Colonial History, Set to Punk Rock

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What do you get when you mix Lower School history with punk rock? A Grade 4 project that took colonial history out of the books and onto the stage.

In Dot’s classroom, this culminating project grew out of students’ study of the Colonial era and the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. Students explored daily life in the colonies, the taxes and events that led to a war for independence, and the ideas that shaped a new nation. They watched parody music videos and Schoolhouse Rock songs that helped inspire their collective creative piece.

In their integrated Language Arts work, each student independently researched a related topic of their choice. They turned that research into expository writing and created newspaper front pages that showed what they had learned about nonfiction text features, including captions, headings, subtitles, visuals, timelines, and charts.

The unit ended with a parody song and music video created in cooperative quartets. Writing to the tune of one of Green Day’s greatest hits, students worked together on original verses about colonial life, the Revolution, founding documents, leaders, and the beginnings of American government. With collage, drawings, and piano accompaniment from music teacher Jonathan Weisbrot, the final project became a creative multidisciplinary project students built together.