Sandy Hook Fifth Graders Become Explorers

By Tanjua Damon

Fifth graders from Sandy Hook School never actually met the explorers they sang about Monday during Explorers Day, but the research they did offered them information for lyrics.

The students walked from the school to the Sandy Hook Fire Department on their own voyage during which they took center stage to share their research with an audience of peers and parents about particular explorers who helped discover many parts of the world.

Th students sang ballads using some familiar tunes, including “Bingo,” “Three Blind Mice,” “The Adams Family,” “The Brady Bunch,” and “Slim Shady,” about the explorers. The students showed great creativity by changing their research notes into words for the songs that they had to perform.

In the ballads, the students addressed specific information about the explorers that they researched. The songs had information about the early years, education and training, voyages, accomplishments, and any other information.

“It helps them internalize what their research was,” fifth grade teacher Valerie Pachniuk said. “Every student can’t learn about every explorer. It’s in the textbook, but this is a more creative way to learn about explorers.”

The students also created costumes to help them portray the explorers they had researched. Some of the explorers who were researched included Amerigo Vespucci, James Cook, Henry Hudson, Sir Francis Drake, Hernando Cortes, Franciso Coronado, and Ferdnand Magellan.

Part of a ballad sung to the tune of “Slimy Shady” about Magellan went like this: “If you sailed around the world please stand up… Around the world he sailed, around the world.”

The students worked in groups finding information about where the explorers were born, how many voyages they took, and what they discovered. Chuck Brooks and Danny Lawrence researched James Cook.

“I think it was really fun,” Chuck said. “It was hard thinking of the ballad. I think it gave us more ideas.”

All fifth grade students took part in Explorers Day. The students and staff would like to thank the Sandy Hook Fire Department for the use of the fire house to do their presentations.