Three Simple Mardi Gras Lesson Plans

Mardi Gras can be a very exciting and fun time for both adults and children, and you do not have to even be in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mardi Gras is a significant part of our culture and is a great way to showcase a lot of the historic significance of both Louisiana and the Mardi Gras history itself. If you are looking for some great lesson plans for Mardi Gras, here are some great ideas.

Music is a big part of our culture and can be a great lesson to each the children about Mardi Gras and about the types of influences that Louisiana had on our musical roots. A simple lesson plan you can do involves simply telling the children to collect music that comes from such genres like jazz, blues, zydeco, and instrumental. You can allow the children to try to collect these items on their own through their mom or dad or you can make a recorded collection yourself to bring into the children. Play these songs to the class and then have the children learn about the artist who came up with the music such as Louis Armstrong and the Neville Brothers. It would be great to have your students get on the computers and read about a famous musician who came from the South and tell something important about their contributions to the musical industry. While having your students listen to the collected music, you can also have them dance around in a jazz-styled manner or make them enact the playing of each instrument. This would be a great lesson plan for Mardi Gras because music is a very important tool in education and it is important that the students see that Mardi Gras celebrates more than just what they see on television. Mardi Gras is a celebration of Louisiana and the lifestyle created so many years ago. This lesson plan should be designed for 5th graders to high school students due to the nature of the project.

Now if you really want to get into Mardi Gras spirit with your lesson plans, you can have your students make some Mardi Gras Beads. Making Mardi Gras beads is a very easy process and can be used on all different ages of school children. All you will need to do is get some self-drying pottery clay, toothpicks, string, and craft paint. This supplies can be found at any local craft store or maybe in your craft closet in your art room. This lesson plan would be really good for art class because it incorporates a tradition of Mardi Gras with standard art. Give each student a section of clay and tell them to break it into maybe 8 different pieces, with none being exactly the same size. The student should then have some clay balls or bead-looking models that will be drying on their own. Each student will need a toothpick so that they can poke holes into the top of the individual beads which will be for threading the string into. The students will need the craft paint so that they can make their beaded necklace their own by painting their necklace in many colors. Explain that the Mardi Gras colors are green, purple, and gold and that these colors should be used in their necklace. Once they have painted their beads you can carry this over into the next day so that the paint will have an ample amount of time to dry. Next, have each student get about 14 inches of string each so that they can thread the beads through the string and tie the end of the strings together. This is a great way to incorporate traditional art lessons with the Mardi Gras theme and is a great way to showcase a tradition among Mardi Gras, which is colored beads.

Showcasing the culture of Mardi Gras would not be complete without a lesson plan about the Mardi Gras mask. You can explain the importance of the Mardi Gras mask and the history behind why people where the masks during Mardi Gras. The students should then make their own Mardi Gras mask using paper plates, string, and glitter glue. Have your students work in pairs of two so that each group gets one paper plate, and have them cut it in half. Each mask will be made from a half of a piece of paper plate and then allow them to decorate their masks with a friend. You can tell them the traditional colors of Mardi Gras are green, purple, and gold and that these colors should be implemented into their masks. Use a pen or something to make a hole on each side of the finished mask so that the children can put string through the hole and tie the two ends together to form a strap. This is a great lesson plan about the history and importance of the Mardi Gras mask and is a great way to showcase the artistic side of Mardi Gras. You can get these supplies in your art classroom or at your local craft store for about five dollars.