Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Paddle To the Sea - a CLASSIC film shown to us in elementary school

Canoe toy is carved in Northern Canadian and "launched"

It's adventure is followed....

The 1966 film version seen here was eventually nominated for an Academy Award two years later in 1968, for Best Short Film, because it was so beautifully done by the director - Canadian naturalist, master canoeist, artist and filmmaker Bill Mason.
We all were shown this film in 2nd grade!! Not just my school but MANY schools. Must have been part of the official school program around the Midwest?

A cabin in the woods....
I saw this film in Lamar Elementary school in El Paso Texas when I was in the 2nd, and 3 grade in 1972-73.
Wow - part of the US educational program?

Prominent Chickadee song in the snow... as Spring starts - the Chickadees start mating songs.
Wonderful! I remember as a boy watching this on a film projector at the local nature center, and numerous times in elementary school in Michigan during the 80s.
...
 From 1966 until probably the late 70s, this film must have been shown in just about every Elementary School in Canada, and I can only guess at how many souls it touched, for it was this story that first introduced me to the mystical power and presence of the Great Lakes - as unique a biome as there ever was, this great used and abused and sublimely beautiful liquid heart of the continent. I am a native British Columbian, and yet this film began for me what is a near obsession with Central Canada.
 ..............
playing a Paddle to the Sea song at the park - vid
 The Township of Nipigon, ON has a Paddle to the Sea Children's Park!
 Bagpipe at Paddle to the Sea park vid

 Paddle to the Sea Park - Nipigon Ontario video

A reading of the book - as a video

Woodcarving "My Paddle to the Sea" - short film inspired by the other film

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