Black History Month is coming in February. It is incredibly important that we, as educators, help to teach our students the significance of African Americans in our history. Whether you teach first grade or seventh grade, giving the students lots of great reading for Black History Month (and year-round) to learn about these influential people is very important.
We’re going to look at fantastic read alouds or picture books and some more advanced chapter books for higher readers. Plus, online materials to learn, and some resources from TPT you can grab!
Read Alouds and Picture Books
Below, you’ll find examples of great reading for Black History Month. You can either read to your class aloud or, you put them into their reading centers to read on their own. Each of the texts below are links to affiliate books on Amazon!
Look What Brown Can Do!
This book is amazing to read to your young students! It offers such great motivation for all students and a wonderful model of equality for our students!
African American Legends for Little Learners
This story is more of a week-long read aloud where you’ll read a few pages each day. Or it’s a great book to put into a center, where students choose two African Americans a day to research and write about.
The Story of Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges is a wonderful Black American History book to teach students about because her story is easy for them to relate to. Actions by Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman may be harder for them to grasp fully, however, having them read about Ruby Bridges is a meaningful first step. Students can relate to Ruby because they’re around the same age.
Freedom on the Menu
The main character of this story is a little girl with her mother. This book is a great read aloud for students because students can imagine themselves in this young girl’s situation. They can put themselves in her shoes with their parents.
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History
This collection of mini-biographies highlights strong Black women in history. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful.
Online Reading Material
There are two websites that are my go-to’s for science and social studies topics. Have you tried out Pebble Go or Brain Pop Jr.? I love them both so much! Let’s check out Pebble Go first!
PebbleGo! has an area where you can click on African Americans. Within this section, you can find famous African Americans, including explorers, civil rights leaders, scientists, and inventors. And finally, the (most recent) president.
Here, you have peek at what you see when you click on Civil Rights Leaders. You get to click through ten different famous African Americans who fought hard for equality! Then, the next picture shows what you see when you click on one person.
So here, we see a peek at one of Harriet Tubman’s tabs. There are six tabs for each person. These are an introduction, tab for early life, life’s work, later years, contributions, and related people. A picture is featured on each tab, plus a small paragraph, and a speaker button to read the paragraph to the students if they’re early readers.
Now let’s check out Brain Pop Jr.
Link: BrainPopJr.
If you log into your Brain Pop Jr. account and do a search for Black History Month, they have a special tab that has videos for famous African Americans and other Americans who helped them!
Great Reading for Black History Month Biography Packs
These are my sets that I’ve made just for you guys. They come with a reading passage, cut and paste timeline, research fact writing page, and an informational writing page. Plus, a flip book with reading passage, comprehension questions, true and false sorting, and a writing page.
Here is a closer look at each of the African American biography sets within it! If you click the link above, you can buy each of these separately, but you save big if you buy as a bundle.
- Booker T. Washingon Biography Set
- Ruby Bridges Biography Set
- Martin Luther King Jr. Biography Set
- Jackie Robinson Biography Set
- Harriet Tubman Biography Set
- Rosa Parks Biography Set
Strong Chapter Books
These are some of my favorite books. However, they are more difficult. So, if you’re one of my primary readers, these may be too high for your first graders and second graders. I had some of my advanced readers in 2nd reading these and they loved it. Each of these great reading for Black History Month suggestions has links to my affiliate links on Amazon.
Thanks for reading!
Want a way to save money while buying Black Leaders biographies? Check out this bundle!
A bundle of 6 strong Black Leaders biography sets.