Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Canadian History Songs - Easy as Apple Pie!

I'll be the first to admit...I wasn't fond of History in high school. In fact, I couldn't wait until grade 10 was finished because it was only mandatory for students to take history up until then. I didn't have a great affinity for my History teacher... she wasn't interesting, nor do I think she was interested in us!

Ironically, now here I am...a few decades later (don't want to date myself here), as a teacher and someone who loves learning Canadian History! Becoming a teacher not only taught me a lot about myself as a person and a learner, but also allowed me the opportunity to see how I can reach kids who are just like I was. If it was my perception that information being thrown at me didn't affect, or would never affect my day to day life, I would tune out.

As a teacher, I feel that it's my job to find a way to reach students and foster their understanding of how material/subjects affect their day to day life, and to look for methods that appeal to their learning style. When I started out as a teacher and being a Kinesthetic learner myself, all I knew for certain was that not all children learn the same. During my years of working with different learning styles, I loved the challenge of finding various ways to meed their needs. "The Canadian History Tunes" Cd is one example of how to compliment any Canadian History curriculum to meet the needs of varying learners. Incorporating fun songs with memorable tunes which can be played in a group setting, involve singing along, dancing, or any other form of movement.

Without always realizing it, we are constantly engaging our five senses to learn. In my opinion, the best way to engrain anything to your long term memory, is to use them all! Think about when you tasted 'apple pie'(or insert your favourite food here) for the first time. You smelled it baking. You saw the steaming golden crust smothered with a melting mound of vanilla ice cream. You heard the snap of the flaky crust as you picked a piece with your fingers. And finally tasted the sweet, warm mouthful of Heaven.....

It's committed to memory, right? You'll never forget that experience because you engaged all of your senses. It's the same for learning history! It's fun to create learning experiences for your students to help them commit information to their long term memory.

Read about the exciting events in Canadian history, create fun activity sheets and games, sing some Canadian History Songs and take your students on a field trip. Great sensory activities that will commit the experience to memory, while generating a life-long interest in learning!