The Weather & the Seasons Level: Key Stage 1 - Introductory

Guess the time of year in the music! (timbre)

Listen to the music and guess what time of year it is. Yes it's spring time and the birds are singing - I'm sure you'll bear the cuckoo, and several other twittering birds! Ask the children for hands up (silently) every time they hear a bird in the music.

The music is the Menuet from the Toy Symphony thought to have been composed by Leopold Mozart (the famous Mozart's father). A menuet is a dance from the 17th century. The children can see in the video how the unusual sounds are produced by 'toy' instruments.

Group Composing Activity (timbre, texture, structure)

After listening, the children could make up their own piece of music about Spring, choosing instruments to represent frogs croaking, birds singing and lambs bleating. The word to describe the essential sound that distinguishes one instrument from another is timbre. A basic outline of a structure is always a good idea and this can easily be done in a picture story-board format. Encourage different textures in the music - sometimes one instrument could play on its own (thin texture) and sometimes more than one (thicker texture).