Musical Involvement
This lesson in music and culture contains a great opportunity to learn more about each child's family history and involve them in a musical celebration.Â
To prepare for the lesson, I asked each family the following questions:
What music do you and your child listen to at home?
What types of music, songs, or instruments do you identify with your ancestors and your family's roots?
Do you have any instruments at home?
These questions will allow you to adapt the lesson plans to each child, and also prepare for a musical celebration at the end of the lesson!
We also invited families to send in recyclables or other materials we could use to create our own drums.
Deepening Anti-racist Practice
To enhance the positive racial identity development and anti-racist themes of this unit, I summarized the anti-bias goals and cultural lessons about African music in a message to parents at the start of this project. For the second part, I will do the same with our lessons on the African Diaspora, illustrating how music has played an importance role in maintaining cultural identity and pride.