By: Zach G., Group A Student
This week TKS students and staff celebrated African American History month by doing a few activities. All the staff took the time out of their day to bring all the students to light on the struggles and breakthroughs of equal rights. Each classroom rotated through different activities. The activities consisted of an escape room, food tasting, a gallery walk, music history, and speeches by important figures.
In the escape room (run by Megan Daniel) students had to unlock Ruby Bridges’ (a six year old civil rights activist) locker. In order to unlock the locker, students had to find four clues that allowed them to figure out the locker combination. All the clues had facts about different civil rights activists. All the students managed to learn about the African American community and get a sweet reward in the end.
As well as an escape room students were introduced to the history of African American music. Students learned about how slaves brought their tribal music from Africa to the United States. The lesson (led by Jim Gaul) explained how the African American music formed new genres including Jazz, Blues, Gospel, and Soul. After each genre the group listened to a sample of music from within those genres.
Following Music history students were introduced to different African American dishes. For this activity (run by Keith Morgan) students sampled candied yams, rice pudding, and jambalaya. Each class learned about the main exports from Africa. Some of which were a bit surprising. For instance, did you know that sweet potatoes and peanuts originated from Africa? Sweet potatoes eventually spread throughout the world. The overall presentation really summed up how much African exports affects our culinary culture.
In addition to food tasting students were immersed in the colorful world of African American art work. This activity (led by Bridget McBride) required students to look at different paintings that were stuck to the hallway walls. As the students walked among the art work they tried to match the painting to their titles. After the group had selected their answers, they were asked to reconvene and talk about the reasoning for their choices. Even though some of their answers were incorrect they learned about the importance of African American art work.
Next the students left the art gallery activity to watch a video about Martin Luther King’s speech. In this activity (hosted by Thomas Oakley) students were given the option to watch the speech or read some different civil rights related PowerPoints. The PowerPoints were a selection of poems written by African Americans during the civil rights movement. There was also a PowerPoint on the timeline of slavery through the end of the civil rights movement.
Last on the agenda was looking at the TKS’s Community Mural. The mural is made up of different Civil Rights activists. Each student colored an individual sheet which were in turn put together to a bigger picture. These activists were very important to the idea that all men, woman, and children are created equal. If it were not for these people the United States you know to be free would not be as it is today.
To conclude, TKS wishes to express our appreciation for the success of the civil rights activists. The students learned about important facts and figures of the civil right movement, and were given the opportunity to work together as a community.
