Milo's Museum Project for First Grade

By Allison Acosta

First graders in Melissa Somerville’s and Jessica Jones’ classrooms at Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS read the book Milo’s Museum by Zetta Elliott in preparation for the Black Lives Matter Week of Action. As they read the book, the students considered the following questions:

• Why did Milo feel not quite right with her visit to the museum?

• If you were faced with the same situation as Milo, what would you do?

• Do you ever feel like something special about you is ignored or overlooked?

• How does this book make you feel?

• What does it make you think of?

The original prompt for the museum pieces was “Create something that represents the change you WANT to see or the things you can do to make those changes happen.”

In Mrs. Somerville’s class, students’ discussion centered around feelings, and the prompt evolved to “create something that shows how you feel when you think about people being treated unfairly/differently or when you think about our conversations around Black Lives Matter.” After students completed their pieces, they were put on display in the hallway during the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.