I used this video in my classes to help students learn the -ig word family.
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Gateway Arch National Park and the St. Louis Arch, Missouri: Travels in the USA
(Travelogues--Travels in the USA)
This is video of the Saint Louis Arch, and some of the surrounding area. Our guide told us that the surrounding area and the arch had been designated as one national park--Gateway Arch National Park. We took a guided tour of this area, and because I didn't want to be rude to the guide, I wasn't filming through most of the tour, but I did get some footage of the Old Courthouse (where the Dred Scott case happened). It was crowded at the Saint Louis arch, and I was busy watching my kids, but I got some footage from inside, and filmed the cable car ride going up. And then we also filmed some of the park underneath the arch once we got down.
This is part of my project to document my family's travels in the USA. For more information on this project, see here: https://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2026/07/travels-in-usa-index.html
Related Playlists:
Travelogues Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x71JnPJ1gs_uaswSALX-7V9
Travels in the USA Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSyBwmNz6w5o&si=twqhcTKQk8a0WyoI
Missouri Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGAr6k9_NAfY&si=gTEc6b_31vkq50ws
St. Louis, Missouri Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAmf50xXkm4Q&si=J2OGaffiK4fpOeI7
Monday, July 27, 2026
Saint Louis Zoo, St. Louis, Missouri: Travels in the USA
(Travelogues--Travels in the USA)
The Saint Louis Zoo was absolutely packed with people, and so, in order to minimize filming strangers without their permission, I did my best to try to aim my camera only at the animals and not at the people. The result is that I wasn't really able to document the overall look of the zoo and the walkways, but hopefully this gives some sort of taste of what the zoo is like.
Address: 1 Government Dr, St. Louis, MO 63110
This is part of my project to document my family's travels in the USA. For more information on this project, see here: https://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2026/07/travels-in-usa-index.html
Related Playlists:
Travelogues Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x71JnPJ1gs_uaswSALX-7V9
Travels in the USA Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSyBwmNz6w5o&si=twqhcTKQk8a0WyoI
Missouri Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGAr6k9_NAfY&si=gTEc6b_31vkq50ws
St. Louis, Missouri Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAmf50xXkm4Q&si=J2OGaffiK4fpOeI7
Neighborhood Vocabulary
(TESOL Materials--Places)
Google Docs Folder HERE
[Note: These are all materials that I used to supplement the lesson 22 The Neighborhood p.58-59 from Oxford Picture Dictionary Content Areas for Kids, and the specific choice of vocabulary in the storybook is influenced by that lesson. But I believe this material could also be used independently for any lesson on place vocabulary, so I'm posting it here.]
Target vocabulary: house, apartment building, street, street sign, address,
Sidewalk, corner, streetlight, stop sign, fence, park, bench
Content objective: learn the names of objects in the neighborhood
Language objective: practice spelling and letter sounds
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, Illinois: Travels in the USA
(Travelogues--Travels in the USA)
Also includes some video of the nearby area.
For better or for worse, I wasn't able to capture a lot of the Lincoln Presidential Museum. For a few reasons. There were some other groups going through, and I wasn't able to film some exhibits because other people were in the way. (I didn't want to film anyone else without their permission). Or other people were right behind me waiting, in some cases. Also my kids weren't interested in most of the exhibits, so I was spending a lot of time just trying to keep track of my kids.
There actually were some impressive interactive exhibits at this museum. (One of the museum clerks told me that the museum was designed by the same animatronics people who worked at Disney World.) But my kids were probably just a bit too young for it. This museum would probably be ideal for kids about 10-12 years old.
Address: 212 N 6th St, Springfield, IL 62701
This is part of my project to document my family's travels in the USA. For more information on this project, see here: https://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2026/07/travels-in-usa-index.html
Related Playlists:
Travelogues Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x71JnPJ1gs_uaswSALX-7V9
Travels in the USA Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSyBwmNz6w5o&si=twqhcTKQk8a0WyoI
Illinois Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcfr_SnFEpto&si=H96JxHRaZhO1ULYk
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Kankakee River, Illinois: Travels in the USA
(Travelogues--Travels in the USA)
When travelling down expressway 55, take the exit for North River Road.
This is part of my project to document my family's travels in the USA. For more information on this project, see here: https://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2026/07/travels-in-usa-index.html
Related Playlists:
Travelogues Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x71JnPJ1gs_uaswSALX-7V9
Travels in the USA Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSyBwmNz6w5o&si=twqhcTKQk8a0WyoI
Illinois Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcfr_SnFEpto&si=H96JxHRaZhO1ULYk
We were visiting my parents' place, and my kids started going through their DVD collection to try to find something they were interested in watching. When they saw this movie, they decided to check it out. (They've not seen a lot of original Muppet content, but they are fans of Disney's Muppet Babies).
I had seen this movie once before as a kid. It came out in 1984. I think I saw it on TV once in the late 1980s. I remember it being funny only intermittently, and having a lot of boring slow songs in it.
My kids watched the DVD in the TV room, and I was working on my computer in the neighboring room. As such, even though I wasn't actually watching the movie, I heard much of it coming through the open door. So I'm going to count this as a movie I half-watched.
From what I could hear, the movie was just as boring as I remembered it. And there were a lot of boring songs.
I know this movie got a lot of good reviews when it was released, and is considered a classic nowadays, but to me, this movie is always the epitome of "kids movies that are made to impress the parents, and not the actual kids themselves."
But, you know, to give it a proper review, I'd have to actually sit down and properly watch the whole thing. Until I do that, you'll have to take my opinion with a grain of salt. But from what I could hear through the doorway, it sounded like there were a lot of boring parts in this movie.
My kids didn't actually make it through the whole movie. They got bored and stopped watching halfway through.
****************
I consider myself a Muppet's fan. (Most people of my generation are). But as I wrote in my 2013 review of The Muppets movie:
Actually truth be told, I enter into any Muppet movie with low expectations. Although I have a lot of fond childhood memories of the Muppets, I’ve also been disappointed by them a number of times. They’ve done some good movies over the years, but they’ve also done a lot of bad movies.Even back in their golden age, their original TV show could be very hit or miss. Some of their best sketches could be wildly imaginative, bizarre, or, delightfully subversive. But the show could just as easily suddenly swing into saccharine sweet mode, with an over-reliance on sentimentality and clichéd life lessons. The movies have continued and amplified these flaws.
The Muppets Take Manhattan is for me a classic example of this.
Fred and Ted Go Camping by Peter Eastman
I've already done this story before as part of my Storybooks ESL Listening, but I was doing it for a Kindergarten class recently, and so I found it useful to convert it into another format.
Google Drive Folder HERE
Target vocabulary: many, few, hard easy, asleep awake, early, late, heavy, late, wet, dry, big, little
Content objective: Read Fred and Ted Go Camping for General Understanding
Be able to distinguish between the two characters, and identify their characteristics
Language objective: adjectives for opposities
Million Dollar Quartet: Review of a Stage Play
Background
I saw this stage play at Silco Theatre on July 5th while I was visiting my parents up in Colorado. I've been behind on posting my vacation related stuff, so I'm just posting this now.
I had never heard of this play before, but my dad (who had already seen it once) suggested we go together. He thought it would be a good outing since both of us were interested in old rock and roll music.
Never having heard of this play before, I was completely unfamiliar with the premise. But the premise is based on a fascinating piece of rock and roll trivia. You can read all about it on Wikipedia here. To quote from some of that Wikipedia article:
"Million Dollar Quartet" is a recording of an impromptu jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash made on December 4, 1956 at the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. An article about the session was published in the Memphis Press-Scimitar under the title "Million Dollar Quartet". The recording was first released in Europe in 1981 as The Million Dollar Quartet with 17 tracks. A few years later more tracks were discovered and released as The Complete Million Dollar Session. In 1990, the recordings were released in the United States as Elvis Presley: The Million Dollar Quartet. This session is considered a seminal moment in rock and roll.
...go ahead and read the rest of that Wikipedia article. It's fascinating stuff if you're interested in music history.
And you can also listen to these songs on Youtube.
The stage play, Million Dollar Quartet, is a dramatization of that infamous recording session that first opened on Broadway in 2010. Again, you can read all about it on Wikipedia here. It's what is known as a Jukebox Musical--"a stage musical whose songs are already well known in popular music, rather than part of an original score."
The Review
The appeal of this premise is obvious--Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash all in one room! Who wouldn't want to be in that room and listen to the music that they produce? (*1)
But then, the problem with this premise is equally obvious. It's not really Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. It's just actors portraying them. So who cares what jam session is produced by 4 actors.
And yet, the cast is talented enough, and do such a good job of portraying their respective characters, that pretty soon you start to buy into it. Those men up on the stage really do seem to be Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.
Obviously a lot of this is dependent on the talent of whatever local production you happen to see. But I think the cast at Silco Theatre in Colorado pulled it off.
The playlist of the stage musical appears to be much different than the playlist of the real 1956 session. According to Wikipedia, the actual session "consisted largely of snippets of gospel songs that the four artists had all grown up singing."
In the stage musical, they're mostly leaning into renditions of their greatest hits (Blue Suede Shoes, Walk the Line, Great Balls of Fire, etc.) But there are a couple songs that are in both the real event and stage musical (Peace in the Valley, Down by the Riverside, etc).
But despite the playlist of the stage musical not being 100% historically accurate, the actors throw themselves into the songs with such enthusiasm that it really is a riveting performance.
Sure, you're essentially just watching a cover band. But it's a good cover band.
As you might expect off of a stage play that is based off of a studio recording session, the play is mostly just songs. It's almost like just being at a concert. And yet, there is a little bit of dialogue and plot to hold the thing together.
There are various plotlines and arcs. Carl Perkins is annoyed by the new kid, Jerry Lee Lewis. Elvis is struggling to navigate the pressures of stardom. Carl Perkins is upset that Elvis Presley stole his song Blue Suede Shoes. Etc.
Arguably the main character of the stage play is Sam Phillips, founder and owner of Sun Records, who is struggling to manage his little record company, and hang on to his star musicians, in the face of competition from RCA and Colombia.
I'm going to assume that while perhaps some of this conflicts may have been true historically, these things didn't actually come up at the actual Million Dollar Quartet recording session. (Certainly the Wikipedia article gives no indication). But you expect a stage play like this to take some liberties.
Other Notes
Wikipedia Rabbit Holes
As you've probably noticed already, from the frequent use of Wikipedia links, there's any number of Wikipedia Rabbit Holes you can fall down in the course of researching more about the historical inspiration for this musical.
Who was this Sam Phillips guy? Whatever happened to Sun Records? Not to mention reading all about the Million Dollar Quartet itself. (Lots of interesting stuff is in that Wikipedia article.) And then there's researching and confirming all the different biographical tidbits about the 4 mains themselves that the musical throws out. (Carl Perkins traffic accident, Elvis getting booed at Vegas, etc). And I will confess that after seeing this play, I went down several of those Wikipedia Rabbit Holes, and learned a lot of interesting things. But rather than trying to recount it all here on this blog post, I'll just invite you, dear reader, to have some fun going down your own Wikipedia Rabbit Holes, if you are so inclined.
An Elderly Audience
The audience at the showing I went to was an older crowd. I think I was one of the few people present who was under 70. Several of them needed assistance walking. There was a bit of excitement right before the show when one old woman lost her footing and fell to the ground as she was walking down the aisle to her seat. (Several people had to help her up. She ended up being alright.)
Now, some of this may be because these days older people tend to patronize the theater much more than younger people just in general.
But it's also not hard to imagine that the nostalgia for the 1950s music was a big factor in bringing out this older crowd.
There was a prologue to the play in which an announcer talked about how this music was considered dangerous and rebellious back in its day, and how a lot of adults disapproved of the music. The old people in the audience laughed knowingly, and several of them laughed and raised their hands when the announcer asked if any of them had listened to rock music that their parents had disapproved of. The old guy sitting in front of me yelled out that he had been corrupted by rock music.
Later, in the show, most of them were out of their seats dancing along to the songs.
It made me think about what a funny thing aging can be. Here were a bunch of old people who are at the point in their lives when they should be authority figures to younger people. (And no doubt most of them are.) And yet, somewhere inside them, they are still the rebellious 15 year-old who listens to the rock and roll music that their parents disapproved of.
(But I shouldn't be talking about these "old people" as if they are a different species from myself. At this point, I'm only a couple years shy of 50, and I have quite a few gray hairs on my head.)
The Sound of the Music
I suspect I'm not the first person to notice this, but 1950s music can be a strange thing to pin down. When you listen to it on the radio, it sounds really tame. It seems sometimes difficult to imagine that there was ever a time when this music could have appealed to teenagers.
But then, when you listen to recreations of 1950s music, it often has a hard edge and an energy that the original seems to lack. Compare, for instance, the original Great Balls of Fire song with the recreation of that same song from the 1989 movie. The movie version kind of sounds more exciting, right?
Or for another example, take the 1994 Beatles Biopic Backbeat. The movie versions of all of those songs are much more raw and energetic than the original Beatles versions. And it's not just your imagination. According to Wikipedia,
Due to the film's focus on the early days of the band, the soundtrack includes no songs written by members of the Beatles but various songs the group performed in Hamburg, written and recorded by other artists. In this respect, rather than re-create the sounds of the period, iconoclastic, rebellious musicians were recruited (as a producer noted, the Beatles' pre-recording stage act was "the punk of its day") to better convey the way the music was appreciated by audiences of the time.
I guess the point is that often covers of old 1950s (and early 1960s) songs make these songs sound a lot more hardcore than the original.
And so it seemed to me with the play Million Dollar Quartet. It seemed that their renditions of the 1950s songs were a lot more rocking than the original songs themselves.
I discussed this with my dad on the drive back, whether or not the original songs sounded as rocking as the stage play made them sound. My dad pointed out to me that the original songs were often hampered because they were only recorded in mono, and so the sound couldn't really come alive the way that later songs did.
I don't know--let me know what you think in the comments. Were 1950s songs just a bit tamer than modern music? Or was the rawness and energy of the original performance smothered by the recording technology of the time?
Footnotes
(*1) Although as a sidenote, I have to say that historically, collaborations between famous musicians are often disappointing.
The Bleeding Heart album (the collaboration between Hendrix and Jim Morrison) was awful.
The Dylan & the Dead album was disappointing.
I'm not a big fan of The Traveling Wilburys (although granted some people like them.)
The John Lennon and Chuck Berry collaboration was nothing special.
And, not to get too far ahead of my review, but if you listen to the actual tracks produced by the real Million Dollar Quartet, it's nothing special, is it? I mean, the idea of these 4 guys all in a room together is really cool. But the actual music produced is hardly valuable in and of itself.
I guess the lesson is that just because a bunch of musicians are individually successful as solo artists, it doesn't mean they're going to mesh well with each other in a group.
But am I overlooking a collaboration that was actually great? Let me know in the comments.
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