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Social studies activity

Tennessee's Story: Music, Davy Crockett & the Civil War

A boy named Elvis Presley grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and his music teacher told him he had NO talent. Then he paid $4 to record a song at Sun Studio — just to give to his mom as a birthday present. Two years later, he was the most famous singer in the world. What would have happened if he had believed his teacher?

Hands OnAbout 25 minutesScreen-freeParent help expected

Materials and setup

How this changes by age

Pre-K (ages 3–4)

A boy named Elvis Presley grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and his music teacher told him he had NO talent. Then he paid $4 to record a song at Sun Studio — just to give to his mom as a birthday present. Two years later, he was the most famous singer in the world. What would have happened if he had believed his teacher?

Difficulty 1 of 3

Steps

  1. Listen to a short clip of Elvis Presley singing, then clap along.
  2. Draw a microphone in the middle of your paper — big and shiny.
  3. Around the microphone, draw musical notes, stars, and lightning bolts.
  4. Ask a grown-up: 'Has anyone ever told you that you couldn't do something — and you did it anyway?'
  5. Color your picture. This is a picture about not giving up.

Learning objectives

  • Wonder at how persistence can lead to extraordinary outcomes
  • Recognize music as an important part of Tennessee's identity
  • Ask why people sometimes underestimate others

Kindergarten (ages 5–6)

Tennessee has TWO very different worlds in it — the wild mountains where frontiersman Davy Crockett explored, and the bright stages of Nashville where musicians play country music for thousands of people every night. Nashville is called 'Music City, USA' and has more recording studios than anywhere in America outside of Los Angeles and New York! Both of these places are Tennessee. How can one state hold such different stories?

Difficulty 2 of 3

Steps

  1. Fold your paper in half like a book.
  2. On the LEFT side, draw Davy Crockett in the mountain wilderness — tall trees, a coonskin cap, a log cabin. Label it 'Frontier Tennessee, 1800s.'
  3. On the RIGHT side, draw a stage with bright lights, a guitar player, and a crowd. Label it 'Nashville Today.'
  4. Give each person a speech bubble. Davy says something about the mountains. The singer says something about music.
  5. Talk about: These places are in the same state. What stayed the same about Tennessee? What changed?

Learning objectives

  • Identify Nashville as Music City, USA and Davy Crockett as a Tennessee frontiersman
  • Compare frontier life and modern city life through the same state lens
  • Retell how Tennessee changed over 200 years while holding onto its spirit of independence
  • Explain in simple terms why a place can feel both wild and celebrated

Early elementary (ages 6–8)

Elvis Presley's high school music teacher told him he had no talent. He recorded his first song anyway — at Sun Studio in Memphis in 1954, for $4, as a birthday gift for his mother. Two years later he was the biggest star in the world. But Elvis didn't create his sound alone: he blended Black gospel, rhythm and blues, and country music — genres that had been developing in Tennessee for generations. Sun Studio wasn't just where Elvis recorded. It was where rock and roll was born. And here is another Tennessee fact: Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey is distilled in Moore County — but Moore County is a 'dry' county where you legally cannot buy alcohol, even the whiskey made right there!

Difficulty 2 of 3

Steps

  1. Create a cause-and-effect map: What musical traditions came BEFORE Elvis? Draw arrows showing how gospel + blues + country combined to create rock and roll. Label each input.
  2. Draw Sun Studio in Memphis as a small building on one side of your paper. Draw a crowd of thousands of fans on the other. Draw Elvis in the middle, with an arrow from the studio to the fans.
  3. Write a three-sentence paragraph: 'How did geography help create Tennessee's music?' (Think about: Why did Memphis and Nashville become music cities? What was around them?)
  4. Sequence these events with tiny drawings: Cherokee nation in Tennessee (1700s) → Davy Crockett on the frontier (1800s) → TVA brings electricity to 3 million homes (1933) → Elvis records at Sun Studio (1954) → Nashville becomes country music capital (1960s).
  5. Connection: The music Elvis made in Memphis influenced the Beatles in England and changed pop music worldwide. Can you think of a Tennessee thing that touched YOUR life?

Learning objectives

  • Analyze how multiple musical traditions combined in Tennessee to create rock and roll
  • Sequence five major events in Tennessee history showing cause-and-effect across eras
  • Explain why geographic location helped make Memphis and Nashville music centers
  • Connect Tennessee's local music history to national and international cultural impact

Upper elementary (ages 8–10)

On July 5, 1954, Elvis Presley walked into Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee and recorded 'That's All Right.' Studio owner Sam Phillips had been searching for years for a white singer who could deliver the feel of Black rhythm and blues music for a mainstream audience. When he heard Elvis, he reportedly said: 'That's the one.' Within 18 months, segregated radio stations across America were playing the record — some not realizing Elvis was white. Tennessee's music didn't just entertain. It cracked something open in American culture — at the same time as the Civil Rights Movement was building in the same state, in the same years, on the same streets. The Great Smoky Mountains — Tennessee's crown jewel — became the most visited national park in America, attracting more visitors than even the Grand Canyon.

Difficulty 3 of 3

Steps

  1. Research Sun Studio's founding. Write a paragraph about Sam Phillips's stated mission — what was he trying to do, and does that mission sit uncomfortably with anything you know about the history of Black music in America? There's no easy answer here. Think carefully.
  2. The Dilemma: Sam Phillips helped launch Elvis, a white artist, to fame by having him perform in a style developed by Black artists who were being paid little and getting far less radio play. Was this exploitation, cultural exchange, or both? Write one paragraph arguing EACH side, then your own conclusion.
  3. Create a Tennessee timeline from 1540 (De Soto expedition through Cherokee territory) to 1965 (Voting Rights Act passes — Tennessee civil rights marchers helped build the movement) with at least eight events. Note: Memphis was a center of the sanitation workers' rights movement. Why Memphis?
  4. Tennessee has three geographic grand divisions — East (Appalachian Mountains), Middle (Nashville Basin), West (Mississippi lowlands) — and each had different economies, cultures, and Civil War loyalties. Draw a map showing the three regions and write one sentence about each region's historical role.
  5. Write a 3-paragraph essay: 'How did Tennessee become the birthplace of both country music and rock and roll?' Argue a specific thesis — don't just list facts.
  6. Cross-state connection: West Virginia's Appalachian music traditions share roots with East Tennessee's mountain music. How did geography shape folk music across state lines?
  7. Sam Phillips recorded Elvis's first song at Sun Studio for about $4 in 1954 (roughly $46 today, estimate). Phillips later sold Elvis's recording contract to RCA for $35,000. Calculate Phillips's return on that $4 investment as a multiple. Was selling the contract a smart business move or the biggest mistake in music history? Write two sentences arguing each side.
  8. A Nashville luthier is a skilled tradesperson who builds and repairs guitars by hand. Draw an acoustic guitar and label six parts: headstock, tuning pegs, neck, frets, soundhole, bridge. Research what type of wood is used for the top vs. the back, and explain in one sentence why the choice of wood changes how the guitar sounds.

Learning objectives

  • Evaluate the ethical complexity of cross-racial cultural exchange in American music history
  • Analyze how Tennessee's three geographic regions produced different historical outcomes
  • Construct a thesis-driven essay connecting geography, culture, and national impact
  • Sequence Tennessee events from Indigenous history through the Civil Rights era with explanatory connections

Safety and evidence note

Read the full activity before beginning. An adult should supervise tools, heat, food, outdoor work, movement, and experiments as appropriate. Completion records that the activity was done; the child’s explanation, work sample, photo, or demonstration is stronger evidence of learning than a completion check alone.

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