant Women Who Made a Difference
- What Miss Mitchell Saw
- Fly High: The Story Of Bessie Coleman
- The Doctor with an Eye for Eyes: The Story of Dr. Patricia Bath
- Hidden Figures
- Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston
- Mae Among the Stars
- Maya Lin: Artist-Architect of Light and Lines
- Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist
- Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx
- Because Claudette
- Hedy Lamarr’s Double Life
If you don’t have a copy of a book, check on YouTube for some great read-alouds done for you, YouTube Read Alouds for Women’s History Month . I like to use a diverse range of books for Women’s History Month and keep most of these titles in my classroom library so that my students can read them throughout the year.
Videos
Short videos are another great way to bring an influential woman in history to life.
I am lucky to have access to Flocabulary and one of my favorite videos is “Helen Keller & Overcoming Obstacles”. My students are always fascinated and inspired by the life of Helen Keller.
BrainPOP is another favorite resource for engaging videos. There are 30+ BrainPOP videos in the “Women’s History” category! One of my favorites is “Malala”. Students can really relate to Malala and are surprised to learn that in some parts of the world, girls have to fight for the right to attend school.
Research Project
One of my FAVORITE classroom activities for ANY subject is a research project. I love projects because my students LOVE projects. A research project is a way for students to own their learning. Students choose which famous woman of history they want to research and learn more about. When student choice is involved, you can count on students being more engaged in an activity. You can read more about why I love research projects by reading “Celebrate Black History Month”.
I give my students a project checklist, rubric, and template in Google Slides™ that scaffolds the project so that my upper elementary students can be successful. Students send their completed projects to me and have the option to present their projects to their classmates.
Researching and creating a presentation has become my students’ favorite classroom project. Giving my students support with a presentation template and rubric allows them to be successful and take pride in their work. You can create your own template or save time and use the template I created for my own students and teachers just like you: Women’s History Month Project.
I also have a Women in Science Research Project that would also be a great activity for Women’s History Month.
