AUSD Notes: Alameda school district celebrating Black History Month

Schools across the Alameda Unified School District are celebrating Black History Month with a wide range of activities related to this year’s theme of health and wellness, including author visits; research into famous Black artists; scientists and politicians; and visits by prominent Black artists and professionals.

Otis Elementary School, for instance, is holding a career panel of Black health professionals later this month. Paden Elementary School has invited author JaNay Brown-Wood to read her new picture book “This Hair Belongs” aloud to first-, second- and third-graders, while the school’s fifth-graders will read “One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia.

Students in the Health and Wellness Seminar at ASTI are interviewing prominent Black people in the health and wellness industry as well as creating posters highlighting and celebrating unsung Black and African-American heroes in the health sciences. Love Elementary School is taking a holistic approach to the health theme by focusing on different activities at each grade levels.

Transitional kindergarteners, kindergarteners and first-graders at Love Elementary are learning about the body wellness through hip-hop, line dancing and other types of joyful movement; second- and third-graders are learning about spiritual wellness through poetry and self-care.

Additionally, the school’s fourth- and fifth graders are focusing on the mind by studying Afrofuturism, mutual aid and “ubuntu,” a southern African theory of community and interdependence. A number of Alameda’s elementary schools are also inviting parent volunteers to read to their students, holding poetry slams and oratories, studying Black artists and hosting art gallery walks around their campuses.

Meanwhile, the school district Office of Equity’s Black History Month event this past weekend celebrated the same themes with a paint party, dominoes contest, salsa lessons, bike repairs by the Alameda Bike Mobile and free fresh produce. We thank our school leaders and teachers for finding so many creative ways to celebrate Black History Month and Black health and wellness!

Lincoln Middle School is also teaching about Afrofuturism, as well as taking a field trip to the Black Panther Party Museum in Oakland, while Wood Middle School is hosting an informational video about lesser-known Black inspirational figures.

Alameda High School is featuring weekly guest speakers, as well as displays of information related to African-American history and culture, and food and culture fairs. Students in ASTI’s Health and Wellness seminar will interview prominent Black people in the health and wellness industry and create posters about unsung Black heroes in the health sciences.

Also, Encinal Junior & Senior High School is featuring Black history facts during morning announcements, holding poetry slam contests twice weekly through the month and will host outside performers on Feb. 27. We thank our administrators and teachers for coming up with so many creative and informative ways to celebrate the past and current contributions of Black people in our country.

Reach Susan Davis, the Alameda Unified School District’s senior manager for community affairs, at 510-337-7175 or SDavis@alamedaunified.org.