Rise Up.

This week we’ll be celebrating one of my favorite holidays… it’s not Halloween, Valentine’s Day, or even Christmas. This week we’ll be learning and commemorating the life of Dr. King through books, activities, and of course, song.

As a ‘teaser’ on Friday, we showed a photograph of Dr. King and asked the class if anyone knew who he was. The few brave souls who answered all thought he was President Obama. That happens every year and it always makes me smile. What would Dr. King think of President Obama? I’ll leave that question to the older grades…

After explaining this man was so important we don’t have school on his birthday (this always makes a big impact), we also previewed the song we’d be singing all week long. In our kindergarten class, we have a song for everything… even for Dr. King.

We listened to Rise Up, the gorgeous song by Jack Hartmann about the beliefs of Dr. King.

He believed we would rise up,
live all together in peace.
He believed we would rise up,
people everywhere would be free.

Of course, this week as we sing it, we’ll stand in a circle, holding hands, and lift them each time we sing ‘Rise Up’. It’s a powerful song and image… all of use joined in a circle of peace.

How will you be remembering Dr. King this week?