ESL Jigsaws

Make Canada Study Come Alive

Posted by Nancy Callan on 4 November 2013 | 0 Comments

Tags: song, songs for ESL, Canada, citizenship, rights and freedoms, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, intermediate ESL, beginner ESL

Making your study of Canada for beginner and intermediate ESL come alive is easy with the use of some supplemental materials, like pictures, video and songs. Over the years I have collected about 15 images per province or territory from free Canada calendars, depicting such things as 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 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. 

Canada Is, sung by Roger Whittaker, is a song about Canada that 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 to fuel a sense of accomplishment. The song’s reference 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!