Native American Heritage Month in the Music Room

In the United States, November is recognized as Native American Heritage Month. We still have a very long way to go in recognizing and responding to the treatment of Indigenous people in this country, and making sure we all find ways to give our students opportunities to learn about and celebrate the many Indigenous peoples and their cultures is one very small but critical step for us to take. Navigating how to do so respectfully and appropriately can be difficult, and I am very much still learning how to do that myself. My hope is that this post will point other elementary music teachers in the right direction to continue to do better.

1. Resources from culture bearers

One of the most difficult parts of this learning journey for me has been finding accurate and authentic resources from culture-bearers with materials that are appropriate for me, as a non-native person, to share in my classroom. Here is a collection of my favorite resources that I have found so far:

2. Current musicians

One key to making sure students understand that indigenous peoples and their cultures are very much alive, active, and modern is to introduce them to current musicians from a broad range of genres. Here is a list of some of my favorite contemporary Native American musicians, along with a song from each that is age-appropriate and engaging for elementary school:

3. Songs and lessons

If you're struggling to figure out what is appropriate for you to use in your classroom, here are a few songs that I've been told are appropriate for me to teach my students to serve as examples. I encourage you as always to seek out local culture bearers to get specific and direct insight from them on what might be best for you to use in your classroom!

I hope this gives you some helpful resources and ideas for recognizing Native American Heritage Month in your classroom! For general advice on how and why to incorporate heritage months in the elementary music classroom, you can head to this post. For ideas and resources to recognize other heritage months, including Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and more, check out this post. 

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Algonquin Water Song

November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States, and I am bringing you along with me on my learning journey as I seek to find meaningful and appropriate ways to recognize it in my elementary music classroom. As someone who did not grow up in North America and does not have any Native American heritage in my family, I have been on a constant learning journey for the last two decades since moving to the United States to learn more about North American Indigenous music, and appropriate ways for me, as an outsider, to share it with my students. One thing I learned years ago is that not every Native American song I learn, even if it is presented accurately, is appropriate for me to perform, teach, or share. Today I have a song to share that is specifically written for outsiders like me to learn and teach, and I am excited to share it with my students!

The song is called the Algonquin Water Song. You can read all about the background of the song, see a lovely video recording of it, and find the lyrics on the website dedicated specifically to teaching others about the song here. You can also find an English translation of the lyrics on this website, and a demonstration and explanation of the sticks used to accompany the song in this video. This video shows another demonstration that includes shakers as well.

For those, like me, who may not be familiar, the Algonquin people are an indigenous tribe now in Eastern Canada that speaks Algonquin, one of many Algonquian languages. It's important to note that while the 2 terms are very similar they are not the same.

I want to primarily be a source to point other teachers to culture bearers to learn directly from them, not from me, so I'm not going to share any specific teaching strategies or lesson ideas other than the sources listed above for this song specifically, but here are some ideas of larger thematic units into which this song could be incorporated:

I hope this sparks some ideas and, most importantly, points you in the right direction to research the song and other indigenous resources to incorporate respectfully in your own classrooms! 

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Music In Our Schools Month® 2025: "United Through Music" Song Bracket

This year the theme for Music In Our Schools Month® (MIOSM®) is "United through Music". I have been doing a "musical March madness"-style song bracket, where students listen to different songs each day and vote on their favorites, for several years now, and for the last several years I've tried to tie the songs into the annual theme NAfME chooses. To connect with this year's theme, I've decided to choose songs that are a fusion of 2 or more genres or musical styles.

This is the earliest that NAfME has ever shared their theme for MIOSM® so I am so happy to have had more time to figure out the songs I wanted to use and share them with everyone! I admit I was a little disappointed at first when I saw the theme, though, because I did an entire playlist of songs focusing on unity/ togetherness in 2023 for their theme that year, "Music Is All of Us"! If you didn't use my song bracket that year and you'd rather focus on lyrics with themes of unity, you can find that list of songs here. But then I had the idea to look for songs that bring multiple genres together, and I am so excited about all the new artists and songs I discovered in the process of putting this list together! I can't wait to share these with my students and see what they think. 

As I have done the last few years, I'm going to be setting up google slides files with the songs for each day embedded in the slides so that classes can vote in their homerooms. If you want to see how I organize the logistics so classes can vote every day regardless of whether they have music that day or not, check out my 2021 MIOSM post (and definitely let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to help). Doing it in slides was such an easy way to have all the songs organized and make it easy for the homeroom teachers to report their class' vote rather than having to email me every day! I don't have the rights to share the song files, but you can make a copy of my slide templates and add the audio files yourself by clicking on the image below (it will automatically ask you if you want to make a copy)- here is a tutorial on setting it up in slides using the templates:

In my song lists each year I try to include songs from different genres and time periods, representing artists of different backgrounds and including different languages, and this year is no different. You'll find a blank slide template in the slides file linked above: I use that to show the lyrics in their original language and in the English translation for songs that are not in English. 

Here are the songs I'll be using in this year's bracket (in no particular order):

1. The Times They Are A-Changin' by Flogging Molly Celtic Punk

2. Reclamation by Brandee Younger Classical/ Hip-Hop/ Jazz/ Funk

3. Eso Que Tu Haces by Lido Pimienta Afro-Colombian/ electronic

4. Freedom by 12 Girls Band Chinese/ Turkish/ Pop

5. Storm by OTYKEN Indigenous Siberian/ Pop

6. Stomping Grounds by Bela Fleck and The Flecktones Bluegrass/ Jazz

7. Sally in the Garden/ Molly Put the Kettle On by Abigail Washburn and Friends Chinese/ Indian/ Appalachian

8. Upside Down by Funmilayo Afrobeat Orquestra Afrobeats (West African/ Jazz/ Funk)

9. Blue Flame by Simon Shaheen Arab/ Western Classical

10. Colour War by Ayanna Witter-Johnson Classical/ Jazz/ Pop

11. Living in the Past by Jethro Tull Classical/ Rock

12. Samba Em Preludio by Esperanza Spalding Samba/ Jazz

13. Inion by Afro Celt Sound System Colombian/ Korean/ Hindustani/ Campeta

14. Legends in the Making by Black Violin Classical/ Pop

15. Indigo by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Jazz/ Funk

16. Saraiman by LADANIVA Armenian/ Romanian/ Jazz

17. Heyran by Mehdi Khosravi Iranian/ Classical/ Rock

18. MORENICA by Light in Babylon Isreali/ Turkish/ Iranian Alternative Ethnic Folk

19. LongMa by Nini Music Taiwanese Folk Metal

20. Brighter Days Come by Patty Gurdy Hurdy-Gurdy Folk-Pop

21. Járbă, máré járbă by Baba Yaga Romani/ Klezmer

22. Frantic Feathers by Archy J Celtic/ Bhangra

23. Mežāby Tautumeitas Latvian Folk/ Electronic

24. Compañera by MËSTIZA Spanish Folk/ Electronic

I'm excited to see how the students respond to this year's playlist, and I'm curious to see which song wins out in the end! What are your plans for Music In Our Schools Month® this year? What are other songs that fit this theme? I'd love to hear more suggestions in the comments below- I'm sure there are plenty more great ones out there. If you're looking for more ideas to use for MIOSM, here are all my posts on the topic.

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Call and Response Songs

One of the first things I teach in Kindergarten is call and response singing. After working on singing voice and echo singing, it's so fun when students are able to sing their own part independently with call and response songs! There are lots of great ones out there, but today I'm sharing my current top favorite call and response songs, as well as my process for teaching call and response.

I introduce call and response after students have been introduced to echo songs and have consciously identified that in echo songs, someone sings something and then someone else sings the same thing after (here's my blog post on echo songs if you want to see the songs and teaching process I use for that). Once they're comfortable with echo songs, I introduce the first call and response song, "John the Rabbit" (more on the song below), by having them practice singing "oh yes" on la (in la-based minor) and then telling them to sing "oh yes" every time I point to them. First I just sit there silently and point out to them at random intervals to sing "oh yes". Once they can do that, I start singing (on la/ do/ mi) things like, "no matter what I sing when I point to you you sing..." then point to them for them to sing "oh yes". I go back and forth, recitative-style, until they are all consistently able to sing "oh yes" instead of copying me, then launch straight into the song. 

After we've learned the song and sung it a few times we discuss that our parts were different, not the same, and I compare it to if I called someone on the phone and they answered by copying what I say: that would be rude! Instead of copying, people answer, or "respond", when you call them. That is what a call and response song is. I put my hands in a traditional phone signal with thumb and pinky and have them practice saying "call" with one phone hand up to their face, and "and response" with the other hand. I've found having different motions connected to echo and call and response really aids with memory, and even if they can't remember the vocabulary right away (especially multilanguage learners), they can show they remember the concept with the hand signs.

1. John the Rabbit

There are a few versions of this song but I prefer the minor key version like the recording linked above, mostly because it's what I was introduced to first, honestly, but also because I like to throw in minor tonality with my youngest grades whenever I can! After introducing the song like I described above, I pull out my rabbit puppet and tell them this time, only the student John the Rabbit looks at is going to sing the response, and I have students sing it individually. Besides having an incredibly simple response part, I like using this as my first call and response song because I can quickly assess their ability to hear and produce the tonal center and sing on pitch independently with this activity, plus the students love doing it with the rabbit!

2. Who Fed the Chickens

This Ella Jenkins song is a great song to use as a 2nd call and response song because it also has a very simple response part, it ties into the farm theme that many Kindergarten classes do in the fall in other subjects, and it's another great way to involve individual students again. After introducing the song and singing it together a few times, I've done it a couple of different ways: by having individual students sing "I did" when my chicken puppet looks at them, and by pointing to specific students while I sing the call and having all the students respond with the name of the student (e.g. "Jaden did"). 

After learning the song and doing it a few times, I ask students to identify whether the song is echo or call and response by silently showing the motion for the one they think it is, which allows every student to answer rather than calling on 1 student to verbally identify it.

3. Ambos a Dos

I introduce this song from Puerto Rico by playing the beginning of the recording linked above and telling students to hold up one finger if they hear one person singing alone, and all ten fingers if they hear a group singing together. After they listen to it once this way, I tell them to do it again, but this time pay attention to whether the solo and group parts are the same or different so they can decide if it's an echo or call and response song. Once we have labeled it as call and response, I teach students the move that is used with the song in the children's game, where you walk forward 3 steps and kick, then take 5 steps back (like in this video). I have the whole class get in a line facing me and I move with the solo part and they move with the group part. Once they can do that, I have everyone sing the words "matarile" and "matarile, rile, ron" with the response parts (if they haven't already spontaneously started singing it while practicing the moves). I have a whole blog post on this song, and different ways I've used the song, here.

Introducing echo and call and response singing is foundational for teaching part singing later on, so these are really important skills to teach in early childhood. I hope this gives you some fresh ideas to use in your classroom, and I'd love to hear about other call and response songs you love using with this age group in the comments (there are plenty more great ones)! If you want to see the full lesson plans with visuals, sheet music, and more for teaching call and response, you can find them in my Kindergarten music curriculum here.

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