The Weather & the Seasons Level: Key Stage 1 - Skills & games

Frosty Snowball (pulse)

This is a passing-in-time game in which the children pass the 'snowball' on the strong beats, which sound like the most important words, like this:

FROSTY snowball, PASS it on ... and ... Get RID of the frosty SNOWball.

It helps to pat knees on the strong beats before you begin passing the snowball round. Perhaps a fluffy, white ball might be more convincing as a snowball?

We've Got It!

The children are starting to pass in time with the music here.

Spring Summer Autumn Winter music (timbre, pulse, rhythm)

In a circle, first everyone chant the words: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter lots of times, walking on the spot, in time, as you chant. Next, divide the group into four. Each group is allocated a season and plays sounds in time with their season, as everyone chants:

• Spring - rattle a tin containing rice, once
• Summer - click two wooden paintbrushes together, twice
• Autumn - tap a plastic cup with a plastic spoon, twice
• Winter - bang two metal spoons together, twice

The children will need to practise keeping in time and making their sound only when it's their turn, in time with the chanting.

Group work with instruments (timbre, pulse, rhythm)

In groups of four, the children swap their 'found sound' for an instrument eg:

• Spring - scraper
• Summer - drum
• Autumn - claves
• Winter - shaker

Now they take it in turns to play just their sound with a steady pulse but no chanting. Draw attention to the different timbres (sounds) made by the instruments compared with the found sounds.

Keeping a Steady Pulse

You'll need to remind the children to keep a steady pulse - by now they will be starting to grasp the concept of 'steady pulse'. Here's an example of children playing with a steady pulse:

Below is an example of children playing the same instruments in the same order but without a steady pulse. You could ask the children which of these two performances has a steady pulse (closed question - it's the first one) and which they prefer (open question - it's their opinion).

Cross curricular Activity (art)

The children could next have fun making colorful graphic representations of the music. In groups, they make four really big, wax crayon pictures or paintings: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Put them up on the wall in order, with the 'found sound' instruments on a shelf or table underneath the matching picture.

Picture by kind permission of Jane Hayes