Summer Patriotic Music Unit Study on America the Beautiful
I’m excited to share this guest post with you from Justina of Jus’ Classical. Justina is a musician, video and course creator, and writer. She has a degree in music therapy and has worked as an early childhood music teacher for over 18 years.
Justina is also a blessed wife and a crazy and busy homeschooling mom of three. At Jus’ Classical, she seeks to encourage other home school moms and families, especially in focusing on Christ, making memorizing painless through music and in enjoying great art and classical music!
Summer is such a great time to get involved in music! With a more relaxed homeschooling schedule, you may still want a few hours of structure each day, so why not add some music activities to your day? It could be just 15 minutes a day.
Independence Day is the big holiday of the summer, but really there are several patriotic holidays in the summer which warrant learning America-themed music! Summer unofficially starts with Memorial Day, there is Flag Day on June 14, Independence Day on July 4, and Labor Day at the beginning of September (summer’s unofficial end.)
Where to start
A simple summer patriotic music unit study is this: take time to learn some of the American songs of the past – The Star-Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, God Bless America, My Country ‘Tis of Thee, You’re a Grand Old Flag, and Yankee Doodle. You can find great recordings and videos of these on YouTube.
But don’t just watch – learn the words to the songs and better yet, incorporate the history of the songs into short lessons.
A simple way to do this is to learn one song a week over the summer.
How to Learn a Song
- Start by watching a video on YouTube of a performance with singing and lyrics on the screen. Many of the patriotic videos show scenes of America during the song and include lyrics.
- After watching the video, talk about the places you recognize in the video.
- Listen and watch again if you are not already familiar with the tune.
- Watch a third and fourth time and sing along to the lyrics.
- Research the history of the song and read a book about the song or the history of the period of the song.
- You can repeat this process every day for a week, but on the fourth and fifth day, try to sing at least the first verse without the video to see if you have memorized the words.
Summer Patriotic Music Unit Study on America the Beautiful
For example, this video of America the Beautiful shows kids singing and scenes of Washington D.C.
America the Beautiful is one of the most popular American patriotic songs. The lyrics of America the Beautiful were written by Katharine Lee Bates in 1893 after a trip to Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, Colorado. When she got to the top of Pike’s Peak, she was so inspired by the view that she wrote, “All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.” Her poem was originally called Pikes Peak and later was called America for publication. Though the poem was sung to a variety of tunes at first, like Auld Lang Syne, it is now sung to music composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward called Materna. The combination of Ward’s music with Bates’ poem was first published in 1910 and then got the title America the Beautiful.
Some books to bring the song to life include these, which you can get from your local library:
Repeat these simple steps with other patriotic songs and add a music unit study, structure to your summer days, and lifelong enjoyment of patriotic holidays!
Looking for ideas for more short American patriotic music unit studies? Check out other articles at Jus’ Classical.
Join the America the Beautiful music course here.
This guest post is part of the Homeschool Summer Fun Series. Make sure to check out the series landing page to learn more about the series and find all of the posts in one place!
