Land of the Silver Birch

Land of the silver birch,

Home of the beaver,
Where still the mighty moose
Wanders at will.
Blue lake and rocky shore;
I will return once more.
Boom diddy-boom boom,
boom diddy-boom boom,
boom diddy-boom boom boom.

I think it is so important to play and sing Native American songs! Where I live, students don't see Native Americans regularly, so many of them think there are no more Native Americans in the USA! We must remind them of their rich heritage. I play a recording of traditional Native American music. We name the instruments we hear (usually drum and shakers) and the voices: men. This is a good song to play - and eventually show the video. Some Native Americans are dressed in native clothing, and others in street clothes. It's helpful to tell the students (if they don't know any Native Americans personally) that Native Americans look just like we do! 

Pow Wow Music

(I show the kids how well the drum players can play on the steady beat - all together.) Then we add steady beat to drums as we sing the next song. I like using the gathering drum I have - with about 6 students per drum.

Native american from Beth Thompson

The students can add a gathering drum on the beat

This DVD has some good examples of Pow Wow. And, it teaches the kids how to do simple pow wow steps in slow motion. I have the kids put their "bubbles" on and try both the men's and women's dance steps. They are harder than they look!

Here are some youtube videos of pow wow.

Pow Wow

Black Hills Pow Wow

One of my very favorite videos I like to show the kids is:

Spirit - A Journey in Dance, Drums and Song [VHS]

It's a little hard to find, but it looks like Amazon has some - or try a library, ebay or half.com.

Review:

In the 2nd grade world music unit, I teach:

(1) Abiyoyo - South Africa

(2) Mama Paquita - Brazil

(3) Bate Bate - Mexico

(4) Land of the Silver Birch - Native American (USA)

We compare and contrast the songs by language, timbre, tempo, melody, mood, etc. I ask the students to tell a partner which is his/her favorite song and why. (They are encouraged to use some of the words we previously discussed: high, low, fast, slow, names of instruments, type of voice used: man, woman, child.)