C04:Our place called Canada: Where music and social studies meet

C04:Our place calledCanada: Where music and social studies meet –Larry Dureski

Engage your Intermediate students in musical activities that support the “Canada” themes in your Social Studies curriculum. Each original song comes with background information, discussion questions, and lesson activities. No musical training is required to use this new classroom-tested resource. A sample pack containing selections from the audio CD, music, and classroom lessons will be available.

Target group: 4 – 7

Although this session was indeed geared towards 4-7 (with many conference-goers ducking out of the last session of the day), Larry Dureski led a session in round after round of home-grown Canadiana sing-a-longs loaded with historical tid-bits and points to ponder. He’s got to be one of those teachers you remember, he has a real knack for the soothing-yet-not-condescending ‘kid voice’.  Writing history songs for intermediate kids is a real talent, more than I posses.

I learned all kinds of stuff about BC rural and regional development and history, and was surprised about the attention to subaltern stories and environmental awareness loaded up in each song. Some of the new teachers were bowled over by the cheese, but they are probably the kind of people that never knew the words to Koukaburra in the first place. I had fun feeling 9 again, and highly recommend this for intermediate teachers. For secondary applications, I took away confidence that music and socials can meet in the classroom successfully—local folk history, too.

This pearl of wisdom is brought to you by: C04 Our place calledCanada: Where music and social studies meet –Larry Dureski