Music: Blog items
Date: 27th Sep 2022 @ 7:24pm
As we continue our unit Dancing Through the Ages, we have looked at some common dance moves from the HipHop genre and created our own motifs in time to the music. We tried to work at different levels, in unison and in canon so that we could add some interesting dynamics to the dance routine. We had to negotiate and work together as a team to create our motif and perform it to the rest of the class.
Date: 23rd Sep 2022 @ 4:12pm
Throughout Autumn term, we will be exploring the key question 'How does Music help us to make friends?' So far, we have listened to two contrasting pieces of music- Music is in my Soul and Bolero. We have practised keeping the beat of these songs and thought about what we liked and disliked about them. During our music sessions, we have been learning to sing the song 'Music is in my Soul' and have practised the chorus and first verse trying to keep in time with each other as well as sing in tune. Lastly, we have been improvising to the song using the glokenspiels which has been lots of fun!
Date: 7th Sep 2022 @ 8:05pm
Our first PE unit in Year Two is a dance unit themed around Minibeasts. We had a great first session today, we discussed different types of minibeasts and how they might move. We then shared our ideas to music. We tried to incorporate movement on different levels and we then worked together to create a motif to the count of 16. We displayed fantastic team work, moving together and sharing ideas.
Date: 23rd Jun 2022 @ 5:23pm
Nursery have loved exploring music outside this week and the music wall has been well used! The children have been tapping beats, playing the bells and noticed the different sounds you get when you use wooden and metal beaters on the instruments. Did you know if you tap the bottom of a drain pipe with a flip flop you get a wonderful deep sound and an upside down bucket makes a brilliant drum!
Date: 20th Jun 2022 @ 12:20pm
Today, Year 6 began their new music journey. We started by recapping on musical terminology so that we could correctly use it to listen and appraise the song 'Heal the Earth'. The song was in the style of Reggae and was about how climate change is affecting our planet more than ever before. The lyrics explained how we can work together to solve some of these issues.
Date: 20th Jun 2022 @ 7:43am
In this unit, we ask ‘How Does Music Connect Us with the Environment?’ as an entry point for the broad Social Theme of ‘Music Is a Nature Lover and Guardian of the Earth’. We will look at how this links to other subjects and learning in school such as nature, environment, animals, Geography, Science, Art, Forest School, climate change etc. We began our first lesson by listening to the song ‘You and Me’ and decided that this was Pop music. We discussed similar songs and artists from this genre and why we like or disliked this piece. We then began looking at the structure of the song ‘You and Me’ and began learning the chorus – we know this to be the ‘catchy’ part or the hook and we started to practice the first verse and chorus.
We can't wait to use the Recorders in the next few weeks and create our own piece of music!
Date: 19th Jun 2022 @ 4:58pm
Last half term, our Music unit explored how Music can make us happy and want to make us dance. Throughout the unit, we listened to and appraised lots of music including: I wanna play in a band, the themetune from E.T, Music is all around, Moon and River as well as Saying sorry. Whilst appraising the music we thought about how different styles of music can make different people happy and some songs have a good, bouncy rhythm that makes us want to dance. We also learnt the lyrics to a range of these songs and enjoyed performing them vocally as well as using the glokenspiels to perform the music. The children particularly enjoyed the lyrics to Saying sorry which was our favourite to perform but we also enjoyed revisiting I wanna play in a band as we covered this in the Autumn term.
Year 6 - Chords and structures in Music
Date: 25th May 2022 @ 4:44pm
In Music this week we have looked the unit 'Chords and Structures. This involved listening and responding to the three songs 'Wake Up', 'Down by the Riverside' and 'We Shall Overcome'. As we listened to the lyrics we realised that they all had a similar theme that linked with equality and Black Lives Matter. We were also able to compare and contrast the songs and discuss key elements such as tempo, dynamics, structure, texture etc. To finish the unit, we played the glockenspiels to the song 'Down by the Riverside' and began to improvise and compose our own music.
Date: 8th May 2022 @ 6:42pm
This week in music we got the glockenspiels out! After warming up and finding the pulse of a song we then started breaking down the different verses of 'Train is A-Comin' and the different notes used. At first, this proved to be quite hard becuase the tempo was extremely fast and there were a lot of notes to remember. After some perseverence and a slower tempo, we began to get the hang of it and performed really well! Looking forward to the next one!
Year 1 Having Fun with Improvisation
Date: 8th May 2022 @ 10:08am
In Year 1 this half term we are going to be exploring improvisation through the key question, 'What songs can we sing to help us through the day?' Our song for our first lesson was called 'Getting Dressed.' Through our understanding music task we practised finding and keeping a steady beat and copying simple rhythmic patterns using long and short notes. We then listened and appraised the song, before singing together as a group and having fun! We stood up straight to focus on our breathing, moved to the music and created actions for the song! We also then used the glockenspiels to play the notes C, D and E with the song we were performing.
Date: 6th May 2022 @ 12:35pm
This week in Reception the children have been learning a new song about 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and used instruments to keep a steady beat. We also learnt a song aboiut Peter Rabbit and added actions for his curly tail and floppy whiskers. We used the claves to play syllables in a phrase to say goodbye.
Date: 1st Apr 2022 @ 4:21pm
Over the last few weeks, we have thoroughly enjoyed learning to sing the song 'The Music Man'. We took it in turns to be groups A and B as to who sang the main verse and who did the Echo of 'What can you play?' After we had practised singing and performing the song, we got the glokenspiels out and played notes A, C, D, E and F. This was a difficult skill to look at the board and try to play the glokenspiels but we persevered and we were getting better with each practise.
Date: 7th Feb 2022 @ 5:37pm
This half term we have been focusisng on using our imagination to compose and perform pieces using insturments and our voice. We have enjoyed listening to a wide rang of pieces and discussing what we think about each piece and if we can find key musical elements such as pitch, pulse, tome, tempo and the dynamics.
Reception Chinese New Year Celebrations!
Date: 4th Feb 2022 @ 4:31pm
This week we have been celebrating Chinese New Year!
We decorated our home corner and made Chinese lanterns and dragons. The children learned the skill of folding paper into a concertina and attaching a handle and sticks to their work. Ribbon dancing, fan dancing and dragon dancing was enjoyed by everyone and we read The Chinese New Year Story (how the new year animals were chosen) and wrote about our facvourite animal from the story. This year it is The Year of the Tiger!
Date: 28th Jan 2022 @ 4:57pm
The classrooms in Reception are alive with the sound of music!
Each week the children enjoy singing along to their favourite songs and playing a range of instruments-. This week they sang a a phase 3 letter sound song, played a congo drum to keep a steady beat and used polar animals to make a pattern song.
Take a look at what they have been doing.
Date: 27th Jan 2022 @ 6:56pm
This week in Music, Year 6 have been using glockenspiels to improvise. After finding the pulse in the piece of music, we listened and responded to musical patterns - first by clapping and then by playing the notes on the glockenspiels. Finally, we improvided using the notes from the piece.
Date: 25th Jan 2022 @ 8:47pm
This half term, Year Two our Musical focus is exploring feelings through Music discussing how it makes us feel and how music makes the world a better place.
So far, we have studied a song called 'Rainbows' which is a song about Pride and Identity. We discussed what this meant to us as individuals and came to the conclusion it is important that we all respect each other and everyone's viewpoints. We then learnt the words to the song and practiced as a class to perform it as well as learning to play notes E, C and D in time to the song. Each week, alongside discussing the song, singing and playing the Glockenspiel we play games to find the beat and clap rhythmsOver the next few weeks, we will continue to look at more songs and further discuss how music makes the world a better place.
Boundary's in the news: Royal Ballet partnership
Date: 17th Jan 2022 @ 9:36am
Date: 14th Dec 2021 @ 4:52pm
Nursery held a very magical Christmas Sing Along in our Garden. The children practised so hard to learn all the songs and sang their hearts out and danced their socks off!
Date: 9th Dec 2021 @ 7:19pm
In Music today we have been looking at reading sheet music. Over the last couple of weeks we have been studying the different note lengths and names and today we had to use that knowledge to work out the names of the notes in a piece of music. We then used the glockenspiels to play several bars of the music - we managed to keep in time to the beat and together we kept the melody going.
Date: 30th Nov 2021 @ 3:46pm
In music, we have been learning how to play E, D and C notes. We have put them together to play along with a variety of tunes. We have also looked a different musical representations such as minims and crotchets. Today, we used our knowledge to compose our own piece of music with 2 bars of 4. We trialled different improvisations and next week we will transcribe our composition and start rehearsals.
Date: 25th Nov 2021 @ 8:39am
This half-term we have been learning how to code animations and games, using a website called code.org. In this lesson we had to code part of a Minecraft game and could even add sound effects and music to make it more realistic. These skills will help the children as they move through school, as computing skills and coding have become part of our everyday lives. Pupils move from 'block-coding', to 'free coding' and eventually may be able to write their own lines of code.
There's no such thing as a Gruffalo...
Date: 23rd Nov 2021 @ 9:55pm
...or is there? Reception have certainly had lots of fun listening to the story of The Gruffalo! We then painted and collaged him and wrote a list of the food we thought he might like to eat . Also, describing the features of the Gruffalo, through the Gruffalo Song, really helped us remember what he looked like- just in case we ever came across one ourselves!
"Purple prickles down his back" Isaac
"A black tongue, orange eyes and claws" Charlie
"He had horns" Mercedes.
"Green wart at the end of his nose" Evelyn.
Date: 18th Nov 2021 @ 5:55pm
Year 6 have been learning about musical notation this week. We learned how the notes on the treble clef are dislayed and talked about some simple ways to help us to remember them. The notes in the spaces on the staff are FACE - so we remember that using 'FACE in the space'. We spent some time practising reading music using an online program on our class Chromebooks.
Date: 12th Nov 2021 @ 4:15pm
This half term our music lessons are all about Hip-Hop culture, and focus on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, by Will Smith.
This week we listened to and appraised, 'Me, Myself and I' by Del A Soul - discussing the structure and style of the song and comparing it to 'The Fresh Prints of Bel-Air'. We also discussed the term 'pulse' and tried to move to the pulse in the different tracks.
We played a rhythm game, where we had to repeat the pattern created by the leader, and finally practised and performed 'The fresh Prince of Bel-Air' together as a class.
