It’s February, which means it’s time for Black History Month in music!! This is always one of my favorite times of the year, as I love getting to introduce my students to the tons of amazing black history month artists and musicians out there, like Ella Fitzgerald, or Louis Armstrong
In today’s blog post, I will be sharing 6 books to use for your black history month music lessons, as incorporating books into music class is one of my favorite things ever!
You can click on any of the pictures of the books to purchase them on Amazon (With my affiliate links)
If you would like a FREE Black History Month music resource, make sure to click HERE and sign up for my free Duke Ellington virtual music field trip freebie, where you get to go on an adventure through his life, and then perform a rhythm play-along to his tune “It Don’t mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).
And of course, if video is more your style, click down below to watch the 6 books to use for your black history month music lessons instead!
1. Harlem’s Little Blackbird- The Story Of Florence Mills
Harlem’s Little Blackbird tells the story of young Florence Mills, a jazz singer who was popular and heavily influenced The Harlem Renaissance in the early 1920’s. (Click here to purchase it)
This book pairs nicely with the song “I’ve Been To Harlem”, which has lots of different activities you can do with it. (I love to use it as a good review for Mi-Re-Do)
I will usually add the song to the story every other page to get my students familiar with it, and then perform the cup song from Pitch Perfect to it, as well as the accompanying folk dance too
(Click HERE to check out the resource I use for this lesson)
2. Crown: An Ode To The Fresh Cut
This is another amazing book I love to use as a music lesson for black history month. It has gorgeous images and the students love getting to see characters that look like them, with the same hairstyles! (Click here to purchase it)
The story is about a little boy getting his hair cut at the barbershop, so of course after reading it, we learn all about Barbershop Quartets.
(Here is a link to an article I read that links Barbershop Quartets backs to African American Roots)
Once I’ve shown the students several examples of Barbershop Quartets, we learn the folk song “Skip To The Barbershop” and play a locomotor movement game to accompany it
(Click HERE to check out the resource I use for this lesson)
3. Little Melba & Her Big Trombone
Little Melba & Her Big Trombone shares the story of famous jazz trombonist Melba Liston, and is the perfect book to use for your black history month music lessons! (Click here to purchase it)
We usually will read the story, and I will play one of her famous tunes in the background as I read. After reading the book, we will learn all about the brass family! I typically only introduce the five main instruments- trumpet, trombone, French horn, baritone, and tuba, as those are the instruments they will see in the beginning band.
(Click HERE to check out the resource I use for this lesson)
4. Max Found Two Sticks
Max Found Two Sticks is a fun little story about a boy named Max who decides to be quiet for a day and just listen to the world around him. What he discovers is that music is everywhere! (Click here to purchase it)
This book has a lot of random sounds within it, such as “Ding Dang Dong” and “Putter Putter Pat-Pat”. I will teach the patterns to my students using body percussion, and then we transfer it to using drumsticks of course!
(Click HERE to check out the resource I use for this lesson)
5. Ella, Queen Of Jazz
Ella Fitzgerald is one of my favorites to use as a black history month musician- She has great songs, and an interesting story! (Click here to purchase it)
I will start by reading the story to my students, and then we go on a virtual field trip of Ella’s life, watching video clips of her most famous songs and key moments of her life.
After that, we will compare & contrast her famous tune “A Tisket A Tasket” with “Kitty-Kitty Casket” and see what makes the songs the same and different. We end by playing the game for Kitty-Kitty Casket, and me introducing Ti-Tika!
(Click HERE to check out the resource I use for this lesson)
6. Charlie Parker Played Be Bop
Charlie Parker is another great musician to teach about as a black history month music lesson. I introduce the term scatting to my students while reading this book, and we even will perform the song “Scat Like That” by Greg & Steve (Click here to purchase it)
After reading the story and scatting along, we will finish by coloring in a listening glyph for Charlie Parker, listening to his famous tune “Donna Lee”
(Click HERE to check out the resource I use for this lesson)
And, those are the 6 books to use for your black history month music lessons- Hope you found a new book to use with your students this year!
If you would like the resources I created for each of those books, you can purchase it here in my Black History Month Music Literacy Bundle on TPT
What are some of your favorite books to use for Black History Month in the music room?
