African Americans have invented items many people use today, such as hearing aids, pencil sharpeners and lawn mowers. Help your students learn about important inventions from African Americans by playing a game of Invent-o-Rama. Place a range of items invented by African Americans on two tables. Divide the students into two teams and give each team flashcards that feature the name and photo of each African American inventor. Ask the two teams to match the flashcards with each invention. The team who gets the most correct matches wins the game.
This game can help students learn interesting facts about famous African Americans while refining their Internet research skills. Before playing the game, have the students research 10 famous African Americans on the Internet. After they have done their research, give them worksheets that list several clues to each person they researched. Ask them to match each clue to the correct name.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, "I Have a Dream," is one of the most famous speeches throughout history. For this game, provide each student with a copy of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech. Give them a few minutes to read the speech. Once everyone is finished, take the copies of the speech away. Give the students another copy of the speech, this time with some of the words missing. Instruct the students to fill in the missing words. Give the student who gets the most correct answers a prize.
This game helps students recognize the hardships slaves faced in the Underground Railroad. Tell your students that from 1830 to 1860, about 3,200 individuals helped lead about 2,500 slaves a year to safety. The slaves faced many dangers along the way including drowning, wounds and illnesses. Divide students into groups of three or four and ask them to act out a scene in which slaves planned an escape.