• February is black history month.calendar for 2007 (february) image by Sergey Galushko from Fotolia.com
  
  Black history month is celebrated in the United States every February, honoring the contributions African Americans have made to our country's history and culture. In artist studios, schools and homes, black history month is often celebrated with an art project acknowledging the history and contributions of African Americans. The kind of art project you choose to do will depend on the time you’re able to invest in the project and your inspiration.
  
  

Timeline

• This project can be done individually or as a group. In a group, assign each person a time period in American history or a famous African American in history. Each person is responsible for doing research on his/her topic and then makes one or two visual representations about what they have learned. Visual representations can include drawings, paintings or collages. A short description of the person or time period can accompany the illustration. Then these individual illustrations are assembled in chronological order to make a cohesive timeline.
  
  

Milk Carton Bus

• This art project is based on the Montgomery bus strike. The Montgomery bus strike started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man and was arrested for her actions. After Parks' arrest, many blacks in Montgomery boycotted the city buses. After the 381-day strike lead by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Supreme Court outlawed segregation on public transportation.
  
  You can make your own milk carton representation of the Montgomery bus strike. Open the triangular top of your milk carton so the mouth is open all the way. Cut along the four corners of the top, stopping at the main portion of the carton. Cut off three of the four sides of the top portion of your carton so that only one side of the top portion remains. Fold the remaining side across the opening and tape it down to make a closed rectangle. Paint your bus a light color such as yellow. After the paint has dried, use markers to draw large windows on the bus so you can illustrate what is going on inside. You can draw a segregated bus with white people sitting in the front and blacks standing in the back. Or you can draw Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat, or perhaps a half-empty bus to represent the buses during the strike.
  
  

Mancala

• Mancala teaches strategy.mancala game image by Alison Bowden from Fotolia.com
  
  Mancala is a counting and strategy game that originally comes from Africa, but is now popular all over the world. You can make your own beautiful mancala board using two egg cartons. Cut off the top of the egg carton so you are left the 12 cups where the eggs used to sit. Tape an extra cup cut from a second egg cartoon to each end of the first carton––these will be the "banks" where the players store their winnings. Now paint the cartons. When the cartoons are dry put 4 playing pieces in each cup. You can use any household items you like for playing pieces such as buttons, seeds, beans, stones or small shells.