Are you looking for Black History Month elementary music lesson ideas? This blog post has a compilation of my favorite Black History Month music lessons for all your grade levels.
Need something quick? Why not start with a free jazz mini-lesson? This listening map and rhythm play along to It Don’t Mean a Thing is a quick and easy lesson you can download now.
But if you are ready for a deeper dive, let’s take a look at some of my favorite lessons for Black History Month at every grade level.
Black History Month Songs for Kindergarten
Sing About Martin
This simple echo song is easy for young singers to perform. And it wraps up the legacy of Martin Luther King in very simple words that a kindergartener can understand.
Any time I have a call and response song, I try to add a chance for singing solos. Giving students a chance to hear their voice clearly is so important for developing good singing and pitch matching. So of course I invite students to sing a short echo-solo once we have learned the song.
PRO TIP: Kids feeling shy? Try adding a puppet! This can really take the pressure off and get quiet kids singing.
Here is a video of the song:
Somebody’s Knockin’ at My Door
This is an African American spiritual that I teach my kindergarteners. It has a little pause in the song where we add woodblocks to create the sound of knocking.
Then I have different doors that students can open to learn about famous Black Americans.
Get all the details here: Elementary Music Activity for Black History Month – Somebody’s Knocking At My Door.
Black History Month Elementary Music Plans for Primary Grades
These next few activities are for those middle grades around 2nd and 3rd. Slightly more advanced songs and musical content.
Martin Luther King Song
There is a song from Gameplan that I use that is great for focusing on MI-RE-DO. It is a call and response and the response is always sung on MI-RE-DO.
I like to have students learn to sing the response and then we work on playing it on instruments and eventually even creating a NEW ending.
Learn more ways to use this activity in the full blog post: Black History – Martin Luther King Song
This song can also pair well with the book Martin’s Big Words. Here are some other ways I have used this book in my music lessons:
Follow the Drinking Gourd
Bring your students on a journey along the underground railroad with the story of the Drinking Gourd. Help your students learn about how enslaved people used code songs and navigated with the stars to find their way to freedom.
When I teach this, I start out by teaching the song – which can be found in the Follow the Drinking Gourd book on the last page. Then we sing the book as we read along with the story.
There is even a great episode of Reading Rainbow that centers around this book. It is a really great way to finish the lesson, if your school has access to a streaming service that has the Reading Rainbow episodes. Ask your media specialist and they will probably be able to let you know if you have access or not.
Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing
Jazz is a huge part of the African American legacy, so it is a great topic to bring up during Black History Month.
There are so many styles of jazz and so many iconic jazz musicians. It can be hard to know where to start. But might I recommend the golden age of jazz.
I’m talking about jazz legends like Duke Armstrong, Louis Armstrong and the great Ella Fitzgerald.
I even have a free mini-jazz lesson you can get right here that takes Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing and provides a listening map and a rhythm play along simple enough for 2nd and 3rd graders to handle. It is a great intro to jazz – and then, if you want to go even deeper later – don’t forget that April is Jazz Appreciation Month.
Black History Month Music Lesson Plans for Upper Grades
Now for some more advanced Black History Month music activities for your older grades.
First, let’s check out some recorder songs that are perfect for Black History Month:
Calypso Freedom
This song tells the story of the Freedom Riders. The song has a call and response section during the verses and then the chorus is all sung together. The response part uses just MI, RE and DO, which makes it perfect for beginning recorder players working on BAG. But the chorus uses D and C as well, which is why I put this with the slightly more advanced songs.
You can get all the details about this piece for recorder in the full blog post here.
PS: You could totally do this song on bells or xylophones as well. Even boomwhackers. And of course the song is still great without adding any instruments at all. Choose your own adventure.
Won’t You Sit Down
The next recorder song gets your students working on low D and E with an African American spiritual.
Here’s the full blog post on how I use this song in my teaching.
I Feel Good
I’ve got one more fun recorder song for you today by the legendary James Brown. I particularly like this addition to Black History Month songs because this post has focused a lot on spirituals and songs about Martin Luther King, but there is SO MUCH more to Black History Month. The more diversity of music from the black community that we can showcase during the month, the better!
Introduce your students to the Godfather of Soul while practicing high C and D on the recorder. This is one of my personal favorite recorder lessons.
Check out all the details here in my I Feel Good Recorder Lesson Post.
Samuel Coleridge Taylor Parachute Activity for Black History Month
Alright. Let’s move to some non-recorder music activities for Black History Month. How about a fun parachute activity to The Othello Suite by Samuel Coleridge Taylor.
Samuel Coleridge Taylor was a great Black composer during the turn of the century in England. And The Othello Suite is one of his most famous works.
I highly recommend this activity for your older grades when they need a little chance to get up and move. My students always love a good parachute routine.
Here’s a tutorial video for this Black History Month elementary music lesson.
And you can get the full details on this lesson in my blog post on Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s Othello Suite here.
Learn About the Music of the Harlem Renaissance for Black History Month
Personally, I think the Harlem Renaissance is a KEY part of Black History Month. It’s right up there with the Civil Right Movement. In fact, without the Harlem Renaissance there would be no Civil Rights Movement.
Teach your students about key players in the movement and their music while understanding music in a broader social context. This lesson uses the same free jazz mini-lesson that I mentioned earlier, but takes it a little deeper into the history of this social movement, which makes it a little more appropriate for 5th grade.
And get more details about my lesson on the Harlem Renaissance here.
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