Students at St. Joseph the Worker participated in many activities during Black History Month as can be seen below, but the highlight were the presentations by the Canadian Multicultural Inventors Museum who gave us a virtual interactive workshop Live from Aruba with an introduction to the history of Black History Month highlighting some of the achievements and contributions of Black Canadians ending with a storybook read aloud. Our grades 4-8 students’ presentation focused on African Canadian Innovators highlighting African contributions in STEM and provided a representation of innovators that students may not see in hegemonic textbooks.
Each morning we began the day with music over the announcements created by influential Black artists. We began the first week with Gospel music, week 2 was later jazz and rock and roll, week three was 80s and 90s pop and week four we played hip hop and current urban music.
Below are examples of some of the activities students participated in during class. These many activities integrated black history and culture through reading, writing, art, music, and technology.
One of our FDK classes listened to the story “The Spider Weaver” and created their own Kente Cloth designs.
Another FDK class participated in an experiment to demonstrate an
understanding that even though God created us to look different on the outside, we are all the same on the inside.
In the Primary Division, students were busy creating biogra-
phies of many influen
tial Black Canadians/ Americans including Viola Desmond, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr or creating artwork inspired by African American artists as demonstrated by our grade 1 FI class.
Ms. Lowe’s class wrote biographies about Black Canadians of influence and shared them over the announcements each morning while Mrs. Ferrigni’s grade 6 class created Black History Minutes sharing what they learned about slavery.
Mrs. Adamo’s class did a Martin Luther King Speech analysis and viewing of video. Students then wrote about three dreams they have for the world and created a collage to reflect those dreams. Also, students studied a number of significant figures that helped bring about change. The timeline activity began with the birth of slavery in the United States to the birth of the Civil Rights movement.
Our grade 7 stude
nts created some beautiful imagery through their visual arts assignment representing Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.