Author: Arjen

Rocking History: How Sabaton’s Songs Can Transform Your Classroom

Hello amazing teachers!

Are you looking for a fun and engaging way to bring history to life for your students? Meet Sabaton, a Swedish heavy metal band known for their powerful songs about historical events. While heavy metal might not be the first thing that comes to mind for a primary school setting, Sabaton’s music is a treasure trove of educational content that can make learning history exciting and memorable for your students.

Let’s explore how you can use Sabaton’s songs to enhance your history lessons.

Who are Sabaton?

Sabaton is a band that combines heavy metal music with historical storytelling. Their songs cover a wide range of historical events, from ancient battles to modern warfare. With their captivating melodies and dramatic lyrics, Sabaton makes history come alive in a way that’s both educational and entertaining.

Why Use Sabaton in Your Classroom?

  1. Engaging Content: Sabaton’s energetic music can capture students’ attention and make historical events more interesting.
  2. Storytelling: Each song tells a story, helping students to understand and remember historical events and figures.
  3. Discussion Starters: The lyrics can serve as a springboard for discussions about the historical context, causes, and consequences of events.

How to Use Sabaton in Your History Lessons

  1. Song Selection: Choose songs that are age-appropriate and relevant to your curriculum. Some good options include:
    • “Bismarck”: The story of the famous German battleship during World War II.
    • “Christmas Truce”: About the remarkable events and friendships between allied forces and German troops around the trenches during the Christmas truce in WW I.
    • “Aces in Exile”: Highlighting the bravery of foreign pilots in the Battle of Britain.
    • “Carolus Rex”: The story of a Swedish king gone quite crazy.
    • There are others from Africa, Greek history, and much more.
  2. Introduce the Historical Context: Before playing the song, give your students a brief overview of the historical event or figure. This will help them understand the lyrics better.
  3. Listen and Analyse: Play the song for your class and provide the lyrics for them to follow along. After listening, discuss the key points mentioned in the song. Ask questions like:
    • What event or person is the song about?
    • What emotions or themes are present in the lyrics?
    • How does the music reflect the historical event?
  4. Creative Projects: Encourage your students to engage with the content creatively:
    • Drawing: Have them draw scenes inspired by the song’s story.
    • Writing: Ask them to write a short essay or a diary entry from the perspective of a historical figure mentioned in the song.
    • Role-Playing: Organise a role-playing activity where students act out parts of the historical event.
  5. Compare and Contrast: Use Sabaton’s songs alongside traditional history lessons, such as OpenSTEM’s HASS materials. Compare the song’s portrayal of events with historical texts and discuss any differences or artistic liberties taken by the band.

Tips for Success

  • Preview the Songs: Ensure the content is suitable for your students’ age group and comprehension level.
  • Create a Safe Space: Some historical events may be sensitive. Encourage respectful discussions and be prepared to address any tough questions that arise.
  • Encourage Curiosity: Let students ask questions and explore topics that interest them further. Use the songs as a gateway to deeper learning.

Using Sabaton’s music in your history lessons can bring a fresh and dynamic approach to teaching. Your students will not only learn about historical events but also develop a greater appreciation for the power of storytelling through music.

So, crank up the volume and let Sabaton help you rock your history lessons!

Resources

Let’s make history unforgettable for our students!

(this post was created using some information from ChatGPT in addition to our own research)

Covering the federal election, before the election

Since PM Scott Morrison did not announce the federal election date last week, it will now be held somewhere between March and May (see the post from ABC’s Antony Green for details). Various aspects of elections are covered in the Civics & Citizenship Australian Curriculum in Years 4, 5 and 6. Students are interested in topical issues in society and their local community. After all, it’s adults making decisions now about issues that will affect them, and it students feel quite strongly that they should have a say. Guiding that process from within a classroom can be a good thing.

And regardless of what opinions we hold on particular topics, learning how the voting system works, with assistance from free additional resources by the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission), is useful and one might say essential for everyone in our society. With our Election Activity Bundle, you as a teacher (or home tutor) have everything you need to guide this learning process.

Most of the materials can be used in a remote classroom, with the appropriate PDFs and other resources made available to the students – so they are definitely usable in a COVID scenario.

While the “Show of Hands” Activity of course works fine, doing the secret ballot from the “Running a Class Election” Activity is not practical in a remote setting, and that in itself is something that can be discussed with the students, compensating for missing out on actually doing it… what are the issues there?

The activities are of course specifically aimed at the above-mentioned year levels. However, the base resources are suitable for high school students and adults as well!  Everything you wanted to know about preferences, for instance.

So, while planning the latter part of your first school term this year, grab our Election Activity Bundle today, for only $9.

Election Activity Bundle

With the upcoming federal election, many teachers want to do some related activities in class – and we have the materials ready for you!

To make selecting suitable resources a bit easier, we have an Election Activity Bundle containing everything you need, available for just $9.90.

Did you know that the secret ballot is an Australian invention? Well Tasmanian actually.

Children are interested in topical issues in society and their local community. After all, it’s adults making decisions now about issues that will affect our children. And regardless of what opinions we hold on particular topics, learning how the voting system works, with assistance from free additional resources by the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission), is useful. With our Election Activity Bundle, you have everything you need to guide the learning process.

As these topics are covered in the Civics & Citizenship Australian Curriculum in Years 4, 5 and 6 the activities are of course specifically aimed at those year levels. However, the base resources are suitable for high school students and adults as well!  Everything you wanted to know about preferences, for instance.

School-wide Understanding Our World® implementations

Understanding Our World - integrated History/Geography HASS+Science programAre you considering implementing our integrated HASS+Science program, but getting a tad confused by the pricing?  Our subscription model didn’t not provide a So nowstraightforward calculation for a whole school or year-level.  However, it generally works out to $4.40 (inc.GST) per student.  So now we’re providing this as an option directly: implement our integrated HASS+Science program school-wide from just $4.40 per student.  Easy!

Just like with the subscriptions, we do price on the basis of at least 100 students, which means that very small schools see an effective higher cost per student compared to the above stated.  However, we’ve done a few projections and because of composite classes and the like this approach often still works out cheaper than the old subscription system.  Plus, our materials provide for multi-year integration which are a lot of work to achieve.  So you get proper solutions for your education needs, and at an unbeatable price.

Try our calculator with the numbers for your school!

QWERTY 150 years old

Did you realise that QWERTY and typewriters were from that long ago?  I certainly didn’t.  I did grow up in the late era of the typewriter (70s/80s), and I first learnt how to type on a mechanical typewriter.  It was a model with a dual-coloured ribbon (black/red) which I used to good effect for a variety of things.

I still own a “capture the flag” type card game called the Oasis game which I manufactured myself: I typed up the text for each of the cards (in the two different colours, as appropriate), cut them, and put contact on (no laminator). The game is still in pretty good shape, as it is stored in an also home-made card case.  I’ve got proof, I just took a picture of it (below).

Oasis card game by Arjen Lentz

Christopher Latham Sholes
Image credits: George Iles [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
 

Now, back to history… in the 1860s, a politician, printer, newspaper man, and amateur inventor in Milwaukee by the name of Christopher Latham Sholes spent his free time developing various machines to make his businesses more efficient.

One such invention was an early typewriter, which he developed with Samuel W. Soulé, James Densmore, and Carlos Glidden, and first patented in 1868.  The grant date of US patent US79265A is 23 June 1868, thus today is exactly the 150 year mark.  So, happy birthday QWERTY!

Sholes typewriter, 1873
Sholes typewriter from 1873, isn’t it a beauty? (in Buffalo NY history museum)