Learning from Music and Dance

Suggested Activities

In this challenge, students explore how music and dance reflect aspects of Inuit, Acadian and prairie culture. Provide students with an opportunity to listen to music from one of the communities, for example, Acadian music by contemporary groups such as Blou, Grand Derangement and Barachois. Read the group's biographies to learn how their Acadian culture has influenced the type of music they play. Draw attention to the colourful costumes and the different types of musical instruments used. As students listen to the music or watch video tapes of dances, ask them to think of how it makes them feel and what ideas they have about the people who would create and perform this music. For example, do the words and music make them happy or sad, quiet or excited. If feasible, collaborate with the music teacher to teach students to recognize the traditional features of each community's traditional music (e.g., Acadian use of the jaw's harp, fiddle music and percussion instruments such as spoons and tapping feet). Invite students to create a similar sound and teach them a traditional dance.