Black History Month Celebrated In Hatboro-Horsham Schools

HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA —To honor all the contributions African-Americans have made in America, Hatboro-Horsham schools are celebrating them through music, writing, and literature for Black History Month.

Hatboro-Horsham High School: Black History Month Concert

Hatboro-Horsham High School is holding its third annual Black History Month Concert at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15.

The high school’s three choirs: the Concert Choir, Madrigals, and Women’s Chamber will be singing four genres: traditional African-American spiritual, which is deeply rooted in Black and American culture; traditional world African music originating from Africa; non-idiomatic works, meaning that it is not tied to a specific cultural genre; and traditional gospel music.

Professional baritone singer, Brian Major, will be joining the high school as an artist in residence Feb. 13-15, which was made possible through a grant from the Hatboro-Horsham Educational Foundation (HHEF).

An accomplished recitalist and concert artist, Major recently made his debut in The Metropolitan Opera as Baron Douphol in "La Traviata" and as Ford in Verdi’s "Falstaff" with Maryland Lyric Opera. He is known for his velvety voice and commanding stage presence, and has won numerous awards and honors on the competition circuit.

Leading up to the concert, Major will work with choirs as well as one-on-one with individual singers or smaller groups. He will perform with the choirs during the concert and is featured in several songs as a soloist.

Similar to previous years, the three choirs will perform two songs that are iconic to the civil rights movement. They will open with “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known as the “African American National Anthem” and close with “We Shall Overcome,” the anthem of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

“It’s been a true joy to be warmly welcomed by the community,” said Charlie Masters, who started his role as choral director earlier this school year. “I’m excited to continue building relationships with students and the community. Collaboration and care among the students allow us to move forward in a lot of ways.”

Keith Valley Middle School: Music, Literature, and Writing

At Keith Valley Middle School, music teachers created a “Famous Black Musicians” bulletin board to highlight black musicians. The display includes each musician’s photograph, short biography, and a QR code that links to one of their songs.

In students’ music classes, they will interact with the display by choosing three musicians from the bulletin board to learn about. Then they will create their own playlist of black musicians and choose other composers.

In social studies, eighth-grade students are highlighting the positive achievements of African Americans each week in February. Each week has a different focus: political/civil rights leaders, athletes and entertainers, artists, poets, and writers. Students will research a person for each week’s theme and present the information to the class using a discussion board.

Seventh graders are completing declaration speeches, which will feature famous speeches from Black Americans such as Amanda Gorman, Barack Obama, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Donovan Livingston. Additionally, sixth-grade students are completing a 3D research-based flyer of an inspirational African American.

In the math department, sixth-grade students celebrated Black History Month by creating and simplifying numerical expressions related to an important fact describing a life event or accomplishment of a famous, black historian.

Students then wrote a few sentences describing the event or accomplishment of their assigned historian.

The next day, classes facilitated a Gallery Walk through the other sixth-grade math classrooms to record data about the historical figures their classmates researched. Back in their classrooms, students reconvened as a class to share their findings.

Blair Mill and Simmons Elementary Schools: National African American Read-In

In commemoration of Black History Month, Blair Mill and Simmons Elementary Schools will participate in the National African American Read-In, sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English.

Every February, the Council encourages schools, bookstores, community and professional organizations, and interested citizens to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month by hosting an African American Read-In.

At Blair Mill Elementary, older and younger students will gather with their buddy classes to read aloud books featuring African American authors.

As part of Blair Mill’s continued celebration of literacy, classes will also honor the tradition of passing down stories with a visit from a storyteller who will share stories from black folklore.

In addition, classes will embed projects throughout the month. African American firsts will also be highlighted during the school’s morning announcements and in the classroom during morning meetings.

Since 2019, Simmons Elementary School has been participating in the National African American Read-In.

During the week of Feb. 13, Simmons Elementary School is celebrating this event by pairing up different grade levels and having students read and share books such as, “A Pride of African Tales” by Donna Washington, “The Little Match Girl” by Jerry Pinkney, and “Dancing in the Wings” by Debbie Allen.

Crooked Billet Elementary: Past, Present and Future Display
At Crooked Billet Elementary School, the whole school is taking part to create the “Celebrating Black History Month” interactive display in the rotunda featuring past, present and future panels.

All month long, any student or classroom may add pictures, quotes, or pieces of writing to any of the three collages.

“This is student-centered and gives all classes a chance to add something to one of the panels,” said Crooked Billet Principal Kelli Sendel.

Teachers are leading individual activities in their classrooms focusing on Black History Month including reading, writing biographies, and reading literature.

Past and present famous Black Americans are displayed on digital display boards throughout the school. Finally, the school is showcasing Black History Month on its video morning announcements.

Hallowell Elementary School: African American Art and History Museum

To learn more about African American historical figures, Hallowell Elementary School students are focusing on four main components: exposure (to African American historical figures), research (learning more about various African American historical figures), writing (poetry, informational, or opinion writing), and art (painting portraiture or a symbolic painting associated with their African American historical figure).

The exposure and research will help students with the writing and art component for the African American Art and History Museum.

“I want students to learn more about African Americans and all that Black people have contributed to the richness of life in America,” said third-grade teacher Kendrah Butler. “I also hope they learn how to connect with writing, how to connect with art, how to connect with music, and give them an opportunity to express themselves.”

Black History Month kicked off with an assembly featuring the Universal African Drum and Dance Ensemble. They performed and talked about how African music has influenced American music. This assembly was made possible thanks to a grant through the Hallowell Elementary Home and School Association.

On Feb. 15, classes will have a virtual artist-in-residence lesson with Kimpedro Rodriguez and Ted Waters. They will be teaching art lessons with the students in preparation for the Schoolwide Painting Day.

The following week, students will participate in Schoolwide Painting Day to paint portraits of the African American historical figures they researched and wrote about, or paint a scene of the African American historical figures’ life.

All of the artwork and students’ accompanying writing pieces will be featured in the Art Museum. Students will be able to view the museum during the school day and the community is invited to the Art Museum and Jazz Night on February 28 at 6 p.m.

Prior to the viewing of the museum, families will have an opportunity to attend a 30-40 minute jazz concert. Joining Butler will be drummer Kimpedro Rodriguez, bassist Nimrod Speaks, and trumpet players Marcell Bellinger and Paul Giess.

This month-long program was the fulfillment of a grant written by Butler-Waters from the Hatboro-Horsham Education Foundation (HHEF).