The Explorer Song Project
The European Explorer Song Project
By Zach Narcotta
The "Explorer Song" is a project in Mrs. Sayward's 5th Grade Social Studies class. All of the kids in our class were assigned into groups of three or four people, but everyone in the group had to write their own song, instead of the whole group writing a song together. The twist to the "Explorer Song" project was we were assigned a list of pre-selected songs to choose for our project, but we had to write our own lyrics! The class was given three to four weeks to complete their song. The time these explorers lived was in the 14th and 15th century. Why did we do this project you might ask? We did the project as a fun and creative way to learn about explorers of the seas.
My groups explorer was named John Cabot. What's funny is that his original name was actually not John Cabot. It was John Caboto. But when he moved to England in 1490, he changed his last name, Caboto, which was an Italian name, to Cabot, which was an English name. His claim to fame came while on an expedition in 1497. He thought that he found India, when in fact, he may have been one of the first people from England to step foot in what is now modern day Canada. "If You're Happy and You Know It," was the song that I picked for my project. I chose that specific song because it is one of the most known kids songs around the world, and I thought that it would be fun and interesting to take that kind of worldwide song, and turn it into a Social Studies project. I came up with the lyrics for my song by changing the original "If you're happy and you know it" into "If you're sailing and you know it," and then adding more facts about Cabot and his explorations.Overall, I personally really enjoyed this assignment, and thought it was clever as well as creative. I learned so much about a person I hardly even knew! How amazing!
By Zach Narcotta
The "Explorer Song" is a project in Mrs. Sayward's 5th Grade Social Studies class. All of the kids in our class were assigned into groups of three or four people, but everyone in the group had to write their own song, instead of the whole group writing a song together. The twist to the "Explorer Song" project was we were assigned a list of pre-selected songs to choose for our project, but we had to write our own lyrics! The class was given three to four weeks to complete their song. The time these explorers lived was in the 14th and 15th century. Why did we do this project you might ask? We did the project as a fun and creative way to learn about explorers of the seas.
My groups explorer was named John Cabot. What's funny is that his original name was actually not John Cabot. It was John Caboto. But when he moved to England in 1490, he changed his last name, Caboto, which was an Italian name, to Cabot, which was an English name. His claim to fame came while on an expedition in 1497. He thought that he found India, when in fact, he may have been one of the first people from England to step foot in what is now modern day Canada. "If You're Happy and You Know It," was the song that I picked for my project. I chose that specific song because it is one of the most known kids songs around the world, and I thought that it would be fun and interesting to take that kind of worldwide song, and turn it into a Social Studies project. I came up with the lyrics for my song by changing the original "If you're happy and you know it" into "If you're sailing and you know it," and then adding more facts about Cabot and his explorations.Overall, I personally really enjoyed this assignment, and thought it was clever as well as creative. I learned so much about a person I hardly even knew! How amazing!