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Greetings!
Tuesday, February 24 is Mardi Gras!
Celebrate New Orleanian culture and the future of the city's health with THE FUNDRED DOLLAR BILL PROJECT!
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Rich Tradition in New Orleans
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One of the many extravagant floats from the Mardi Gras parades!
The City of New Orleans is
famous for its Mardi Gras celebrations. Mardi
Gras, (literally Fat Tuesday) has ancient origins and
came to New Orleans through its French heritage in 1699.
Early explorers celebrated this French Holiday on the
banks of the Mississippi River. Carnival quickly became
an exciting holiday for both children and adults.
Throughout the years, Orleanians have added to the
celebration by establishing
krewes (organizations)
which host parades and balls.
The people of New Orleans look
forward to the holiday with anticipation! During
this time of carnival, work essentially stops, and
schools are closed for the week! It is a holiday
with fantastic parades filled with amazing floats,
elaborate masked balls, costumes, royalty, Mardi
Gras Indians, King Cakes and music
everywhere. This celebration has something for
everyone, young and old.
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Plan a Mardi Gras Day in Your Classroom!
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Mardi Gras is a great bridge to learning more about New Orleans.
Mardi
Gras is a part of the history of New Orleans. This
video by the History Channel offers perspective on Mardi
Gras: the history, different krewes, king cakes,
jambalaya, and the crazy party.
History Channel: http://www.history.com/video.do?name=culture&bcpid=1681694254&bclid=1672161034Mardi Gras and FUNDRED...and Mardi Gras is a great time to
introduce the FUNDRED DOLLAR BILL PROJECT to your
students. This is an occasion to bring focus to
issues around New Orleans. One could explore the
post-Katrina debate as to whether the city will recover
from the devastation; will there be a safe place for the
evacuees to return? Hurricanes will happen again, should the city continue to rebuild?! We contend that New Orleans has
a rich history and robust culture that is enduring and
New Orleans will remain an important city. The
popularity of Mardi Gras is a testament to this
vibrancy. THE FUNDRED DOLLAR BILL PROJECT
is a contribution to preserving the culture of New
Orleans. FUNDRED supports the environmental health
of this important city from below the ground up.
Below are a few lesson ideas to
explore below:
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FUNDREDS and the JAZZ GREATS |
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Andi Wong, our Operative at Rooftop
School in San Francisco, California, suggests a lesson
focused on the wonderful nicknames given to jazz greats,
e.g. Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lady Day,
Satchmo, King Oliver, etc. These names suggest
royalty!
Perhaps instead of presidents, children
could decorate their FUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS with jazz
greats and learn a little about New Orleans as the place
that gave birth to jazz.
Have resource
material of photos of some famous musicians, along with
the songs that they are associated with that have
something to do with money or giving. Songs like
Basin Street, God Bless the Child, or Pennies from
Heaven, for example.
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| FUNDRED and the history of KREWE |
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Andi also suggests a collaborative
activity that teaches the students more about the
history of Mardi Gras.
Your students may be
familiar with the expression "Krewe" often used in rap,
but they may not be aware that the word that comes out
of Mardi Gras tradition. The Rex Krewe website has
great history of the tradition: http://www.rexorganization.com/Tradition/
There are many more krewes that can be viewed here too:
http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/parades.html
The students would get
themselves into krewes. They would name their own
krewes, select their colors, design their logos, and
make posters publicizing their parades. They could
have fun with a little friendly competition trying to
get everyone to contribute FUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS to their
krewe's cache of FUNDRED artworks.
Again, you
could play some music, like Iko Iko, for example.
Here's a site with some Mardi Gras music that you can
stream: http://www.mardigrasdigest.com/Media/Digest_Top40.htm
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| FUNDRED and the "Spirits of Spring" |
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We on the FUNDRED team would love to see FUNDREDS that annotate the REX Krewe's theme: http://www.rexorganization.com/Downloads/2009/Rex2009NotesAndLinks.rtf
The Rex Krewe has a great website: http://www.rexorganization.com/ with history to explore and additional lesson plans as reference: http://www.rexorganization.com/Education/
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FUNDRED IS AN IMPORTANT
GESTURE
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These activities, from mask
making to music and social studies are all rich subjects
for the classroom. The simple act of making a
FUNDRED DOLLAR BILL is, in and of itself, a gesture with
profound implications that compliments any classroom
activity or stands on its own.
At the end of the
day, students have had a great time, and know that they
have contributed to preserving the rich culture of New
Orleans!
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Questions:
If you have questions please e-mail them to: questions@fundred.org
Please continue to spread the word about the opportunity to participate in the FUNDRED DOLLAR BILL PROJECT!
FUNDRED TEAM
fundred.org
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