Ways to Celebrate Black History Month in Music Class

Black history month is in February.  There are so many fun activities you can do in the music classroom.  But, I want to share my favorite ways to celebrate black history month in music class.

 

Celebrate musicians new and old

One of my favorite ways to celebrate Black History Month is to teach students about the famous musicians and composers.  You’re probably already teaching about various composers and musicians and it’s always fun to introduce new ones to your students.

Some of my favorite black musicians are Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Louis Armstrong, and Ray Charles.   Most of our students have never heard some of the amazing music from our “founding fathers of music”.  They’re familiar with artists like Beyonce, which is completely fine to go over popular music as well.  But, when you introduce musical artists before their time, they aren’t just learning about them as a person, but also about that particular style of music.

Ways to celebrate these famous musicians include:

• Listening to their music
• Discussing the style of music from that musician
• What adversity they overcame and what life was like for them
• What made those musicians want to be a musician or performer
• If there was a music teacher that inspired them

 

Sing songs

I know you’re thinking, “thanks Captain Obvious.”  I know you’re teaching your students songs every single day.  But, during the month of February, it’s the perfect time to sing different songs for Black History Month.

Teach songs like spirituals, jazz, blues, and hip hop.  There are several ways you can go about teaching songs from these genres.  Just like when you’re teaching about the composers, you’re also educating your students about the styles of music those musicians were a part of.  So, that conversation rolls right into teaching songs from those actual genres.

One of my favorite spirituals to teach is “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, which you can see me teach in this Facebook Live.   

 

 

Read books

I taught in a low income school, which I share ideas about here.   One of my students favorite things to do in the music classroom, besides tons of movement activities and instruments, was to listen to me read books.  I think literacy in music class is so important and there are so many amazing books you can read to your students.

During Black History Month, you can read about the musicians that were mentioned earlier, books or famous quotes from Martin Luther King (which I share about in this podcast episode), and even books about the styles or instruments used with different musical genres.

While reading books, you can even make them musical.  Students can pretend to play the trumpet or saxophone or you could even get creative and have them air play in a jazz band while listening to a story about jazz.  Or, students can move on the action words in a book about jazz like “splat” “doo-dop” or whatever other jazz syllables were read.

 

As you see, there are simple, yet effective ways to incorporate Black History month in the music classroom.  Teaching our students not only about music, but about the history behind where the music of today came from is so important.

 

What are ways you celebrate Black History Month in your music classroom?  I’d love to hear all about it in the comments below or share your thoughts on social media as you share this post.   

Also, I’d love for you to share this post or any of the resources on my website with a friend or colleague who you know NEEDS to see it.

P.S.  Are you feeling frustrated or stuck as an elementary music teacher?  Check out these free resources to help you teach elementary music with confidence!