Making something grand

Hall-Kent second-graders in Jerome Isley’s class recently learned about famous African-Americans, ending the study with a learning activity Isley hopes will last a lifetime. 

He gave each student a tiny piece of paper with a few marks and designs on it. The students only knew that it would be a puzzle when everyone completely replicated their tiny puzzle piece to a much larger size puzzle piece. The end product was a secret until he put the puzzle up outside their classroom. 

Later, the class read Martin’s Big Words and talked about how Martin Luther King Jr. used big words rather than his fists to achieve his goal. The students learned to work together to take their small pieces and turn them into something grand.