Africans and African Americans in Early New Orleans
Grade Level: Secondary
Students will analyze documents regarding Africans and African Americans in early colonial New Orleans.
https://www.hnoc.org/programs/education
Bomba, designed by Sandra Sanchez, University of Miami
Grade Level: Primary
This lesson focuses on the African influences found in Puerto Rico’s musical culture by studying bomba music.
https://folkways-media.si.edu/docs/lesson_plans/FLP10112_Bomba.pdf
Congo Square
Music Rising, Tulane University and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South
https://musicrising.tulane.edu/learn/topics/congo-square/
Congo Square, Collective Improvisation, Clave Rhyth
Grades: K-2, 3-5
Students will learn the history of Congo Square in New Orleans; gain an understanding of systems of slavery and the Code Noir; sing, dance, and demonstrate a clave rhythm, a tradition in Congo Square.
https://lessons.preshallfoundation.org/lesson/congo-square/
Caribbean Beats and Blends, designed by Patricia S. Campbell, University of Washington
Grade Level: Secondary
Students will learn about Caribbean peoples, languages, geographies, and values by singing and playing instruments to Caribbean music. There is a particular focus on Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti, and St. Lucia.
https://folkways.si.edu/caribbean-beats-blends/music/tools-for-teaching/smithsonian
Examining Colonial-Era Census Records Objectives
Grade Level: Secondary
Students will examine statistics from census records and respond to questions about the documentation of early inhabitants of the colony
https://www.hnoc.org/programs/education
Exploring Primary Sources: Music in New Orleans
Grade Level: Middle - Secondary
Students will identify and evaluate primary and secondary about the history of New Orleans music.
https://www.hnoc.org/sites/default/files/lesson_plans/LessonPlan_Music.pdf
First Meeting of the Indians and the Europeans
Grade Level: Middle
Louisiana Voices: An Educator’s Guide to Exploring Our Communities and Traditions. Baton Rouge: Louisiana Division of the Arts.
https://www.louisianavoices.org/Unit5/edu_unit5_lesson5.html
Having Our Say: The Music of the Mardi Gras Indians, designed by: Erica Watson, University of Memphis.
Grade Level: Secondary
This lesson introduces students to the culture and music of Mardi Gras Indians by examining the tradition and its culture-bearers, listening to and analyzing Mardi Gras Indian music, and examining the cultural influences that contributed to the tradition.
https://folkways.si.edu/having-our-say-mardi-gras-indians/folk/music/tools-for-teaching/smithsonian
Jazz and Marching Bands
Grade Level: Secondary
Students will learn about the early days of jazz in New Orleans and compare early New Orleans marching bands to contemporary marching bands.
https://education.ket.org/resources/jazz-marching-bands-lesson-plan/
Mapping Early Colonial New Orleans
Grade Level: Secondary
Students will analyze maps from the French period to determine the city’s growth and development.
https://www.hnoc.org/programs/education
Musical Gumbo: A Whole Lotta Creole, Cajun and Zydeco Goin’ On, designed by Elaina Malcolm
Grade Level: Primary
This unit of study is intended to develop student knowledge of the Creole influence on the music of various countries in the Americas: French Guiana, Surname, and the United States. Students will enjoy experiences in listening, singing and playing on instruments, and they will learn to study how different groups of people have influenced one another.
Music of Cuba & the Caribbean, designed by Roberta L. Stafford, Pennsbury School District
Grade Level: Primary
Students will learn and perform the songs “Guantanamera,” and “Caribbean Carnival” with improvisation.
https://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/docs/lesson_plans/FLP10008_caribbean_beats.pdf
National Museum of American History
The New Orleans Beginning 1901 – 1922
https://amhistory.si.edu/jazz/education/Act1.pdf
New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
https://www.nps.gov/jazz/learn/education/classrooms/curriculummaterials.htm
New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA)
African Art at NOMA Educator’s Resource
https://noma.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/African_Art_at_NOMA-1426092243.pdf
Preservation Hall Lessons, Preservation Hall Foundation, New Orleans
Grade Levels: All
https://lessons.preshallfoundation.org/
New Orleans: The Birthplace of Jazz
Grade Level: Middle
https://lessons.preshallfoundation.org/lesson/new-orleans-the-birthplace-of-jazz/
New Orleans Genres and Origins
Grade Level: Middle
https://lessons.preshallfoundation.org/lesson/new-orleans-genres-and-origin/
Spirits Across the Ocean: Yoruban and Dahomean Cultures in the Caribbean Brought by the Slave Trade, designed by: Joseph Galvin, Indiana University, Bloomington
Grade Level: Secondary
Students will explore the forced migration of the trans-Atlantic slave trade from the Yoruban and Dahomean cultures to the Caribbean and learn the similarities of the music found in the countries Haiti, Cuba, Trinidad, and Brazil.
The Birth of an Icon: Learning and Performing the Origins of the Drum Set and Early Jazz Drumming in New Orleans, Louisiana, designed by Matthew R. Berger
Grade Level: Adaptable
The drum set, now an international cultural icon, owes much of its popularity to the development of jazz in New Orleans. This lesson provides an introduction to drum set history and teaches students to perform preliminary New Orleans brass band and early jazz drumming rhythms.
The Fifteenth Amendment & Congo Square, by Amy Cohen
Grade Level: Secondary
Students will examine the painting The Fifteenth Amendment, set on the edges of Philadelphia’s upscale Washington Square. They will be introduced to the surprising history of this park, including its use as a potter’s field, a mass grave, and a gathering place for African Americans –similar in many ways to Congo Square in New Orleans. After reading poetry inspired by Washington Square’s past, students will create their own works of art in a medium of their choice.
https://librarycompany.org/geniusoffreedom/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Lesson-8-15th- Amendment-Congo-Square-COMPLETE.pdf
The Rhythms of Congo Square: The Second Line Beat, designed by Freddi Williams Evans and Ashley Shabankareh
Grade Level: Middle -Secondary
Using a PowerPoint presentation along audio and video clips, students will identify, clap and discuss primary rhythms in New Orleans indigenous music.
Trail of Tears: Music of the American Indian Diaspora, designed by: Jennifer Carnevale
Grade Level: Primary
This lesson examines several musical selections from the Five Nations heritage (Choctaw and Cherokee in particular) during and following the Trail of Tears of 1831 and 1838.
https://folkways.si.edu/trail-tears-american-indian-diaspora/indigenous-ballad-lament- dance/music/tools-for-teaching/smithsonian
West African Song and Chants: Children’s Music from Ghana, by Karen Howard, University of Washington
Grade Level: Primary
Using children’s music from Ghana, West Africa, students will gain experience with basic polyrhythmic ensembles. Singing, chanting, dancing and playing instruments are included throughout the unit.
https://folkways.si.edu/west-african-song-chants-childrens-ghana/music/tools-for- teaching/smithsonian
All Around this World
Interactive global music and world cultures program for children 6- 9 years old.
https://www.allaroundthisworld.com/
Amistad
Freedom on the Move K-12 Strategies for Teachers
https://app.freedomonthemove.org/educators
Mama Lisa’s World: International Music & Culture
A place for songs, rhymes, and traditions from across the globe for children and adults.
National Association for Music Education
Grade Levels: All
Online Resources for Music Educators
https://nafme.org/my-classroom/virtual-learning-resources-for-music-educators/
Smithsonian Folkways Lesson Plans
https://folkways.si.edu/lesson-plans/smithsonian
Teachers Pay Teachers
Louisiana Native Americans: Worksheets and Teachings
Grade Level: Primary
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:louisiana native americans
Teaching Strategies for K-12 Classrooms
Music Rising, Tulane University and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South
https://musicrising.tulane.edu
The Historic New Orleans Collection with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
African Songs and Rhythms for Children, recorded and annotated by Dr. W.K. Amoaku
This album is designed to teach music to African children using a method called Orff Schulwerk or the Orff Approach. It contains lullabies, a funeral lament, and other songs that bridge the rhythm, movement, and improvisation of the traditional African approach and Orff Schulwerk.
Ashanti: Folk Tales from Ghana, by Harold Courlander
Recorded by anthropologist Harold Courlander in 1959, these Ashanti stories were adapted from his book The Hat Shaking Dance and Other Tales from the Gold Coast. Many of these focus on Anansi the spider, the popular trickster character of Ashanti folklore.
¡¡BOMBA!!
From a Sesame Street Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EfGR4IrPrE
Folk Tales from West Africa, by Harold Courlander
Narrated by Harold Courlander, originally released in 1959, collection contains five folk tales from West Africa three of which have human characters and two have animals.
https://folkways.si.edu/harold-courlander/folk-tales-from-west- africa/childrens/music/album/smithsonian
Sound, Rhythm, Rhyme and Mime for Children, by Bilal Abdurahman
This recording introduces listeners to everyday sounds and rhythms using bells, hammers and saws, electric fans, and typewriters. Encourages creative play activities through music and body movements. The liner notes include a transcript of the recording.
Caribbean Songs and Games for Children
Dr. Edna Smith Edet recorded these songs games in Trinidad, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and at two public schools in New York city. Liner notes provide lyrics and information about songs as well as West Indian and Caribbean music.
https://folkways.si.edu/caribbean-songs-and-games-for-children/caribbean/music/album/smithsonian
Related Lesson Plans: "Steel band Style, Calypso Culture and Childhood Chants: Trinidadian Music for the Classroom"
Children's Jamaican Songs and Games, by Louise Bennett
Features ring games that have been favorites of Jamaican children for generations.
https://folkways.si.edu/louise-bennett/childrens-jamaican-songs-and-games/caribbean- world/music/album/smithsonian
Ghana: Children at Play: Children's Songs and Games, produced by Ivan Annan
Album producer Ivan Annan writes about the This album building on the importance of children’s play in African culture, which is also a time for learning, friendship, and love. The liner notes and vocal tracks provide instructions for game activity.
Latin American Children Game Songs (Various Artists)
Introduces songs that Latin American children learn from their elders and teachers as well as those they learn from children.
https://folkways.si.edu/latin-american-children-game-songs/music/album/smithsonian
Uncle Bouqui of Haiti: by Harold Courlander, by Augusta Baker
Storyteller Augusta Baker reads three of the Haitian folktales transcribed by Harold Courlander in his books "Uncle Bouqui Gets Whee-Ai," "Uncle Bouqui Rents a Horse" and "Uncle Bouqui and Godfather Malice."
Duhig, Holly. Cultural Contributions from Africa: Banjos, Coffee, and More. New York: Power Kids Press, 2018.
Evans, Freddi Williams. Come Sunday: A Young Reader’s History of Congo Square. Lafayette: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2017.
Reader’s Guide:
Keeler, Patricia & Júlio Leitão. African Dance: Drumbeat in Our Feet. New York: Lee and Low Books, Inc., 2014.
Teacher’s Guide: https://www.leeandlow.com/books/african-dance/teachers_guide
Myvett, Kirstie. Praline Lady. Gretna: Pelican Publishing Co., 2020
Weatherford, Carole B. Freedom in Congo Square. New York: Little Bee Books, 2016
Discussion Guide: https://www.ala.org/rt/sites/ala.org.rt/files/content/cskbookawards/docs/CSK-2017-discussion-guide_FINAL.pdf