About the Project

This project began in 2016 after a promise I made to my students. They had been asking me to teach songs from Ethiopia, as a significant percentage of my students were of Ethiopian descent. I was frustrated by the lack of resources available and eventually called upon the help of those same students and their families to help me transcribe a song we performed at the end of the school year. After that, I wanted to collect more children’s songs from Ethiopia so that other teachers could have an easier time bringing this culture to their classrooms. I began working with two translators who grew up in Ethiopia and were familiar with traditional children’s songs. I also found an invaluable resource in Professor Gebeyehu at Howard University, who has helped me edit (and re-edit) this resource. I hope to expand on this project and make it available to teachers across the country.

Did you try one of these songs in your classroom? I want to hear about it! Please let me know what worked well and what you would like to see to make this resource better!