6 Activities for Women's History Month Upper Elementary

When March rolls around, I love to spend time celebrating amazing and inspirational women in honor of Women’s History Month. But finding meaningful and engaging ways to weave Women’s History Month lessons and activities into your lesson plans can feel overwhelming, especially with testing season looming and spring fever beginning!

No worries! I can help!

You don’t need an elaborate lesson plan to make an impact. Simple, intentional activities can spark powerful conversations and inspire your students to learn more. Whether you have five minutes or a full lesson block, these five ideas will help you bring Women’s History Month to life in your upper elementary classroom.

How can I celebrate Women's History Month in my Upper Elementary Classroom?

1. Celebrate with a Women's History Month Bulletin Board

Nothing says celebration like a bulletin board dedicated to amazing women! Starting the first day of March, create a bulletin board highlighting women you want your students to learn about. I love Women's History Month posters that give just the right amount of information that will ignite students' curiosity to learn more! 

The Women's History Month Posters that I share include:

✔ Woman's name

✔ Years of her life

✔ Highlights of her life

✔ Meaningful Quote

By sharing just enough information, your students will want to learn more and begin asking questions about each woman and even other influential people. Each time your students walk by your bulletin board their curiosity will grow!

💡Teacher Tip: Not enough room to hang all 20 of these posters? Just share five each week of the month. By the end of the month, you will have shared all twenty.

2. Share a Women's History Month Slide Each Day

I love the ease of having slides prepped and ready for the entire month! 

When making slides to celebrate women, remember to give students just enough information to spark their curiosity! I love to sprinkle in general information designed to have students ask more questions about the focus woman of the slide. I also prep a question ahead of time to discuss. This helps save time and keep our discussions focused!

Ways to bring Women's History Slides into the classroom each day:

✔ Morning Meeting

✔ Transition Time

✔ After lunch/recess

✔ Kick off Social Studies Lesson

✔ End of the Day Wrap-up/Meeting

💡Teacher Tip: Pair up your students before sharing the slide to increase engagement in the discussion and question response. This will ensure that each student has time to share with someone.

3. Read a Women's History Month Picture Book

While there are so many amazing, must-read books to celebrate women, I have seven go-to picture books I love reading each year! My upper elementary students have always loved these sevenread-aloud and learn so much through our interactive read-aloud and follow-up activities. These inspirational books are must-reads!

 

Women's History Read-aloud books for March:

✔ Herstory: 50 Women and Girls Who Shook Up the World - by Katherine Halligan

✔ Shaking Things Up - by Susan Hood

✔ The Girl With a Mind for Math - by Julia Finley Mosca

✔ Helen's Big World - by Doreen Rapport

✔ Planting Stories - by Anika Aldamuy Denise

✔ Counting the Stars - by Lesa Cline-Ransome

✔ Shark Lady - by Jess Keating

Read more about each of these picture books to celebrate women and grab some fun and free activities to use with these books in this blog post HERE.

💡Teacher Tip: Invite students to find a few books that they want you to read during the month of March to celebrate Women's History Month! The kids always find amazing books in the school library and on Epic! Enlist their help and watch interest skyrocket! Don't forget to preview each book before reading to make sure they are appropriate for your specific cohort of students.

Grab the free printables to use with these books here:

4. Dive into Women's History Month Biography Reading

I am always trying to squeeze in more nonfiction reading, and using nonfiction passages about Women's History is a great way to do that!

Since testing season starts to pick up in March, using high-quality reading passages with text-dependent questions and responses is a great way to check all the boxes: social studies, nonfiction reading, and test prep. Plus, the more you read about famous women, the more students' curiosity grows!

💡Teacher Tip: Short on time for Women's History reading passages? Assign one passage to each group of students. After they complete the reading and response questions as a group, invite students to share what they learn! They can simply summarize it aloud or create a quick presentation. This ensures that students are exposed to a wide variety of influential women during Women's History Month.

5. Try a Woman Focused Biography Research Project 

Women's History Month is the perfect time to dive into nonfiction and informational research writing! 

We focus on biography research projects to meet information or informative writing standards. I love to have students pick a woman of their choice to research. However, I have my students "apply" to research someone. This helps students pick historic or monumental women in history, and not someone just famous. Plus, it limits repeats, which is so important when it comes time to share their biography research project.

💡Teacher Tip: Head here to read my 3 Must-Do Biography Research Tips to learn my step-by-step approach that helps students succeed! 

6. Get Creative with Student-Created Women's History Month Posters

These open-ended biography research project posters are a lifesaver! They are perfect for any biography research project and especially fun for celebrating Women's History Month. They are self-differentiating since students can add as much or as little information as you expect and assign. I love the mix of writing and illustration boxes, which is engaging for all levels of learners. These make amazing bulletin board displays for Women's History Month and the perfect addition to your studnets' writing portfolios!

💡Teacher Tip: Keep it simple! Allow students to add their own headers to the posters so that each poster is a unique project! 

The month of March is the perfect time to celebrate the achievements of inspirational women and spark meaningful discussions in your classroom. These easy to implement ideas will be a win with your students. With a mix of read-alouds, engaging posters and displays, and student-focused projects, you will excite, engage, and motivate your upper elementary students to learn as much as they can!

If you’re looking for ready-to-use resources to make planning even easier, I can help! Grab my Women’s History Month Posters, Slides, Reading Passages, and Bulletin Board Pack to bring these activities to life with no prep!

You will also love to read:

Coloring Activities and Tips for Upper Elementary

6 Picture Books to Celebrate Women's History Month

3 Must Try tips for Your Next Biography Project

8 Best Biography Picture Books for Upper Elementary

Save time, grab the Print & Go Women's History Pack!

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