Joyful Noise Music: African American History

Showing posts with label African American History. Show all posts

Week of February 1st, 2016

Bouquet

Gather quickly (grabbing air)
Out of darkness (swimming motion)
All the songs you know (hug self)
And throw them at the sun (fling arms upwards)
Before they melt
Like snow (Melt to the ground)

-Langston Hughes

This week we learned about the poet Langston Hughes, and what poetry means. We will practice this poem throughout the month as we explore black history in music, along with the amazing cultural heritage of jazz and also African storytelling. The kids were entertained as I made up some impromptu rhymes using their name, and we also explored what "free verse" meant. To learn Langston's wonderful poem, we used the body movements above with scarves and I was truly impressed with how quickly the kids memorized the stanzas (especially the four-year-old class!). Make sure to ask your child about it!

We also had fun with another poem set to motion with scarves:

THE PANCAKE POEM

Mix a pancake (stirring motion with scarf)

Stir a pancake

Pop it in the pan (Downward motion with scarf, make sizzle sound)

Fry a pancake

Toss a pancake (Throw scarf up in the air)

Catch it if you can! (Catch the scarf in the air!)

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD

1) Do you know what a poem is?

2) In "Bouquet" by Langston Hughes, the poem says to gather the songs you know and throw them at the sun, before they melt like what? SNOW!

3) Did you catch your scarf after you threw it in the air?

Week of February 20th, 2012

This week in music class we celebrated the life of Martin Luther King J.R.,

Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington!

A note about Martin Luther King's death

Talking about racism, tolerance, civil rights and lifetime accomplishments like the Nobel Peace prize can be difficult when you are working with children. Some of our students were well aware that Martin Luther King was assassinated, or that his life was taken. When this question was raised in class, I validated by agreeing, "Yes, that happened". Our school age children, for example, had discussed some of these details at school or with parents. They broached the topic on their own, saying things like, "Wasn't he killed?" and "Yes, he was shot" or "Bad people killed him". The way I approached these conversations was merely as a moderator and a listener. For the children who knew more of the history, I validated truthful ideas. "Yes--that is correct." But I also was clear with the children that, for this particular class, we would be discussing Martin's accomplishments and celebrating his ideas, rather than learning more about his death, which would definitely be something they would study later. I also told them that they could direct more questions to their moms and dads. This certainly wasn't to downplay the monumental importance of King's wrongful assassination. It was merely to steer our learning about Dr. King down an age appropriate train of thought. I know that all families will vary in their comfort level and opinion on what information to share with kids regarding death in situations like this and, in general, the topic of dying. I respect the knowledge that parents are best at gauging what level of information their children are prepared for and ready to receive.

What I did focus on for Dr. King was three basic elements and some background. I discussed with the children that he was a preacher, and that he won the Nobel Prize. I told them of his great importance, and that he wanted people to know about:

1) Love

2) Peace

3) Equal treatment and respect

We colored a sheet about Martin Luther King that also contains the lyrics to the song we sang today! Check out the downloadable and printable PDF here, and also download the mp3 of the four's class singing below! (Click on the picture to download!)

Listen to the song here:

Dr. Martin Luther King Had A Dream

The children also enjoyed watching a video of Duke Ellington performing "Take the A Train" on the piano, and we learned that he wrote OVER TWO THOUSAND songs! WOW!

The last item on the agenda was listening to Billie Holiday's "I'll be Seeing You". We looked at pictures of Billie, and I told the children that she grew up with very little money and then became famous later for singing. They will most likely remember her signature trademark, the flower she often wore in her hair. Listen to "I'll be Seeing You" below!

Infants and toddlers also enjoyed finger puppets with Old MacDonald, bouncing songs and movement this week!

One update from last week:

The school age children did a fantastic job performing the Langston Hughes poem, "Bouquet" and also singing our Martin Luther King song for the Shrove pancake luncheon on Tuesday. The

ladies very much enjoyed our presentation. Here we are in the lounge, singing! If you are a member at First Presbyterian Church you may want to look out for a blurb being published in the church tidings!

As a final and cute note, most of you know that Fellowship Hall contains large beanbags that magically and magnetically attract children! We decided to use this power for good in the two's room today and snapped a fun group picture with all the teachers and children sitting on beanbags. Have a wonderful week!

Week of February 6th, 2012

We had a great start to February, a month filled with African American history, poets, jazz, and African/Afrocuban music!

Today all of our classes recited the Langston Hughes poem, "Bouquet" (more info below) and also did some fun movement songs (like "Washing Machine" and "Walking Feet" ) with the conga drum! Infants and toddlers also used puppets today as I sang "Willoughby Walloughby" with an elephant, "Bunny Foo Foo" with a rabbit, and "Butterfly, Butterfly" with a butterfly prop.

Older children also had a blast "trapping" a pretend fox with our musical game, "A Hunting We Will Go".

Check out the videos below the pictures to hear and see more! Thanks for stopping by--and please check out the bulletin in the hallway and my February Music Calendar.