As the kids and I have been studying black history, we’ve found so many incredible stories of great jazz musicians.

I knew of all of these music pioneers, but learning about their lives and experiences has been so enlightening and it’s been a wonderful lesson for our children.

So I thought it would be nice to put what we’ve learned together into a printable black history unit study that’s all about jazz, bebop, and scat!

We are very proud to announce the release of We Got Jazz! – Exploring the Pioneers of Scat, Bebop, and Swing! 

We Got Jazz! is a jazz unit study packed with jazz history, comprehension reviews, and listening activities for kids in grades 1-3!

Read on to see how to get your copy! And, if you need a digital version for distance learning – there’s one of those too.

If you’re looking for more black history lessons for kids, don’t miss our African Kingdoms unit study for elementary students!

We Got Jazz! Black History Unit Study

We have always enjoyed the sounds of jazz.

While we knew about all of these famous musicians, we didn’t know much about how they got started making music or the challenges they faced during their careers.

As we started exploring these figures with the kids, we found out so many interesting things.

Which is why I hope that your students find this black history unit enjoyable too!

We Got Jazz! features five biography units of jazz greats:

• Dizzy Gillespie
• Nat King Cole
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Miles Davis
• and Duke Ellington

The section for each artist includes a comprehensive, age-appropriate biography of their life and career.

This is followed by a question and answer review activity to see what students have learned from the biography.

Then there’s a crossword puzzle, a timeline sequencing activity, and a listening activity (with a link to where to find each artist’s music) to help students learn even more about each artist.

Depending on what your lesson plan includes, you could take one artist a week.

You might try covering the biography with the class. Then students can complete the activities on their own.

Or you could spend a week discussing them all!

Read the biography with the class and then assign them to complete the review activities for homework or independent work.

Plus, a full answer key is included for easy grading!

See the full product flip through below!

Digital We Got Jazz Black History Unit

Are you distance learning this year? Or just looking to save on printer ink?

We Got Jazz! is also available in a digital version!

The digital version, which is compatible with Google Slides, contains all of the information and just as many activities as the print version.

After reading about each artist, students can type their answers to the review questions – directly on the slides.

They can drag and drop the events in each artist’s life into the correct sequence.

Instead of a crossword puzzle, there is a word unscramble activity for each person.

And you can use the digital answer key (which is delivered in a separate file) to grade student submissions in no time!

See the video preview of the digital version of We Got Jazz below!

Scroll down to get the print or digital version of We Got Jazz for your students!

Check out more black history learning activities below!

Looking for the digital version of We Got Jazz? Pick it up in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Digital We Got Jazz Unit for Elementary <<<

The post We Got Jazz! – A Jazz Black History Unit Study appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

We’re getting into our study of classical music in our homeschool lessons, so we’re sharing children’s books about composers! These are perfect for circle time stories or unit study resources, especially if you want your kids to learn more about the music and the lives of these musicians.

While there are classical composers in this list, there are also kids’ books about modern composers, including the great Duke Ellington! If you enjoy these stories, be sure to check out the Duke Ellington unit in our ebook “We Got Jazz”!

Children’s Books about Composers

Some of the activity books include coloring books and unit studies about composers. In fact, Stories of the Great Composers is one of the resources we’re using in our homeschool curriculum this year!

Picture Books about Composers

Nonfiction and Activity Books about Composers

Do you have any favorite resources for introducing classical composers to kids? Do you have any suggestions for great children’s books about composers? Let us know in the comments!

If you enjoy these stories, check out our other ideas for teaching music and art to homeschoolers!

And don’t miss your chance to learn more about introducing kids to jazz with our We Got Jazz unit study ebook! It’s packed with over 120 pages of music history and activities about jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and more!

For more tips to make your kids into readers, check out my Reading for Kids board on Pinterest!

Want to get more ideas for making homeschooling fun? Sign up for our email newsletter to get plenty of homeschool tips and resources in your inbox!

This post is part of The Massive Guide to Homeschool Reading Lists by iHomeschool Network! Click over to read tons of awesome booklists shared by my fellow homeschooling bloggers!

The post Children’s Books about Composers appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

While I grew to love classical music, I never really got to know much about the composers themselves. Which is why I was so excited to have the opportunity to review the Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades program from Zeezok!

Not only do you get to hear classical music, you and your kids get to learn about the lives and experiences of the masters, which greatly influenced their work. Take a look at how the program makes music education a snap and how we used it to complete a Mozart composer study!

Disclosure: I received this product for free and I was compensated for my time. All opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review.

How Zeezok Makes Composer Study Simple

Teaching classical music can seem rather complicated, especially if you’re new to homeschooling or if your kids don’t really love history. But Zeezok’s Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades really makes it simple.

Here’s how the program can handle some of the common objections homeschooling parents might make:

• It’s too hard to plan my own lessons. Lesson planning is a serious time investment for homeschoolers. But Zeezok’s program already has the lessons planned out for you! There are weekly reading assignments, projects, and worksheets ready to go!
• I don’t know enough about classical composers. As I mentioned above, I didn’t either. But the books and workbooks are so thoroughly written, I ended up learning about these composers right along with the kids!
• I can’t get my kids to enjoy listening to classical music. When you mention “classical music” to your kids, you might not get the most excited response. Let’s face it: Kids are more likely to listen to Bieber than Bach. But the Zeezok Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades program gets kids involved in learning about the composers, which makes them more interested in hearing the music they wrote.

As you can see, the Zeezok Book 1 Collection includes composer studies for seven musicians: Beethoven, Paganini, Schubert, Bach, Mozart, Handel, and Haydn. Each composer has a chapter book with lovely illustrations and a set of weekly lesson plans in the workbook.

There is also a lapbook CD, which has lapbook printables for each composer, and a multi-disc music collection featuring works by all seven composers. It’s an amazingly complete curriculum.

Mozart Composer Study for Kids

For our first composer study, I decided to go with Mozart. Since he started composing at such a young age (five years old!), I thought he would be more relatable, especially for my boys.

The Mozart book is entitled “Mozart, the Wonder Boy” and it’s a lovely, well-written chapter book about Mozart’s childhood, career, and early death. It’s written in a very kid-friendly tone, but it doesn’t mince words about Mozart’s problems, including his financial issues and his sickness.

We used it as a read-aloud and the kids really enjoyed it. As we read each chapter, we’d turn to the corresponding section in the Music Appreciation Book 1 workbook and complete the activities.

Mozart played several instruments and the Music Appreciation Workbook lists them all. Some of them like the clavier and the clavichord are no longer in common use, but some of the other instruments are.

To hear these instruments, we visited the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Kids website and listened to the sounds of the harpischord, organ, piano, and violin. The organ was the favorite by a long shot.

Towards the latter part of his career, Mozart branched out into writing operas, including “The Marriage of Figaro”. Since my kids knew almost nothing about operas, we read the section about the story in the Music Appreciation Workbook.

Then we watched this Opera in Brief video to try to understand what happened in the plot.

It was neat for the kids to learn that opera is not always serious. It can be funny! Plus, it’s impressive to realize that composers can write what is basically a sitcom, except set to music and sung live in Italian. That takes talent.

We love using lapbooks and I was really enthralled with the Mozart lapbook, which is included in the Lapbook CD. You just print the pages and follow the directions.

One of the first activities in the lapbook is a geography minibook that lists countries and cities that Mozart visited. The country minibook is good for younger kids, while the city minibook suits older children. Since our boys were making the lapbook along with Tigger, we printed both geography minibooks and let them complete both separately.

As the boys found each country on our giant wall map, they ran back and drew a line from the name to the place on the map. Tigger did the same with the city minibook.

Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, so we decided to learn more about the town and its history. This Rick Steves clip was super helpful.

Can I just run away and live there now? So, so beautiful. My boys weren’t that enthralled with the scenery, but they really liked the funicular railway. To each his own, right?

Now that we had a better understanding of Mozart’s early life, we started working on the timeline in the Mozart lapbook. Tigger sorted out the life events and glued them in the correct spot in the minibook.

It was so tragic to learn that Mozart only lived to be 35. It’s astounding to think of how much music he produced in such a short period of time.

And our lapbook is complete!

If you think this was extensive, let me just add that this only shows a few of the activities for the Mozart unit. Plus, there are units for SIX other composers! Zeezok’s Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades is truly a comprehensive music curriculum. We’re looking forward to using the rest of the program through the rest of this school year!

Stock your homeschooling library with the Book 1 Collection from the Zeezok online shop!

Get a chance to win Zeezok Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades in the company’s giveaway! To enter, use the widget below!

Now’s the time to score the Book 1 Collection for 10 percent off! Through March 25, save 10% on the program with the promo code ihomeschool16! Get your set now!

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