After you teach your students about the important people and events in Black history, set up a matching game to reinforce what they learned. In the matching game, preschoolers match pictures to people's names and their overall importance. Since many preschoolers will not yet have the cognitive skills to complete matching on their own, help your students through the first few matchings.
As each student makes a successful match, have the student speak the match aloud. For instance, if the match is between a picture of Rosa Parks and the name Rosa Parks, have the preschooler say, "This is Rosa Parks." Children often have excellent facial recognition. These connections will help them remember some of the important figures of Black history in the future.
Another way to teach and test pivotal figures and events in African-American history is with an alphabet game. Start with "A" and have students come up with people, places and events for each letter. If students have trouble, help them out with a few examples. Another alphabet option is to put pictures of people on the board. Go through the alphabet letter-by-letter and see if any kids can match a person to the letter. Include art activities so kids can draw pictures associated with each letter.
Draw a large map of the United States on the board. Have your students come up to the board and place people and events around the board according to each item's relevant location. Help them match major African-American people to their places of birth or important feats. To focus the geography game even more, use a map of your state and encourage students to locate people and places of note around the state.
Another fun way to place the major people, places and events in African-American history in context is to create a date line. As preschoolers see Crispus Attucks, Sojourner Truth and Barack Obama in their respective places on a date line, they will begin to understand the development of African-American culture, milestones and the increased acceptance of Black people in American society.
As you play geography and date games, do not gloss over the truth about the treatment of African-Americans in American history. From slavery to Jim Crow-era segregation to Civil Rights, kids are never too young to begin learning about some of the harsher truths of humanity. However, help your students visualize America's progress and give them hope for an even more equal tomorrow.