Black History Week – Celebrating Diversity, Culture and Creativity 🌍
This week at Our Lady’s Pre-School, we celebrated Black History Week, learning about different cultures, inspirational people and the importance of kindness, fairness and equality through exciting, hands-on activities.
🌍 Learning About Inspirational People
We introduced the children to some remarkable Black individuals who have made a difference in the world.
- Nelson Mandela – We learned about his message of peace, kindness and equality. The children enjoyed colouring pictures of Mandela and talking about treating everyone fairly.
- Garrett Morgan – We discovered how he invented an early three-position traffic signal, helping to make roads safer.
- Alfred L. Cralle – We learned about the inventor of an improved ice cream scoop, something we still use today!
- Mae Jemison – We explored the story of the first Black woman to travel into space, inspiring the children to dream big and believe in themselves.
These discoveries encouraged curiosity and helped children understand that people from all backgrounds can achieve amazing things.
📚 Stories, Music and Movement
We enjoyed reading Handa’s Surprise and New Shoes for Helen, encouraging conversations about different cultures, experiences and traditions.
The children also listened to African-inspired music, explored rhythms and enjoyed dancing and moving to the beat!
🎨 Creative Activities
Our little artists enjoyed painting pumpkins, creating colourful ice cream pictures using pom-poms and making rockets for our space display, inspired by Mae Jemison. These activities encouraged imagination, creativity and fine motor development.
🔢 Early Maths and Literacy
Through Black History Month-themed activities, children practised counting, matching pictures, recognising shapes, tracing numbers and developing pencil control.
💛 Celebrating Our Differences
We explored different hairstyles and hair textures through a sensory tuff tray activity using wool, beads, combs and brushes. We also used our feelings board to talk about emotions, kindness and respecting one another.
🚦 Learning Through Play
Inspired by Garrett Morgan, the children explored traffic lights, roads and vehicles through small-world play, developing their understanding of road safety while practising sharing, communication and cooperation.
Throughout the week, our activities supported the EYFS areas of Understanding the World, Communication and Language, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Expressive Arts and Design, Mathematics and Physical Development.
At Our Lady’s Pre-School, we celebrate what makes us different and what brings us together. Every child is unique, every culture matters, and everyone deserves kindness and respect. ❤️
