Making your study of Canada for beginner and intermediate ESL come alive is easy with the use of pictures, video and songs. Free Canada calendars depict wheat fields, fishing villages, salmon, Douglas Fir trees, and igloos that perfectly illustrate aspects of the jigsaws in Callan’s Beginner Canada Jigsaws or Callan’s New Canada Jigsaws. I also like to use the video Destination Canada, found in most tourist shops. I show the section of the video related to a given province or territory, either with the sound off and my own narration for lower levels or with the sound on for higher levels.
The song Canada Is, sung by Roger Whittaker, works as a great reinforcement of what students have learned in a Canada unit. Students will recognize that the song would not make a lot of sense to them before they studied Canada in your class, helping fuel a sense of accomplishment. The song’s references to freedom of thought and religion and lack of racism also make for good discussion topics.
I’ve added a free photocopiable handout with a cloze passage for the song to this post. You can find the song on YouTube with the link on the handout. You are welcome to use in your own classroom. Click on either image below to view it large on your computer and/ or download it. Let me know how it works!
