This Wednesday, February 29 (Leap Day!), our school will be showcasing different aspects of African American culture. For Black History Month, each grade level was assigned a different part of African American culture to learn more about. Some of the grades focused on African American art/artists, musicians, scholars or trailblazers.
The kindergarten classes learned all about African American cuisine! This included ingredients and cooking techniques that had been brought over from Africa. We chose to focus on one dish that used many different foods and styles originated by African Americans - gumbo! This spicy stew was created in the south and is still very popular in places such as New Orleans.
Our class was able to see, touch, taste and smell all of the ingredients as we prepared our own version of gumbo! For our presentation, we learned a song about making gumbo and created a "music video" to go along with it!
The all-school presentation will be on Wednesday, February 29 from 5-6pm. This will include all grades as they share what they have learned!
We will be screening our video at the celebration as well! The kindergarteners are all very excited to share their song with you! We hope to see everyone there!
In addition to cuisine, we also learned all about Ruby Bridges, a 1st grader who was one of the first African American children to attend a previously segregated, all-white school. This story really had an impact on us because Ruby was so close to the kindergarteners' age.
Also, we learned about President Barack Obama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. We were so excited to learn that Rosa came to live in Detroit as she became older!
UPA Celebration of Culture
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
UPA Gymnasium
5 - 6pm
