History Through Song and Stories
Performances for Schools
A Fun Performance of Songs and Stories
for Grades K – 2
A Bag of Songs and Stories
Musician and story teller David DiGiuseppe shares the joy of singing in a delightful presentation of fun songs and humorous stories.
Drawing from the traditional American songbag, he teaches children easy choruses and introduces numerous instruments, including banjo, concertina, accordion, dulcimer, cittern and guitar.
Performance length: 35-45 minutes.
Audience size: classroom to auditorium
Goals
The goals of this performance are to:
- Offer a quality performance which is both entertaining and informative for both students and staff.
- Present songs and stories with introductory narratives which reinforce curricula in geography, history and music.
- Enhance the learner’s understanding and appreciation of southern and North Carolina history.
- Enhance the learner’s understanding of the contributions which diverse ethnic groups have made to North Carolina’s culture.
- Enhance students’ appreciation of traditional music and stories.
- Introduce students to unfamiliar instruments and musical styles
Audience Engagement Strategy
Student participation includes singing on choruses, clapping in rhythm where appropriate, repeating particular lines in stories, and answering questions during a song’s introduction.
Each song in the program is introduced with a relevant narrative. During this introduction, students are often asked questions which relate to their study of history, geography or music.
Every song includes an easy chorus on which the students can sing along. The chorus is taught before or during the song’s performance. In certain pieces, rhythmic clapping is encouraged.
Each story has a few lines which the audience periodically repeats, sometimes with accompanying gestures.