Ourselves & Our Friends Level: Key Stage 1 - Introductory

Hello Everyone at Forton School! (pitch, structure)

Meet the Key Stage 1 children of Forton School! Singing makes a good starting point because it's a core activity in music and a useful vehicle for teaching important skills such as tapping a pulse and clapping a rhythm. This was our very first song in the very first session and there were one or two things to sort out - keep watching because there's a huge transformation! Some of these children have potentially good voices, as you will hear once they understood what was needed.

My main priority was to establish how to sing with a good sound, using Mrs Crocosaurus's advice. The song is called Hello Everyone and I'm teaching it using First Me, Then You. Simply asking kindly for singing that is in tune and not too loud brings about a huge difference that I'm able to praise! Similarly, when we were tapping the pulse on knees, I asked the children to keep in time with me - and they did. Asking children to watch helps them to co-ordinate their movements with what they see, and to associate the movements with what they hear.

• Hello everyone, how are you?
• Hello everyone, how are you?
• Hello everyone, how are you?
• How are you today?

Hello Everyone, with Actions (structure)

Doing More Actions

The children can learn about the structure of the song by doing actions, or a dance, to it. Doing a different movement to each line of the song helps the children to understand the four-line structure, and also that each action may be done four times to go with the pulse and with the length of the phrase. The children need to be in pairs, in a circle, facing their partner.

• Hello everyone, how are you? - shake hands with your partner (4 shakes)
• Hello everyone, how are you? - 4 pat-a-cakes with your partner
• Hello everyone, how are you? - Shake hands with your partner
• How are you today? - wave to your partner (4 movements)

Alternative Actions

Divide the class into two halves (you don't need exactly equal numbers). Either outside or in the school hall, Group 1 stands at one end of the space, facing Group 2 at the other end.

• Group 1 sings - Hello everyone, how are you? - wave to Group 2
• Group 2 sings - Hello everyone, how are you? - wave to Group 1
• Everyone sings - Hello everyone, how are you? - clap in time
• Everyone sings - How are you today? - bow to the other group

Help a Friend Day (PSED link)

You could have a day when every child is allocated a particular friend or family member to help for the day. Then you can sing this song to the same tune as Hello Everyone:

• Hello everyone, how can I help?
• Hello everyone, how can I help?
• Hello everyone, how can I help?
• How can I help today?

Introducing Luchia, our singer!

I'd like you to meet Luchia Law next, the singer on virtually all the solo audios. Here she is performing Button Factory Joe and, in case you are wondering how she can do all those actions at the same time, you may like to know that Luchia is also a dancer! Most of the songs lend themselves to mime, which you can see Luchia doing here. Mime is great fun, it helps with understanding the meaning and character of a song and the children can do it with, or without, singing the words.

Button Factory Joe Activity

Children love to learn to say this, along with doing the actions - they could make a start by watching the video and copying the actions. You may need to bring to the children's attention that Luchia is saying the words and doing the actions in time with the pulse of the music, introducing the phrase, 'backing track', meaning pre-recorded accompaniment.