<h3>Maestro the Dog's Sleepy Bedtime Story</h3><p>You can download this story (pdf at the start of the unit) to read to the children for a gentle end to the day. The story particularly lends itself to making sounds using body sounds, found sounds or musical instruments. It could also be used as the basis for a school assembly.</p>                                                                    <div class="img img_lrg">        <img class="lazy_img" src="/internal/----/_lrg/Maestro_sleepy_time.png" alt="Maestro Sleepy Time">    </div>

<h3>Maestro the Music Dog and the New Piano</h3><p>This is the story of how Hannah got a new piano for her birthday and Maestro went on an unexpected journey!</p><p>Tell the children you are going to ask them at the end of the story where Maestro went on his adventure and how he got home again.</p>                                                                <div class="video">    <div class="embed">                    <iframe class="lazy_embed" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/146524419?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;color=A2D6BD" allowfullscreen="">            </iframe>            </div></div>                                                                <p>All Maestro the Music Dog materials Â©Music-Playtime: Arts Enterprise Limited</p>                                                                <ul class="simple lyrics">            <li>Original watercolors and story: Sandy Holland</li>            <li>Original music: Peter Noke</li>    </ul>                                                                <h3>Copy Me</h3><p>Later in this unit, the children learn how to play Happy Birthday to You by copying you play it and then the children can help each other to play it. Here, we are practising copying:</p>                                                                <div class="video">    <div class="embed">                    <iframe class="lazy_embed" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/392673318?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;color=A2D6BD" allowfullscreen="">            </iframe>            </div></div>                                                                <h4>On the subject of copying ...</h4><p>Children of this age are just becoming aware of the concept of copying and it's usually associated with cheating, for example copying spellings from another child. In music, we learn a lot by copying others as well as by experimenting with our own ideas and, throughout history, composers have re-used the ideas of other composers.</p>                                                                <div class="video">    <div class="embed">                    <iframe class="lazy_embed" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/399589573?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;color=A2D6BD" allowfullscreen="">            </iframe>            </div></div>

More Maestro the Dog Stories Level: Key Stage 1 - Skills & games

<h3>Sad and Happy Music (pitch, rhythm &amp; links with literacy)</h3><p>This is an activity for groups, pairs or individuals, again using a piano, keyboards or iPads. </p><h4>Sad Music</h4><p> First the children make up some 'sad feelings' words using this a template: </p><ul><li>Feeling ... feeling ...</li><li>Feeling ... feeling ...</li></ul><p>The words chosen by Jack and Nathan rhymed too!</p>                                                                <ul class="simple lyrics">            <li>Feeling sorry, feeling sad</li>            <li>Feeling lonely, feeling bad</li>    </ul>                                                                <p>I asked them to choose notes from this set: A, C, D, E and to play slowly to create sad music. It's a good idea to tell the children that they don't have to use all the notes and that the notes don't need to go up and down in order.</p>                                                                <p>Jack and Nathan experimented with different ways of playing and this was the version they liked best, played on the school piano. Jack played C, D and E and Nathan played the A, which we thought sounded good as the last note.</p>                                                                <audio class="lazy_av" controls="" controlslist="nodownload">    <source src="https://rippleeducation.blob.core.windows.net/media/sad.mp3" type="audio/mp3"></source></audio>                                                                    <div class="img img_sml">        <img class="lazy_img" src="https://rippleeducation.blob.core.windows.net/media/Maestro_van_window.png" alt="Maestro Van Window">    </div>                                                                <h4>Happy Music (also uses pentatonic)</h4><p>For Happy Music, I helped the children to make up a happy rhyme about Maestro the Dog. We thought of some rhyming words first. The notes to choose from this time are any of these: C, D, E, G, A which is a pentatonic (five note) scale. </p><p>The notes can be played in any order and the children don't need to use all of them. I asked them to use some repeated notes (hear them at the end) and to play quickly to make the music sound happy. This Happy Music was made up by Ava and Sophia.</p>                                                                <ul class="simple lyrics">            <li>Happy happy, happy day</li>            <li>Maestro Dog is here to stay</li>    </ul>                                                                <audio class="lazy_av" controls="" controlslist="nodownload">    <source src="https://rippleeducation.blob.core.windows.net/media/happy.mp3" type="audio/mp3"></source></audio>                                                                    <div class="img img_sml">        <img class="lazy_img" src="https://rippleeducation.blob.core.windows.net/media/finding_maestro.png" alt="Finding Maestro">    </div>                                                                <h3><u class="highlight">Tip</u></h3><p>The examples here are by six years olds who have done this sort of work before. When you first start children off making up tunes to words, it's a good idea to restrict how many notes they can play by giving them just two chime bars (eg A and C) - limiting the choice generally produces better work at first.</p>

More Maestro the Dog Stories Level: Key Stage 1 - Cross-curricular activities

Music Lesson Description

Maestro the Dog's Sleepy Bedtime Story