Music - Key Stage 1 - Music Playtime

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.

Left, Left!

A chant for remembering left and right, and for practising walking in time. This chant was taught to me by a childhood friend, Ann and we used to chant it while walking to school! The children could first practise copying you as you walk in time saying the words and it's a good rhythmic chant to do outdoors as a playground game or PE warm-up. As you will see from the video, it's a bit of a challenge for some children (and teachers!). Try it in the playground, first on the spot with your back to the children, and then walking in a line, keeping the children spaced out so that the can see your feet.

• Left, left
• I had a good job and I left
• I left because I knew it was right
• Left, right, left

Today I'm going to Meet a Friend

This is sung to the tune of Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush. Even if the children are familiar with the tune, you'll to teach it using Firstme, Then You as in the Hello Everyone Song that I demonstrated in the Introductory Activities section. It's important to listen to whether the children copy the pitch correctly - if they don't, just ask them to really listen and match their voice to yours and they will soon improve. Many children have never been asked to sing in tune and the concept may be new to them.

• Today I’m going to meet a friend
• Meet a friend, meet a friend
• Today I’m going to meet a friend and
• We’ll be friends together.
• Today I’m going to play with my friend
• Play with my friend, play with my friend
• Today I’m going to play with my friend and
• We’ll be friends forever.

Extension - knee tapping

This is a good song for tapping on knees in time to the pulse, which can be done either sitting on the floor or sitting on a chair. Tap on the strong beats, like this:

• To-DAY I'm going to MEET a friend
• MEET a friend, MEET a friend
• To-DAY I'm going to MEET a friend
• And WE'LL be friends to-GETH-er

Find a Friend!

This song has the same tune as This Old Man. The words, They'll be good to you have next-door pitches, moving higher note by note (a scale) so they are a bit tricky to sing in tune. You'll probably need to teach this line slowly and ask the children to listen carefully to whether their voices are finding the right notes.

• Find a friend, say 'Hello!'
• Help to make your friendship grow
• Be good to friends, and they’ll be good to you
• Find new friends, keep old ones too!

African Dance with Friends (rhythm & pulse)

Traditional African dances are led by drums and other percussion instruments. The dancers move in a big circle and the drums tell them what to do by changing from one pattern of sound to another.

Listen and Dance to the Drumming

The children could listen carefully first and put hands up when they hear a change in the drumming then dance freely, changing what they do if they hear the drumming change.

Market Dance (rhythm, structure)

This activity is easier if there are two teachers available, one to organise and demonstrate and the other to play the drum. First you need to teach the actions:

• walking in a big circle
• roly-poly hands above heads.

The Market Dance is danced in a big circle, accompanied by the teacher playing a drum. The best sort is the djembe drum (as in the picture), played with the hands but, if you don't have one, you can use any other sort of drum. Play the rhythm of the words as you say them in your head:

I WENT to buy a BIG blue hat, I WENT to buy a BIG blue hat … over and over again.

This rhythm means 'dance along in time'. The children dance, or walk, round in a big circle. Every so often, give a signal such as blowing a whistle (pre-agreed with the children) that they should stop because you are going to change to a different rhythm. Now play the rhythm of the words:

Diddy DUM, diddy DUM, diddy DUM, diddy DUM ... over and over again.

This rhythm means stand still and do roly-poly hands above your head. After a while, blow the whistle and start the first rhythm again, and so on.

Extension: You could introduce another instrument such as the tambourine, and a third action - maybe sway from side to side.

In Praise of Visiting Dance Companies

I learned the Village Dance during a professional development weekend in an unforgettable session with an African dance company called Lanzel. I later had this company deliver a session at the school where I worked and it was brilliant. It's difficult to over-estimate the value of visiting specialists and I recommend that you organise events like this as often as your budget allows.

Meet Maestro the Dog

Everyone loves Maestro and he's very good at sitting in the middle of the ring, or being passed round in music games. This is the first little song we sing about Maestro in the Early Years activities. We meet Maestro again in the KS1 Christmas Tree unit and in More Maestro Stories.

Alice the Camel (pitch, structure, rhythm, pulse)

Everyone loves this song! You could teach it in a First me, then you way or by playing the recording, and have the children join it initially with the words, Five humps, four humps and so on for each verse. When the children have heard the song a few times they will know it. Later, you can make them laugh by changing the ending to Alice is a hippopotamus, or what ever amuses you!

• Alice the camel had ... five humps
• Alice the camel had ... five humps
• Alice the camel had ... five humps
• So go, Alice, go!

More Alice fun

1. Everyone hold up five fingers for the words, Five Humps, then four for the next verse, and so on.
2. Have five children standing up for verse 1, then one sit down for verse 2, and so on.
3. Give out untuned percussion for the children to play on the words, Five humps, and so on for each verse.
4. The notes for Five Humps, four Humps, and so on, are G E. Choose a child to play G, E on chime bars every time the words are sung.

• Five little ducks went swimming one day
• Over the hills and far away
• The mother duck said, Quack quack quack quack
• And four little ducks came back

Five Little Ducks

A lovely counting song. It helps to keep a visual count of how many ducks for each verse, so that you don't get lost, by holding up a card with the right number of ducks each time. You can invent actions to go with this song too. I've just given the words of the first verse but the song is complete in the audio.

Pass the Animals (pulse)

This game is also in the Early Years Pets and Other Animals unit, but it's worth doing again at KS1 because it's everybody's favourite, as you can see in the video. At KS1, I expect the children to learn to pass the animals in time with the pulse rather than just passing them on when they can 'bear' to part with them! You'll hear me explain this to the children and we start at a slow pace then build up the speed. Notice that the little girl sitting next to me is pretty good at passing in time right from the start. At the end, it all falls apart a bit but it's still good fun!

• PASS the animals ROUND the ring
• ROUND the ring, ROUND the ring
• PASS the animals ROUND the ring
• AND then STOP
• Teacher, sing-song voice: WHO'S got the FROGGY?
• Child, sing-song voice: I'VE got the FROGGY

Singing in Tune

Singing in tune is a skill that develops at different rates in different children. Here's my singing helper, Mrs Crocosaurus who is half crocodile and half dinosaur! When the children are all singing in a group, Mrs Crocosaurus provides a non-accusatory way of gently pointing out that not everyone is singing in tune. It goes without saying, I hope, that the days of teachers telling children they are 'non-singers' are well and truly over. Everyone who can speak can sing but it takes some children longer than others to find their singing voice and to control the pitch to match what they hear.

Incidentally, if you find it difficult to stay in tune, the simple explanation is probably that you don't sing very often! Singing these easy songs will help - honestly! Practise in the car on the way to work (but maybe not on the bus!) and after a few weeks you'll feel much more confident. A lovely way of getting over self-consciousness is to let the children know that you're all in this together and everyone is going to work on singing better in tune - they will love you even more for being honest!

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons (PSED link)

You will need to buy the book before starting these activities. Everyone watch the video first, which makes a good point about not crying over lost things and provides a starting point for rhythm-based activities. The 'rap' parts of the video demonstrate to you how to read those parts aloud.

Before you read the story again (once isn't enough!), every child needs to paint two paper plates to look like big buttons! Have four children to show one of their buttons and, as the buttons pop off and roll away, one child at a time puts their button down until there are no buttons left..

Make a Rap (rhythm, pulse)

The children could, individually, take turns at being a rap star, making the chant into a rap by saying these words rhythmically, in time with the backing track below. It's quite fast!

• My buttons, my buttons, my four groovy buttons
• My buttons, my buttons, my three groovy buttons
• My buttons, my buttons, my two groovy buttons
• My buttons, my buttons, my one groovy button
• No buttons, not buttons ... NO groovy buttons

If you record these you will have an individual record of achievement for each child and you can select one of them for use in the next activity.

Paper Plate Percussion (rhythm, pulse)

Using one of the raps you recorded, everyone could practise patting their paper plate buttons together in time with the pulse. Pat the plates on the strong beats, like this:

My BUTTONS, my BUTTONS, my FOUR groovy BUTTONS

Beat means the same as pulse - the word, 'beat' is used more often in relation to popular music whereas 'pulse' is usually used for classical music.

You can buy a Pete the Cat puppet too!

Our Dog, Fen (timbre, texture, silence)

Fen was my Border Collie and I wrote this poem about him for children to make music to. The music is intended to focus on expressiveness rather than on rhythm or pulse and the activity is easily adaptable to groups or whole classes, to everyone speaking, just individuals speaking, or just the teacher speaking. The process of activities like this is invaluable and the end result is satisfying. Here's Fen!

I'm going to show you a series of videos of the work we did using this poem with a small group. It works just as well with a whole class - you just have more children in each group. In the first video, I'm giving the children the chance to make a whole range of voice sounds at the start of the lesson, to plant the seed of the idea of being expressive according to word meanings.

• When our dog Fen was just a pup
• He used to fetch a ball
• He bounced on chairs
• He ran upstairs
• He jumped over the wall
• But now he's old he's good as gold
• He sleeps the hours away
• I wish that he was young again
• And he'd come out to play
• __
• ©Music-Playtime: Arts Enterprise Limited

The Poem (PSED links, being expressive)

When I showed the photograph of Fen, this led to some discussion of the fact that, in the natural scheme of things, our pets die before we do. Then we practised saying the words expressively. In the future, I'll be able to use the word, 'expressively' and the children will have experienced its meaning. I also did a bit of training in how to behave if you want to play an instrument!

Choosing instruments (timbre)

Next, I asked the children to choose an instrument that would make a good sound for the line of the poem they were going to say. I love the way they considered this instead of just picking one out - notice that Edward says of the instrument he'd picked up, 'I don't think that's quite the right sound'. We had already had a lesson in which I used the word, timbre (the distinctive sound an instrument makes) in relation to this box of instruments but I missed out on the chance to use it here!

A Performance With Instruments (texture)

Do you remember that I praised the children for silence at the start of the lessons? Here I'm applying it to our performance. I think the children did well to keep their instruments quiet until it was time to play, and to stop playing at the end (although we did have a bit of speaking). This was their first attempt at work of this sort so I was very pleased.

Final Performance - Instruments Only! (structure)

Here, the instruments are played without any speaking, so the children need to understand the structure of the music they are making. Again this was a first attempt! If you record the music and let the children listen to it, they can self-assess, make suggestions as to improvements and have another go. This is a good opportunity to use the words timbre, structure and texture.

Donkey Trot (pulse, tempo)

Who would love a donkey as a pet? (I would!) Everyone listen to this music. It's called Donkey Trot, composed by Dulcie Holland and it's played on the piano. Listen again, sitting on the floor and ask the children to copy you as you tap your knees in time. They will copy better if you make big movements and then you can tell them, We were tapping the pulse, in time with the music!

Next the children trot along with the music in a circle, keeping the same distance apart, at a trotting speed (tempo) not galloping! This is a chance for you to use the word, tempo with the children. By the way, have you noticed that when children walk together in a circle they always go anti-clockwise? Moving their feet in time with music is difficult for young children so don't be surprised if they can't do this yet but praise anyone who does and let them demonstrate.

Animal sounds (timbre)

Who can guess which animals are making these sounds? To make the game more fun, pin up six big pictures of the animals around the room - five correct ones (cat purring, dog, pig, cow, birds) and one red herring sheep. The children run to the correct picture when they match the sound, then later say which was the red herring, the one whose sound they didn't hear, and make sheep noises. Remember to say that we can tell the animal noises apart because of their different timbre.

High and Low Pitch

After I'd used the word, pitch with the children several times, I was thrilled to hear India use the term spontaneously to comment on the tune of a song we were singing. Introducing the right vocabulary in context really does promote understanding. I took the opportunity to explore with the children the physical properties of pitch in relation to the xylophone, and left it out so that they could experiment individually after the lesson.

Which dinosaur would make the lowest pitch sound and which would make the highest pitch sound? Bigger things and longer things generally make the lowest sounds and the children can test this out in different contexts, for example using the piano strings or even different sized saucepans that are made of the same material. Boomwhackers are good fun too - they are tuned to specific pitches, just like chime bars.

In my set, the short red one is higher C and the long red one is lower C. It can be a bit confusing at first because the tallest boomwhacker makes the lowest sound and, at first, children can confuse 'tall' (height) with 'high' (pitch)!

Here's an activity that any teacher could do, using a set of chime bars or a big xylophone. It helps the children to understand high and low pitch. Children need plenty of reinforcement about the meaning of high and low pitch as opposed to high and low volume (dynamics) so it's best to be consistent when you use the words loud and quiet for dynamics and high and low for pitch.

The Microceratus Song

This song used ascending, then descending pitch. This dinosaur is sometimes called the microceratops. It helps if the teacher uses hand movements to show where the pitch goes up and where it goes down, with the children copying. You could play it on chime bars or a xylophone to accompany the singing, starting on C. Aim to use the correct terms for these instruments:

• A xylophone has bars made of wood
• Chime bars, metallophones and glockenspiels have metal bars

• A microceratus climbed a tree
• He wanted to be as high as can be
• __
• The microceratus slid back down
• He wanted to be back on the ground

Wish I Had a Dinosaur

This is one of our favourite songs!

• Wish I had a dinosaur
• Wish I had a dinosaur
• Wish I had a dinosaur
• To play with every day
• __
• I don't want a monkey, a mouse or a frog
• I don't want a donkey, a cat or a dog
• __
• Wish I had a dinosaur
• Wish I had a dinosaur
• Wish I had a dinosaur
• To play with every day
• __
• Dinosaur Songs ©Music-Playtime: Arts Enterprise Limited

Extinction Rap (rhythm, pulse)

These rap with body percussion activities are just as easy to do with individual children, with groups or with the whole class. First the children need to practise saying the names of these extinct animals, keeping a steady pulse:

• Auk
• Do-do
• Din-o-saur
• Woo-lly mamm-oth

Next play the backing track below for the children to practise say the words in time to it, making a rap, either in groups or individually. The backing track is the right length for saying the four animal names lots of times and you'll know when you get near the end because there's an extra drum added to the mix. The children will need to practise several times and then you can record their rap and play it back to them. Either you or the children can invent body percussion or practise walking in time on the spot.

The Dinosaurs Escape! (timbre, dynamics)

First, tell this story about dinosaurs escaping from a zoo:

The dinosaurs were very sad that they lived in a zoo. One day the littlest dinosaur had an idea - they would escape! The big dinosaurs roared with laughter at this idea at first, but then they started whispering about how to make their escape. When the day came, the big dinosaurs and the flying dinosaurs let the little ones ride on their backs as they pushed down the walls of their enclosure. The zoo-keepers were angry! The last time we saw the dinosaurs they were happily flying into the sky or running away free!

When you do this with a whole class, pairs or small groups of children could first go to the music corner, with an adult helper, to choose instruments for their part of the story eg the angry zoo-keeper. The children then accompany the story with instruments as the teacher tells it again. If you are doing this with just a group, there is enough time for choosing instruments and experimenting with playing them to fit the story.

Extension Activity (structure, texture)

In small, supervised groups or pairs the children make the sequence of sounds that go with each part of the story, but without the words being said. They really have to think about how the story and the music are structured. I've taken the opportunity here to mention the element of music term, texture in relation to our music.

Alternatively, the children could make up their own story to set to music.

The Dinosaurs Escape Again! (tempo, pitch, timbre)

First the teacher explains that the music is about dinosaurs escaping from their zoo and the children listen quietly.

Things to talk about after listening

The questions are followed by suggested answers, but do accept all answers as valid:

Q - Does this music sound as if the dinosaurs are running away? Why do you think that?

• Low pitch notes could be the big dinosaurs.
• The tempo (speed) is quite quick.
• The tune sometimes sounds like 'running'.
• Short, jumpy notes (staccato notes) make it sound lively.

Q – Was the music the same all through or did it change?

• It changed - can the children describe in what way?

Q - Did you hear drums in the middle part and near the end? (Listen again and 'hands up' when you hear them)

Q - Do you think there was any danger for the dinosaurs or for the people? Which part of the music sounds scary? Raise hands when you think it's scary!

Q - Do you think they made their escape?

• The high pitch notes at the end sound hopeful!

Let's Do Dinosaurs!

Dinosaur Models (art & craft)

Use cardboard boxes and tubes then paint your monster green.

Fun Dinosaurs Facts (science)

Story Book (literacy)

Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs – Mo Willems ISBN: 9780062104182 Publisher: Harper Collins

Who's in Your Family?

The point of the song is that we have all sorts of different families and that pets may be included too. I like children to use their solo sing-song voice without feeling unselfconscious so I never correct the pitch of the singing in this context. This was the first attempt, as you might have guessed!

My Granny Gave Me (rhythm, pulse, literacy link)

This is an alphabet game that can be played on successive days, choosing new letters each day. This game works well as an activity for a groups of three to five children but you could also do it in a big circle with the whole class if the children take turns. The children in the group take turns to say, 'My granny gave me a ....' so, before the game can start, ask for ideas about what granny 'gave me' and make sure every child has their phrase ready. Straight after the word such as Anteater, everyone in the group claps its rhythm then the next child continues with their words, without a pause. You may like to start with only three things that granny gave me, and then build up to four or five. The words needs to be rhythmical so tap the pulse on knees or use a drum to keep the pulse. After all the children in the group have said what granny gave them, they all say, 'And that's all!'

• Child 1 - My granny gave me an Anteater (clap clap clap)
• Child 2 - My granny gave me a Bear (clap)
• Child 3 - My granny gave me a Cam-el (clap clap)
• Child 4 - My granny gave me a Duck (clap)
• Child 5 - My granny gave me an El-e-phant (clap clap clap)
• Child 1 - My Granny gave me an Anteater (clap clap clap), Child 2 - bear (clap), Child 3 - Cam-el (clap clap), Child 4 - Duck (clap), Child 5 - El-e-phant (clap clap clap)
• Everyone - And that's all!

Mary Jones (dynamics, tempo, pitch, structure, texture)

I especially like the way in which the poem shows that children that old people were once young and vigorous, and have a wealth of experiences to share! First of all, teach the children the poem. We may be talking about someone the age of the children's great gran, since Mary is supposed to be really old! This is another chance, after doing a similar activity in the Animals unit, to make music up that reflects moods and movements. The spiral nature of the music curriculum suggests that it's good practice to build on previous musical experiences to enhance creativity, improve skills and further understanding.

• Mary Jones is old now - group 1 (untuned percussion)
• She's sleeping in her chair
• __
• But when she was a young girl - group 2 (untuned percussion)
• She rushed round everywhere
• __
• Mary was a dancer - group 3 (untuned percussion)
• The star of every show
• __
• She climbed the highest mountains - group 4 (tuned percussion going low to high pitch)
• __
• Went skiing in the snow - group 5 (tuned percussion going high to low in pitch)
• __
• Mary Jones is old now - group 6 (untuned percussion)
• She's wiser than you know
• __
• ©Music-Playtime: Arts Enterprise Limited

Divide the class into six small groups then allocate each group a line (or two) of the poem, as shown. Each group has supervised music corner time to choose from a selection of instruments to represent their part of the poem to create the right mood.

Some instruments could be played on their own (thin texture) and some played at the same time (thicker texture).

Do a class performance of the poem, saying each line (or two) then playing the instruments that represent it. Record the performance and let the children appraise using Two Stars and a Wish (what were two good things and what could be improved?). Finally, have another go, incorporating the improvements.

Put it All Away!

Just a reminder that it's the children's responsibility to put the instruments away. Here's a fun way to do it!

A Family of Geese

Geese have families too! Here's a piece for the children to march in time to, either on the spot or round the hall. It's called March of the Geese by the composer Kaneda, played on the piano.

Dance All Around the Room

Who likes dancing in your family? Here's an action song that I made up with Luchia's help. The children do tiptoe movements for the words 'Dance all around the room' and then the other actions, as in the words. If you don't want to have the children dashing around the hall, they could each dance in their own individual hula-hoop. You could either play the track or sing the words and I hope you are going to demonstrate all the actions!

• Dance all around the room
• Turn around, turn around
• Wave your hands up in the air
• Then touch the ground
• __
• Dance all around the room
• Turn around, turn around
• Clap your hands, touch your head
• Then touch the ground
• __
• Dance all around the room
• Turn around, turn around
• Then do a jumping jack
• Then touch the ground
• __
• ©Music-Playtime: Arts Enterprise Limited

Dance or March? (pulse)

If you can walk easily in time to music it's probably a march but if it seems you would need three legs to walk in time it's probably a 3 time dance, like a waltz. (Of course there are also plenty of dances in 4 time, like the tango, where the steps go in fours).

March - First you put the children into pairs and they take it in turns to make a sound, regularly like clockwork:

clap - stamp - clap - stamp - clap - stamp.

Dance - Put the children into threes and now they make a different sound each, regularly like clockwork. Make sure there is no gap in the sound after woo by varying which word the children begin with (sometimes start with stamp or woo instead).

clap - stamp - woo - clap - stamp - woo - clap - stamp - woo

George Meets the Orchestra! (timbre)

The Orchestra is one big musical community made up of smaller families of instruments. Many children of this age will never have seen an orchestra or heard the instruments play separately but this video demonstrates and explains in an immediately engaging way. And you'll LOVE George!

Which Families? (maths link)

Which families do the children belong to? Venn Diagrams are a simple way of showing who is a member of which family group, for instance:

• children
• children with long hair
• children with long hair, wearing red today

Represent this in music too using body sounds! In a circle:

• all children - walk on the spot
• children with long hair - walk and also clap their hands
• children with long hair, wearing red – walk, clap and say the words, wearing red, wearing red.

(If the school has a uniform you'll obviously need to change 'wearing red' to something different.)

Clocks Families (language and literacy link)

Everyone say this poem rhythmically, getting louder and louder:

• Little clocks have quiet ticks
• The clock on the wall is louder
• Grandfather clock has a loud tick tock
• He's bigger and he's prouder

Make a clock (art and craft link)

This is what you need:

• one white paper plate and one coloured plate
• draw dots on the coloured plate as a guide to where the numbers will go
• foam numbers
• a dark marker or permanent marker pen
• glue stick
• coloured paper

How to make the clock

• Glue the two plates together one on top of the other, so the white plate makes an outer rim and the clock face is coloured.
• Stick the numbers on the clock face in the proper places.
• Optionally, write out the minutes with the marker.
• Cut out the hour and minute hands and fasten them to the centre of the plate with a paper fastener.

Music While You Work

Listen while you work to The Viennese Musical Clock from the Hary Janos Suite by Kodaly.

Learn the Dance (structure)

Learning the clock dance is great fun and it's a good way of explaining the structure of the music through movement.

Playing Twinkle Twinkle Christmas Star

Playing 'by ear' is something that all children can try and most will be successful, with a bit of help, at playing songs they know well. I like to do a Christmas version on this song (words below). I love the way that children are so pleased to help each other to play tunes and the 'teacher' child gains as much benefit as the 'pupil'. This is an ideal song to learn to play because it's easy to play and remember if you start on C.

• Twinkle twinkle Christmas star
• Way up high is where you are
• Shining bright for us to see
• On the top of the Christmas tree
• Twinkle twinkle Christmas star
• Way up high is where you are

Maestro the Music Dog

I composed this song specially for the Maestro units so it's also included in the More Maestro Stories section. When you teach it, watch out for correct pitching in the first two lines, which are a bit tricky to begin with. The clapping, the drum playing and the claves playing may be done first by the teacher or by one child, then imitated by a group of children, depending on how many instruments you have. Claves are sticks of wood that are hit together so they are simple to make by sawing up a long, smoothly-rounded piece of wood into same-size pieces and smoothing off the ends with sandpaper

• Maestro the Music Dog
• Come out to play
• All your friends are waiting
• And it's a lovely day
• Maestro the Music Dog
• What can you do?
• I can clap my hands
• Can you clap yours too?
• (teacher claps hands ... children imitate)
• __
• verse 2 similar, with ending: I can play a drum
• Can you play it too?
• __
• verse 3 similar, with ending: I can play the claves
• Can you play them too?
• __
• Song ©Music-Playtime: Arts Enterprise Limited

All Maestro the Music Dog materials ©Music-Playtime: Arts Enterprise Limited

Pass the Christmas Bells (pulse)

Passing games are great for practising feeling the pulse of music - that's why I've included several. For this game and you just need one set of jingle bells, like Charlie in the video. Everyone sits in a circle and you all chant the words steadily - it's important that you and any other adults also sit in the circle and join in. On the words in CAPITALS, everyone taps their knees. Knee tapping is easier for children to manage in time than clapping hands, and it's clearer to demonstrate too.

• PASS the Christmas BELLS
• TAP your knees TOO
• MAKE the bells JINgle when they
• GET TO YOU!

The bells are passed round and the children all tap their knees except when they are passing the bells (this does work!). The child who has the bells on the words GET TO YOU jingles the bells, then you begin again. Before y0u start again, say 'Ready!' so you can all begin at the same time.

Compose a Christmas Song! (pulse, rhythm, pitch)

Here's an easy way to make up a song.

First everyone practise tapping knees in time with the words - you will need to model this using big movements to help everyone to get the idea. Tap every time you see a paw print:

Making up a tune needs to be done individually with a xylophone or chime bars. Some children will spontaneously sing the words to a made-up tune. For others, you could try these next steps:

• Put out a maximum of 4 chime bars - C, D, E and G
• The child experiments with playing notes while saying the words, to make up a tune
• After lots of practice, make a recording of the song

Hint - It's really important to limit the number of chime bars otherwise the song will not be singable. Encourage the inclusion of some repeated notes in the tune, like in the song Old MacDonald.

Making Up Maestro Music! (uses all the elements of music)

Any child can experiment with choosing notes on a piano, keyboard or tuned percussion instrument for making up their own, original music. In this video, Luchia had only just started piano lessons and was making up music to represent some of the themes in a Maestro story. At the end she sings a lovely little lullaby to Maestro that she spontaneously made up there and then. None of what Luchia plays in this video has been is pre-rehearsed - it all took place as you see it.

If you have a school piano or keyboard, you could replicate parts of this video with individual children. A good take-away idea for guiding children in making up music is to ask them to use repetition of ideas and notes rather than playing a continuously changing stream of experimentation.

What did Hannah play? (pitch)

This is a music corner activity for pairs of children helped by an adult. Each child needs chime bars or a xylophone to pick out the first part of a Christmas tune they know (or any other tune).

Prepare to help the children by asking what songs they know beforehand. Do keep it simple - for example, everyone is likely to succeed with the first line of Jingle Bells but not with And So This is Christmas! We wish You a Merry Christmas and We Three Kings are popular choices.

Motifs (timbre, dynamics)

For this activity you could optionally use the book of Maestro the Dog and the Christmas Tree.

Each character of the story has a 'signature tune' in the video. In groups, the children go to the music corner and choose an instrument to represent each of the characters in the story (this is where the book could help them to remember). This works best if an adult is there to act as a sounding board and new-word-supplier for the choices eg would the elephant make a loud sound or a quiet one? Would it be more suited to a big drum or a tiny pair of Indian bells, and why?

If you are using the book, the adult reads the story again with the children supplying the sounds they chose, at appropriate times in the story.

A note on creativity

Picking out a tune you already know is generally called playing by ear. It's different from improvising, which means spontaneously making up music, often using a planned framework. It's also different from composing, which is making up your own original music from scratch resulting in a definite, end-product piece of music. I've found, when teaching adults, that their default response to being asked to make up music is that they try to play a tune they already know whereas children are happy to doodle around and come up with something original. If the children aimlessly play the bars of a xylophone up and down again, influence their choices by removing some of the bars and keeping just C, D, E, G and A (a pentatonic scale). You'll find that the quality of their creation improves through using fewer notes. On a piano you can create the same effect by asking the children to use only the black keys.

Spot the Motif! (pitch, tempo, timbre)

The children need to watch the video again, then listen to the extracts without seeing the video, and say which tune goes with which character in the story. This is an opportunity to talk about the music too: Which instrument is playing (piano)? Is the music high or low pitched? Fast or slow? Here are the pictures:

The Pretty Black and White Cow

The Smiling Ginger Cat

Maestro the Dog

The Wizard with the Long Beard

The Answers

• Tune 1 a) Maestro the Dog
• Tune 2 b) Pretty Black and White Cow
• Tune 3 c) The Wizard with the Long Beard
• Tune 4 d) The Smiling Ginger Cat

The Hare and the Christmas Fairies (texture, timbre)

This is a group activity for the music corner. First the children look at the picture and describe who is there - the fairies seem to have found a friendly hare! The time of year seems to be winter so maybe it's Christmas!

The children go to the music corner in small groups and find instruments that can 'be' the hare and the fairies. They then explore how the instruments can be played to make a sound picture of a hare with fairies dancing round it. Sometimes the instruments might be played together and sometimes separately, making different textures. Don't worry if this seems like a difficult stretch of the imagination to you - if you give children the means to make sounds and suggestions to play with, they will always be creative.

Plan a Party

The children have to plan a Christmas party for Hannah and her family, including Maestro the Dog. This is the To Do list:

• Make a shopping list for the food and find out how much everything costs.
• Make a table decoration and placemats.
• Make a picture-plan of where everyone will sit at the table.
• Decide which games they will enjoy and play one of them.
• Decide which music to play - the children could make it up specially!

The Chinese Zodiac Story

Remind the children of the Chinese Zodiac story by showing them this video:

You could stage your own Chinese New Year puppet show for an assembly!

Grazing Cows Song

This is a traditional Chinese song. You'll need to learn it really thoroughly before teaching it and then adopt a first me, then you method. When the children know the song, you could make a sound recording and ask the them if there is any way they could improve their singing:

• Did everyone join in?
• Does the singing sound beautiful?
• Is it in tune - are there any notes that don't sound right?
• Did it keep going well?

Make a second recording and compare. Which one did the children like better, and why. Another way of reflecting on a performance is for half the class to sing at a time and the other half to do Two Stars and a Wish - say two things they liked about the singing and give one positive suggestion for improving.

• Early in the morning
• See the sun a dot of red
• Brother riding on a horse
• Sister on a dragon
• __
• Climbing up the mountain
• See the clouds are flying
• Brother play the flute all day
• Sister watch the clouds

My Ship Sailed from China

The children can invent actions to this song. They might also make up extra verses for 'They brought me a ...'

• My ship sailed from China
• With a cargo of tea
• All laden with presents
• For you and for me
• They brought me a fan
• Just imagine my bliss
• When I fan myself gently
• Like this, like this, like this, like this

Dragon's Tail Soundscape using body sounds (structure, dynamics)

The children first explore making as many sounds as possible with just their bodies eg clap, vocal noises, brush hands together, stamp. Allocate each sound to a individual children, or to pairs of children, depending on the groups size. Help the children to decide which sounds are loudest and which are quietest then put the children in a row, in order of loudest to quietest sounds.

If you are working with a whole class, you can do a kind of 'Mexican Wave' dragon's tail in sound by pointing along a long row of children; start loudly, then each child makes their sound a little quieter than the one before it, going from head to tail of the dragon. You could then try the soundscape in reverse, from the tip of the tail to the dragon's head.

Extension

This activity can be transferred effectively to doing the same thing using untuned, hand-held musical instruments. You can also have fun using just voices, with movement from crouching low to gradually standing tall as the sound grows gradually into a big roar!

Dragon's Tail Sculpture (texture)

This activity focuses on texture, which goes from thick to thin, or from thin to thick, depending on which end of the dragon's tail we start with!

The Twelve Animals of the Zodiac (timbre, structure, silence, tempo)

The poem is to be learned by heart and then chanted by the whole class. At the end of each line, ask the children to imagine saying the line again silently, at the same speed as before.

Next, allocate instruments that represent each animal to groups of children eg the rats have shakers, the oxen have bells. Each group makes their sound where, before, there was silence as shown below in the first line of the poem:

• First the Rat then Second Ox (shhhaake ... ding ....)
• Third the tired Tiger
• Fourth the Rabbit hopped along
• Fifth the Dragon, kind and strong
• Sixth the Snake and Seventh Horse
• Eighth the Goat of course
• Ninth the Monkey, Tenth the Rooster
• Last but one the Dog
• Twelfth the Pig who stopped to eat
• Now the Zodiac's complete
• __
• ©Music-Playtime: Arts Enterprise Limited

The point is to occupy the previous silence with sound, not necessarily to copy the rhythms of the words. You'll need to insist that the instruments are kept still until it's time to play - the silence practice will have prepared the children well for this!

Chinese Lanterns (art link)

Each child needs:

• a sheet of coloured paper, A4 size
• jewel shapes
• safety scissors
• glue
• one strip of paper for the handle

First the children fold the paper in half. They cut strips, around 1cm apart, along the folded edge and stick the jewels round the edge. Next, the paper is opened out and rolled it into a cylinder, which is fastened with glue down the edge. Finally, the teacher staples on the paper strip to form a handle (this could be stuck but it's not as firm a solution). A collection of lanterns makes a great display!

A pretty variation is to use white paper instead, with black wax crayons and finger paints - first the children draw a tree using a black crayon, then they dab on the blossom using finger paints.

The Chinese Zodiac Story

Tell the story of how the Jade Emperor chose the animals of the Chinese New Year.

The Bear Went Over the Mountain

The words are easy to remember and the tune is memorable but it's always best to teach a line at a time to be sure that the tune is learned correctly. Once the song is known it's a good one to use for clapping in time and then marching in time.

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Here's a chant for practising walking in time. Many children find it difficult to walk in time with words and music but it helps if you learn the chant first, then take it literally one step at a time. Try standing in a line with the children or standing in front of them, all facing the same way.

• Fuzzy Wuzzy wuz a bear
• A bear wuz Fuzzy Wuzzy
• When Fuzzy Wuzzy lost his hair
• He wuzn't fuzzy, wuz he?

The FOUR Bears (timbre, texture, dynamics, pitch)

An integrated music and drama performance piece for an assembly or concert, this is an flexible project that will need several sessions. You can adapt it according to the experience of the children involved.

New Vocabulary:

• Motif, meaning a fragment of music, a tune or a sound that represents someone or something (eg a bear).
• Still Image, a drama convention in which the actors 'freeze', making a photograph-like, still representation of a situation or emotion. (Remind the children about playing Bear Statues - it's a bit like a group statue.)

First, work on the drama element of the performance by putting the children into groups of four to practise their still image for each part of the story. (Have some teddies available to make up numbers if necessary!)

Next, allocate music corner time for every group to have a turn at making up a motif for each bear. Use the pentatonic set of five notes C, D, E, G and A only. (IF possible, remove the other bars from the instrument.) After their turn at making up musical bear motifs, pair that group with an actor group to practise co-ordinating the story, music and still images.

For an actual performance, choose children to tell the story; one group of four 'musicians' with tuned instruments (or sharing a large xylophone); and several 'actor' groups of four children. The story is below and there's also a pdf download at the start of the unit.

The FOUR Bears Story

Once upon a time, there were four friends and they were all bears. Their names were:

• Big Bear - one musician plays Big Bear's motif (low pitch, loud)
• Tiny Bear - one musician plays Tiny Bear's motif (high pitch, quiet)
• Busy Bear - one musician plays Busy Bear's motif (fast and jumpy)
• Lazy Bear - one musician plays Lazy Bear's motif (slow and sleepy)

One day, when the bears were exploring in the forest, they came across a little house. They all looked through the window. At a signal from you, the musicians play very quiet, random sounds on their instrument.

The bears sat down outside to eat their picnic. Lazy Bear was tired so he lay down for a rest. Play Lazy Bear's motif.

After a while, Big Bear crept into in the house and found … a piano. He played a tune while the other bears listened. Play Big Bear's motif.

Next, Tiny Bear went in the house and played a tune on the piano. Play Tiny Bear's motif.

Busy Bear went in the house and danced around excitedly. Play Busy Bear's motif.

Soon the bears were all so tired that they lay down quietly, curled up and went to sleep ... all except for Lazy Bear who suddenly woke up and wondered why the other bears were so tired! Play Lazy Bear's motif.

Peter and the Wolf (motifs)

Not a bear ... but a wolf! One of the best-loved pieces of music that uses motifs is Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev. It's a narrated story in which each character is represented by their own little piece of music. There are many recordings of this to choose from - you are spoilt for choice on Spotify, but you might like to try the one narrated by David Bowie. I have to admit to feeling very sorry for the poor wolf; my sympathies lie entirely with him - it's a potential talking point that focuses on caring about all animals. Here's how the story begins:

Lazy Bear (tempo, dynamics, pitch)

First you could tell the children that they are going to listen to music about a bear and that you will be asking them what the music says about the bear: for instance, is this bear happy, lazy, dancing, running? You could ask what they think the bear is doing as the music plays. To begin with, just play the music without showing the video.

At this point it is good for the children to get up and dance around to the music, pretending to move in the way they think the bear might be moving.

Next, the children could watch the video and you could ask whether the notes are high or low pitched (the tune is low) and if the tune is fast or slow (it's slow), then you could tell them the music is called Lazy Bear. The music is played on the piano and you might ask the children to put hands up when they hear it played louder and hands down when it is quieter.

Which Bear is Best? (maths link)

The children do a survey of who likes which kind of bear best, deciding first on the types eg panda, brown bear, polar bear, koala bear. Each child then makes a chart to represent the information.

Story Time! (PSED link)

Another lovely book about stories and friendship:

Bear's Book by Claire Freedman & Alison Friend ISBN: 1783706457 Publisher: Templar Publishing

The FOUR Bears Story

Once upon a time, there were four friends and they were all bears. Their names were:

• Big Bear - one musician plays Big Bear's motif (low pitch, loud)
• Tiny Bear - one musician plays Tiny Bear's motif (high pitch, quiet)
• Busy Bear - one musician plays Busy Bear's motif (fast and jumpy)
• Lazy Bear - one musician plays Lazy Bear's motif (slow and sleepy)

One day, when the bears were exploring in the forest, they came across a little house. They all looked through the window. At a signal from you, the musicians play very quiet, random sounds on their instrument.

The bears sat down outside to eat their picnic. Lazy Bear was tired so he lay down for a rest. Play Lazy Bear's motif.

After a while, Big Bear crept into in the house and found … a piano. He played a tune while the other bears listened. Play Big Bear's motif.

Next, Tiny Bear went in the house and played a tune on the piano. Play Tiny Bear's motif.

Busy Bear went in the house and danced around excitedly. Play Busy Bear's motif.

Soon the bears were all so tired that they lay down quietly, curled up and went to sleep ... all except for Lazy Bear who suddenly woke up and wondered why the other bears were so tired! Play Lazy Bear's motif.

Two 'Horse-power' Songs!

She'll be Coming Round the Mountain

This is a traditional American song and, as with many songs passed down via the vocal tradition, you'll hear different versions of it. This is Luchia's favourite version. When I teach this song, I like to do lots of *rhythm* imitation first, in which I clap and the children copy. That's because it's quite difficult for everyone to get the rhythms of the song exactly right for these particular words:

• round the mountain
• six white horses
• pink pyjamas

*Reminder - the rhythm of a song is the element of it that you could clap*

• She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes
• She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes
• She'll be coming round the mountain
• Coming round the mountain when she comes
• Coming round the mountain when she comes
• __
• She'll be driving six white horses when she comes
• ... and so on
• __
• She'll be wearing pink pyjamas when she comes
• ... and so on

Trotting Quickly

This song, with a traditional tune, is about a Delhi pony cart driver. The original lyrics ask the pony to gallop quickly on a hot day but, being a softy horse-lover, I made up a new set of words that ask him to trot instead, with a promise of dinner underneath a shady tree. The 'trotting quickly' choruses need to be sung with energy but the 'It's a long way' and 'When we're home' verses need to sound tired.

• Trotting quickly, quickly, quickly
• Trotting quickly little horse
• Trotting quickly, quickly, quickly
• Trotting quickly little horse
• __
• It's a long way and we're tired
• We have had a busy day
• __
• Trotting quickly, quickly, quickly
• Trotting quickly little horse
• Trotting quickly, quickly, quickly
• Trotting quickly little horse
• __
• When we're home you'll have your dinner
• Underneath a shady tree
• __
• Trotting quickly, quickly, quickly
• Trotting quickly little horse
• Trotting quickly, quickly, quickly
• Trotting quickly little horse

Canoe song intro (pitch, texture)

You and the children can invent an intro for many of the songs that you sing, by taking a small part of the song and repeating it several times before the song starts and again at the end. The intro to this song uses the ending, Dip dip and swing.

Introductions

Teaching the Words

Practising the Intro

Learning the Tune

Adding More Instruments

• My paddle's keen and bright
• Flashing with silver
• Follow the wild goose flight
• Dip, dip and swing
• __
• Dip, dip and swing her back
• Flashing with silver
• Follow the wild goose flight
• Dip, dip and swing

A Short Ride in a Fast Machine (timbre, rhythm, structure)

A Short Ride in a Fast Machine, by John Adams, has to be one of the most exciting pieces of music about going places so it's a must-listen choice for this topic. It has interesting cross-rhythms making it a complex piece of music for dancing to. It lends itself to creative rather than formal movement, with the children moving expressively rather than aiming to keep in time. At certain points in the music, such as where it changes character midway, it would be fantastic to have a signal to come together in groups to make still images of a car, a plane or a helicopter. These would need to have been practised beforehand.

Our Own Short Ride in a Fast Machine!

Ask the children to create their own music, also called A short Ride in a Fast Machine. The instrument that begins the John Adams music, and plays for much of the piece, is a wood block, which is actually an instrument often found in schools.

Traffic Lights Music (pitch, structure, technology link)

First invest in a Sphero Specdrums ring! They are not hugely expensive from Amazon or Argos. Here is what you need to know:

This is necessarily small group work unless you have a big budget for music! Using the pad is one way that the children could create music using traffic light colours with the ring. However, it's even more exciting for them to paint their own traffic lights pictures and then use the ring to 'play' the colours in the picture. Make sure you get to play with it first!

The Ice Cream Song

This song is great to go with the Creative Music section, which is also about Ice Cream!

Did you ever see a ghost eating toast?

Well here's a song about one - Mrs White had a fright in the middle of the night - saw a ghost eating toast, half way up the old lamp post!

The children can have fun making up an intro and an outro for this song, using scary sounds. The chord played here as a simple accompaniment is just two sounds played at the same time (eg D and A OR C and G), which you can easily do on chime bars or a xylophone. This two-note accompaniment is really useful for all sorts of simple songs and it's correct name is a drone.

Sticky Buns (pitch)

An easy action song to teach and learn:

• Sticky Buns
• Sticky Buns
• Sometimes we eat
• Sticky Buns

It's fun to do actions to this little song. In the first three lines, the note pitches go like this: High - Low - Middle and the children could doing the actions of touching heads, knees and tums as they substitute these words:

• Heads knees tums
• Heads knees tums
• Sticky buns go (point to mouth)
• In our tums (rub tummy)

(Yes I know there's potential for the children singing 'up our bums' instead. This reminds me boy called James Farrar who, after a little 'toilet humour' joke, earnestly explained to me that he found it funny because he was ten years old.)

Extension

There are only three notes in the song so it's a good one for the children to learn to play on a keyboard, piano, chime bars or xylophone. On a keyboard or piano, use a set of three black keys in a row near the middle of the piano. On chime bars or xylophone, instead use the notes F, G and A. If you work it out yourself first (start with A F G), you'll be able to help.

You could use a drone accompaniment to this song too - the best notes would be F and C (lower pitch F and higher pitch C).

Hints:

• 1/ If using a xylophone, remove the notes that are not needed, leaving just F, G and A for playing the tune, or just F and C for the drone. This makes it much easier for the children to hit the right notes.
• 2/ For the best sound, the beater needs to bounce off the bars.

Exploring a Xylophone

In the next activity we use a xylophone. We may think it's obvious that the bigger bars on a xylophone make lower sounds but children tend to expect the opposite because their everyday understanding is that higher means louder, as in TV volume. Try allowing exploring time, in which you help the children to work out how to put the bars on in the right order.

Breakfast time! (rhythm, pulse)

Everyone chants the rhyme rhythmically, tapping the pulse on knees - sit in a circle and let the children see you tapping the pulse with big movements which they can copy.

When the chant is known, divide the class into three groups: the Cheese group, the Apple group and the Jelly group,. On the words in capitals, the children invent different movements eg big arms for cheese, little finger circles for peas, scratching for fleas, wings for bees. They rub tummies for the last line.

• It's breakfast time (tap the pulse on knees)
• With words that rhyme (tap the pulse on knees)
• How many can you say? (pretend to count on fingers)
• CHEESE and PEAS and FLEAS and BEES
• That's what we'll eat today! (rub tummies)
• __
• It's breakfast time (tap the pulse on knees)
• With words that rhyme (tap the pulse on knees)
• How many can you say? (pretend to count on fingers)
• APPLE JUICE and STRAWberry MOUSSE
• That's what we'll eat today! (rub tummies)
• __
• It's breakfast time (tap the pulse on knees)
• With words that rhyme (tap the pulse on knees)
• How many can you say? (pretend to count on fingers)
• JELLY ROAST and SLUGS on TOAST
• That's what we'll eat today! (rub tummies)

Extension - Sing and play! (pitch, texture)

1/ Next, ask the children to make up a tune to the rhyme, in pairs. If you use a xylophone, I suggest you take off all the bars except for C, D, E, G and A in a row but missing out the F: a pentatonic (five) group of notes that are easy to sing.

2/ Instead of tapping the pulse on knees, one child from each group could play an untuned instrument, (eg a drum) to accompany the singing. Ask each group to do their verse with the other children listening, then ask the listeners if the singing could be heard well enough above the instruments (this is called balancing the texture).

Extension - Make up an Intro!

First, model how you could make a simple intro to the song by clapping the rhythm of the words: Cheese and peas and fleas and bees, and have the children copy you. Then model how to play that on any instrument. Next, give everyone an instrument, some tuned and some untuned, and put the children into groups of two or three. If you have chime bars, give out two only per group: C and E, or E and G, or G and A. Each group has to make up a little intro that lasts as long as their special line, to play before their verse. Give each group a turn at showing their intro.

Good Day to You! (pulse, duration, rhythm)

This is a simple song that demonstrates 3 time, in which the musical pulse has a feel for going in groups of three, like a waltz. I chose it here as a precursor to the Ice Cream Machine activity because that is in 3 time too.

With actions ...

The actions demonstrate that the music is in 3 time.

Dippy Doo - the complete song

There are two parts to this song, one in 3 time and one in 2 time.

Ice Cream Machine (pulse, rhythm, texture)

Let's be an ice cream machine! I'm doing this with a small group so everyone has their own sounds to make but it works even better with a whole class, in which case you'll first divide the children into 5 groups. Each group has their own sound to which they make up an agreed action, and the teacher keeps a steady pulse by beating a drum. These are the words, to be said over and over again, without pausing at all in between words. It should go steadily like 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 ... with no gaps:

• Group 1 - BOOM boom boom
• Group 2 - RUMBLE ping ping
• Group 3 - SHHH Shhh Shhh
• Group 4 - PLOP plop plop
• Group 5 - YUM yummy yum

Suggested actions:

• Group 1 - drumming arm movements
• Group 2 - roly-poly arms on rumble and starfish hands for ping
• Group 3 - pouring the milk in
• Group 4 - plopping the ice cream into a dish
• Group 5 - rub tummy round and round

Once everyone has practised, you can have great fun doing the sounds and actions. If the children become proficient at this you can try doing more than one sound, with actions, at the same time creating a thicker texture.

Our first attempts!

Notice that the children have, broadly speaking, got the idea but they are not yet keeping a steady 3 time pulse.

Our 'Performance'

This was our final attempt of the day, our 'performance'. The pulse is much more stable here as the children begin to understand the concept better.

March Past of the Kitchen Utensils

This is the Belmont High School Chamber Orchestra with Wind Ensemble playing a piece by the composer Vaughan Williams, amusingly entitled March Past of the Kitchen Utensils! Ask the children as they listen, which part of the music is marching to the shops to buy the food (part 1), and which part is chopping, stirring and skipping around the kitchen (the middle section). The last part is like the first section; what do the children think is happening here?

Moving to the Music

The children march in time to the music, then stop and make a shape like a kitchen utensil when they hear the loud crashes (eg long like a spoon, round like a bowl). In the middle section, the children pretend to make dinner, chopping, stirring and skipping around the kitchen. They go back to marching when the original theme returns.

What's My Sound?

Show the children a range of kitchen utensils that can make a sound from each other - aim for a range of materials, shapes and sizes: eg small metal jug, big plastic bowl, wooden spoons. First let the children experiment freely with making different sounds, then hide the utensils behind a screen. The children take turns to go behind the screen and make a sound one one utensil, while the other children guess what the utensil was. You could do this as a team game if you wish.

Ice cream day!

Check whether there are dietary restrictions first. It is easy to buy dairy-free, vegan ice cream from most supermarkets.

Make up a poem (literacy link)

Green Ice Cream!

• Today I made ice cream
• With my ice cream machine
• This is what I put in it
• To make it go green ...

(children think up lots of green ingredients eg slime from a pond, leaves from a tree, green paint from school, my mum's green coat …)

End with:

• And then I ate it all –
• Mmmm!

Maestro the Music Dog and the New Piano

This is the story of how Hannah got a new piano for her birthday and Maestro went on an unexpected journey!

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.

All Maestro the Music Dog materials ©Music-Playtime: Arts Enterprise Limited

• Original watercolours and story: Sandy Holland
• Original music: Peter Noke

Copy Me

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:

On the subject of copying ...

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.

Maestro the Music Dog

Here's Maestro's special song! You'll need to teach it a bit at a time, using First Me, Then You. I suggest that you let the children listen to the song first, then teach the words and then include the tune. The first phrase needs special care to get the notes exactly right. The clapping, the drum and the claves may be done first by the teacher, then imitated by a group of children, depending on how many instruments you have. Because claves are sticks of wood that are hit together, they are simple to make by sawing up a long, smoothly-rounded piece of wood like a broom handle into same-size pieces and smoothing off the ends with sandpaper.

• Maestro the Music Dog
• Come out to play
• All your friends are waiting
• And it's a lovely day
• Maestro the Music Dog
• What can you do?
• I can clap my hands
• Can you clap yours too?
• (teacher claps hands ... children imitate)
• __
• Verse 2 similar, with ending: I can play a drum
• Can you play it too?
• __
• Verse 3 similar, with ending: I can play the claves
• Can you play them too?

Happy Birthday to You

This is known to be one of the most popular songs ever written, so remember to sing it every time there's a birthday! This was the happiest video I could find of a birthday celebration and it's the right way to sing the song. Please don't use the jazzed-up versions that you find on Youtube because they are not the way people really sing the song!

Play Happy Birthday to You (pitch, rhythm)

Everyone knows how to sing Happy Birthday but not everyone can play it! It's perfectly possible for children of this age to learn it by rote if they have help and practice. The easiest way is like a cascade; you learn to play it first (scroll down for help) then teach it to a group of children, who teach it to the other children. Teaching others is a great way to consolidate learning. The children can learn to play this on a keyboard, a piano or on an iPad using Garage Band.

Garage Band is a free app that comes as standard with up-to-date iPads. There are a number of versions depending on your last update so it's best to experiment before helping children to use it (it truth, they will probably be helping you!) When you open it up, you'll see all the instruments that you could use. The best setting for learning to play a tune is Classical Grand Piano, as shown here:

How to play Happy Birthday to You

Please don't write the letter names on the keys (the ones here are superimposed onto a picture) - it prevents anyone from remembering them in the easiest way, which is by looking for the patterns of two and three black keys - eg C is the key just to the left of the pair of black keys.

The easiest way (trust me on this) is to learn to play the tune without having the notes written down. Otherwise you'll always be looking at the bit of paper with the notes written on it and you'll never remember how to play it without them. Remember the order of the notes by the patterns they make when you play.

Oh go on then ... I know you're busy and you'll want the notes to start with, so here they are, beginning on the lowest G on the left. Don't write them out for the children though!

• G G A G C B
• G G A G D C
• G G ^G E C B A (^G means high G)
• F F E C D C

Sad and Happy Music (pitch, rhythm & links with literacy)

This is an activity for groups, pairs or individuals, again using a piano, keyboards or iPads.

Sad Music

First the children make up some 'sad feelings' words using this a template:

• Feeling ... feeling ...
• Feeling ... feeling ...

The words chosen by Jack and Nathan rhymed too!

• Feeling sorry, feeling sad
• Feeling lonely, feeling bad

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.

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.

Happy Music (also uses pentatonic)

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.

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.

• Happy happy, happy day
• Maestro Dog is here to stay

Tip

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.

Maestro in the Van! (silence, pulse)

The children imagine Maestro in the van going on an unknown journey! They walk in time with the music and, when the music stops, they stop and look around as if they are frightened.

Watch and Listen Again

When they watch the video again, ask the children to say when the music is sad, when it's scary and when it's happy - and why. It would be great if you could help them to use a wide range of words to describe how the character of the music changes.

Maestro the Dog's Sleepy Bedtime Story

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.

Maestro the Dog's Sleepy Bedtime Story

You can download this story 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.

The Forbidden Minibeast

This is a call and response clapping game. Everyone sits in a circle and the teacher or leader claps the rhythms of four minibeasts :

• Cat-er-pill-ar
• Cen-ti-pede
• Liz-ard
• Ant

Start by saying and clapping the names, with the children saying and clapping back.

Next, clap the rhythms only. Any child is allowed to call out the right minibeast name.

Now for the final game: Say, 'Today's Forbidden Minibeast is ... Lizard'. The children clap back whichever rhythm you clap UNLESS you clap Lizard, in which case they must not clap. They either sit still or do a silent action such as touching their noses. By the way, I dislike the notion of those who get it wrong being 'out' - it's not necessary, the fear of being 'out' is inhibiting and it's no fun at all.

Change the minibeasts every few days, particularly the Forbidden Minibeast - we don't want to raise a generation of children who bear a grudge against lizards.

Incy Wincy Spider

The words are easy to remember but you will need to teach the tune a line at a time, using First Me, Then You. You'll hear different versions of the tune so it's best to learn it thoroughly yourself first to be sure of it. This is a good song to sing unaccompanied, doing the actions.

• Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the water spout
• Down came the rain and washed the spider out
• Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain
• So Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the spout again

There's a Spider on the Floor

A fun song, particularly useful if anyone is frightened of spiders (although Luchia, the singer, is not convinced!).

• There's a spider on the floor ...
• Tell me are there any more?
• __
• There's a spider on my knee ...
• And it's very tickly
• __
• There's a spider on my arm
• But it won't do any harm

Little Bird, Little Bird (rhythm, pulse)

This is a chant for practising walking in time. I was surprised, when I first started teaching, to discover how difficult some children find walking in time! You'll probably need to do this truly 'one step at a time'! Don't forget that it's easier for the children to copy you if you are in a row or if you have your back to them so that they can match your left and right. We walked on the spot here but, if you have enough space, let the children follow you in a line, like ducklings. Here's me getting my right and left feet muddled up!

• Little bird (left, right)
• Little bird (left, right)
• Left your nest (left, right)
• Was it right? (left, right)
• __
• Little bird (left, right)
• Little bird (left, right)
• Came back home (left, right)
• In the night (left, right)

Little Bird Tabla Drumming

The tabla is a traditional pair of Indian hand drums. The two tabla drums make a different sound not only from each other, but also depending on where on the skin they are struck with the fingers. When tabla players learn to play, they are taught to associate the sounds of the drum with vocal sounds such as 'din' and 'dah'.

If you are lucky enough to have a pair of tabla, the children can practise playing Little with left hand (two taps) and bird with right hand (one tap). Any two, different size drums can make a satisfactory substitute. While one child plays the drums, all the other children can practise using the correct hands by tapping gently on knees.

In the video the child is playing the tabla and the other instrument is the harmonium, a keyboard instrument (see player's right hand) powered by bellows (player's left hand).

Birds and Peanuts (timbre)

An activity for pairs of children. First discuss with the whole group of children what birds like to eat. Then at various points in the day, the children go in pairs to the music corner and each choose an instrument that makes a completely different sound (timbre). One is the bird pecking the food (eg wooden claves) and the other is the peanuts in a bird feeder (eg a shaker).

The children make up a little sequence of music about the bird eating the nuts by taking turns to play. This sequence is by Holly and Florence using claves and a shaker made of nut shells on a string.

Extension Activity (tempo, dynamics)

As an extension, the children could make another difference by changing the way they play their instrument - for example:

• Dynamics - Play the claves quietly and play the shaker loudly
• Tempo - Play the claves quickly and play the shaker slowly

Whole Class Activity

You could do this as a whole class activity even if you don't have enough instruments, by having two children playing instruments and the rest of the class using body sounds like clapping for the bird and rubbing hands together for the shakers.

The piece of music can be given a name, then recorded so the children can listen.

Stick Insects (and birds)!

Clap, then play, the word rhythms of minibeasts or birds. Then represent the sounds in sticks, which are a bit like 'proper' notation. To work out how to do this, space the words out evenly as if in a grid. Then draw sticks close together to represent saying a two-syllable word eg robin that takes up just the same time as saying a one-syllable word eg owl. Here's a picture to explain it:

A Maxibeast!

No one knows who wrote this poem, but we like it!

• Consider the poor hippopotamus
• His life is unduly monotonous
• He lives half asleep
• On the edge of the deep
• And his face is as big as his bottom is!

You may need to explain some of the words, then teach it by rote. When the children can say it fluently, they can have a go at singing it to their own tune. Given the suggestion, more children than you might imagine can spontaneously make up a tune for a poem without any help at all.

Dzenguze Kuko (timbre, texture)

This is a gentle Latvian folk-song about a cuckoo. I believe that children should have the opportunity to see and hear choirs and orchestras from an early age. I have found that young children love the music that I'm enthusiastic about and that they listen in an open-minded way to everything I share with them. Experiencing music like this live is just not an option for many children so I'm offering it with no apology, in the spirit of equal opportunities.

Aviary (texture, pitch, tempo)

Aviary is from The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens. The children will need to know before listening that the music is about birds because they will probably be unfamiliar with the word, 'Aviary'. The music is good for fluttering around to - the children could pretend to be a flock of birds, all travelling in the same direction. After moving to the music, you could explore what makes it sound bird-like eg the fluttery tune, the high-pitched notes played on the flute, the quick tempo, the full texture of several instruments playing at once.

Lots of People Help Us (pitch, pulse)

This is an easy starter song that helps the children to think of all the people who help us. You can walk in time to it and also tap the pulse on knees. In the video, the children are encouraged to think of other actions they can do in time with the pulse of the music.

When they know the song, ask the children to think of other people who help us to sing about. These people fit into the song well:

Firefighters, road sweepers, doctors, teachers, caretakers, nurses, dentists, lifeguards, bus drivers, post workers, musicians, hairdressers, opticians, pilots, painters, plumbers.

The rhythm of the word police officer doesn't fit very well because the strong part of the word, pol-ICE is the second syllable.

• Lots of people help us, help us, help us
• Lots of people help us every day
• __
• Firefighters help us, help us, help us
• Firefighters help us every day
• ... and so on

A Road Safety poem (structure, pulse, rhythm)

First make big lollipop shapes in colours red, amber and green to represent traffic light colours. Next teach the poem in a sing-song voice - the words in capital letters are the ones that sound strong when you say them and make it possible to walk in time. Then divide children into groups, with one child per group holding that group's lollipop:

Speakers (can you borrow a crossing patrol lollipop for the speaker group?)

• red lights
• amber lights
• green light

• RED light, RED light, WHAT do you SAY? (speaker)
• I say STOP, and STOP right aWAY (red light group)
• AMBER light, AMBER light, WHAT do you MEAN? (speaker)
• I mean WAIT till the LIGHTS turn GREEN (amber light group)
• GREEN light, GREEN light, WHAT do you SAY? (speaker)
• I say CROSS, but FIRST look each WAY (green light group)
• THANK you, THANK you, RED, amber, GREEN (speaker)
• NOW we KNOW what the TRAFFIC lights MEAN! (everyone)

Extension

Give an untuned percussion instrument to one child in each group, to be played on the children to choose an instrument to play their answer:

• I say STOP, and stop right away = play drum on stop
• I mean WAIT till the lights turn green = play tambourine on wait
• I say CROSS, but first look each way = wood block on cross

At the last line the children all play their instruments together and hold up their lollipops.

Driving Our Police Car (tempo)

This song has tempo changes and it's also great fun as a stimulus for drama. Here's the first lesson on the song:

In the second lesson I asked Samuel to play the drum and look what happened - the other children spontaneously tapped the pulse on their police helmets!

Tempo Changes

In the third lesson we chose coloured scarves to be the siren going round and round and practised changing tempo for verse 2!

Our Performance of Driving Our Police Car

A performance can be for anyone, even a video camera! You can see what we did with the scarves and we also added a burglar-builder who stole a brick, for a bit of drama. Our tempo changes were great!

• Driving our police car round and round
• Making sure the people are safe in town
• The we get a call, an emergency
• Twenty miles away there's a burglary
• __
• Whooooeeeee! (siren sound)
• __
• On the motorway, on the motorway (sing faster)
• Speeding along on the motorway
• If it starts to rain, we can't drive so fast (sing slower)
• But we'll still catch that burglar at last (sing faster)
• __
• ©Music-Playtime at Arts Enterprise Limited

Be Kind

A song with a character-development message for everyone about how we can be the people who care and help.

• Doesn't matter if you're big or small
• Doesn't matter if you're rich or poor
• You can be anything so make up your mind
• Make up your mind to be helpful and kind
• __
• Let's help our friends and mum and dad
• Let's be kind to animals or they'll be sad
• Be kind to sisters and brothers too
• Then you will find they are kind to you
• __
• ©Music-Playtime at Arts Enterprise Limited

Lots of People Help Us Clapping (rhythm)

Young children love repetition and it's a good idea to come back to familiar songs to practise different skills. In this video, we return to Lots of People Help Us to practise rhythm clapping. I was pleased to hear that the children not only kept a steady pulse but also clapped the rhythm of the words accurately. Remember to use the words, rhythm (sounds like the words) and pulse (stays the same throughout) in context.

Sergeant Sound and Sergeant Symbol (timbre)

Sergeant Sound and Sergeant Symbol are investigating a peculiar crime - the theft of sounds! The police don't yet know how many sounds were stolen but luckily the sound snatchers left a trail of pictures behind ...

First the children are all in Sergeant Sound's police force, in pairs with one instrument between two. Ask them to experiment to each find a way of playing the instrument that makes a different sound or timbre eg tambourine: tap with fingers, shake it). Ask each pair to think of a word to describe the timbre of the two different sounds they made. Give examples yourself first such as bong, ssscccrraaatchch, ting. Next, they each make a picture of how their sounds might look - 'If you could draw your sound, what would it look like?' The children need to write their names on the back of the paper, not the front.

Now the children are in Sergeant Symbol's police force! Working in fours, each pair swaps pictures with a different pair of children. Each child makes their sound in turn and the other pair guesses which picture goes with which sound.

Make Sound & Symbol Music (structure)

In their groups of four, the children decide what order to put their pictures in to make a little piece of music. They are responsible for playing just their own sound, for as long as they decide, in the chosen order. You could introduce them to the word loop by asking them to play their piece several times through in the same way. To end their piece, they could play all the instruments together at the same time, creating a thick texture.

Fire and Rescue Time! (tempo)

The children could work in pairs, with an instrument each, or with found sounds (eg slow scraping on a radiator, fast rustling paper) to create a sequence of slow/fast/slow sounds.

Ask the children to imagine they are firefighters. In their sequence they begin with slow sounds, then they make the noise of a siren, then make fast sounds to represent the firefighters rushing to the fire. They end with slow sounds for when the firefighters drive home after putting the fire out.

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).

Nobody Out in the Rain Today

I composed this song out on a rainy walk with my dog, Couber. There really was nobody else silly enough to be walking in the pouring rain. So this one's for my lovely boy!

• Nobody out in the rain today
• Nobody else just you and me
• Nobody out in the rain today
• We're the only ones who are out to play
• __
• Plip plop plip plop plip plop pling
• When the rain pours we start to sing
• Drip drop drip drop drip drop drop
• Seems like the rain will never stop
• __
• Repeat verse 1
• ©Music-Playtime: Arts Enterprise Limited

The Wind Blows East

Here's a traditional, but little-known, song about the the wind.

• Oh the wind blows east
• The wind blows west
• The wind blows the sunshine
• Right down in town
• Oh the wind blows the sunshine
• Right down in town
• Oh the winds blow the sunshine
• Right down in town
• __
• Oh the wind blows east
• The wind blows west
• The wind blows the setting star
• Right down in town
• Oh the wind blows the setting star
• Right down in town
• Oh the wind blows the setting star
• Right down in town

A Listening Walk

A listening walk in the immediate environment is great fun - in a nearby park if you have one, or the outdoor playground. There are always sounds if we stop and listen quietly. Ask the children to tell you the sounds they hear eg bird song, cars, talking, the rustle of leaves, the wind, dogs barking, footsteps. You could make a list and the children might bring reminders indoors such as leaves or gravel.

A Sound Picture (timbre, structure, texture)

Back indoors, the children can re-create the sounds they heard using found objects, body sounds and musical instruments eg chime bars for bird song, claves for footsteps, rustling crisp packets for leaves, wafting paper for the wind, voices for a dog barking. Some sounds might happen on their own (thin texture) and some might be played at the same time as others (thick texture).

Summer (pitch)

This music is Summer by the composer Glazunov, from The Seasons.

You could suggest that they children make big movements up and down to show the note pitch going higher and lower. This is good for dancing to with floaty scarves.

Twinkle Twinkle (tempo, pulse)

Summer is a good time for seeing the stars in the clear night sky. Here's some music for marching in time, a fun version of the well-known Twinkle Twinkle Little Star tune. The arrangement changes significantly in the middle and you could ask the children to do a different action there, such as standing still and clapping, then go back to marching when the original style of music returns.

Come and Meet my Earthworm!

Guess what - despite being a keen gardener, I have a bit of a phobia about harmless worms. This song is my apology to them!

We had a laugh because Thomas thought I said 'Come and eat my earthworm'!

• Come and meet my earthworm
• He's slimy, long and thin
• I'd like to take him home to tea
• But dad won't let him in
• Doo doo doo doo doo earthworm
• My dad won't let him in
• __
• Come and meet my spider
• Her body's big and round
• Her legs are long and hairy
• And she doesn't make a sound
• Doo doo doo doo doo spider
• She doesn't make a sound
• __
• Meet my caterpillar
• He's furry, brown and soft
• And one day when he's older
• He'll turn into a moth
• Doo doo doo caterpillar
• He'll turn into a moth
• __
• © Music-Playtime: Arts Enterprise Limited

What Can We Grow?

This song is about growing plants for eating, by both humans and bees. The tune is the same one as Frere Jacques.

• What can we grow in our garden
• For our lunch, for our lunch?
• Apples tees and pear trees
• Blueberries and plum trees
• Munch, munch, munch
• Munch, munch, munch
• __
• What can we grow in our garden
• For our tea, for our tea?
• Cabbage and potatoes
• Lettuce and tomatoes
• Beans and peas
• Beans and peas
• __
• What can we grow in our garden
• For the bees, for the bees?
• Lavender and bluebells
• Sunflowers and harebells
• Plant them please
• Plant them please

In and Out the Dusky Bluebells

My mum taught me this singing game from the North East of England. Depending on where you live, the words and the game tend to be different so you may come across alternative versions.

• In and out the dusky bluebells
• In and out the dusky bluebells
• In and out the dusky bluebells
• Follow the leader
• __
• Pitter pitter patter on my shoulder
• Pitter pitter patter on my shoulder
• Pitter pitter patter on my shoulder
• Follow the leader

Plant Sticks

Show the children how to make their own stick-music-scores to show the word-rhythms of different flowers or trees. The sticks represent rhythms - two close together shows a two-syllable word and one on its own is a one-syllable word that takes up the same length of time. Choose a range of one- and two-syllable plants and trees in advance so that you don't run into complications such as 'Western Red Cedar' (yes, it is a real tree name!). Show and play to model this activity for the children, giving them plenty of practice clapping your stick-rhythms, making sure they understand the relationship between your sticks and your plants.

When each child has created a music score, they swap with a partner, who plays the rhythm on a percussion instrument. To make this more challenging, try asking the children to draw just the sticks without writing in the names - this must be done evenly spaced to it's best to provide printed grids with four boxes for filling in, as in the picture.

Country Gardens (timbre, pulse)

This is a cheerful piece of music called Country Gardens, arranged by the composer Percy Grainger, just right for walking in time through a pretend garden. It would be good to do this outside because you need a biggish space.

I suggest that you help the children to make tissue paper flowers or petals to be strewn around the area in advance. Ask the children to imagine they are walking through a garden, smelling the roses and picking up flowers and letting them flutter to the floor, pointing up at the blossom on the trees.

After they have moved to the music, the children can watch the video and see which instruments make the sounds. It's good, in this technological age, for children to see how the sounds are made by real instruments.

Name That Tune!

Many children will know this tune. It's fun to begin with clapping the rhythm - a few children might guess the tune just from hearing it clapped.

The next stage is for you to play the tune, either on a recorder, chime bars or whatever is available, or by playing the soundfile. If you learned to play the recorder as a child, you will definitely know it! The notes are:

• B A G A B B B
• A A A B D D
• B A G A B B B
• G A A B A G G

Charlie is playing it for you here, on descant recorder:

The tune is usually called Merrily We Roll Along but it's also the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb so, of course, either answer is correct.

Once the children have named the tune, they can learn to play it too on recorders, chime bars, xylophones or a keyboard.

• Merrily we roll along
• Roll along, roll along
• Merrily we roll along
• Right down the grassy hillside

A Seaside Holiday Game

I remember the excitement of having a new beach ball when we went on holiday as children! Here's a game that could also be played by a family on the beach.

Seaside Holidays Stories

First talk with the children about school holidays and outings they have been on. Has anyone been to the seaside?

Then play a song or a piece of music that reminds you personally of holiday time (children love knowing more about you!) and tell a story about a seaside holiday, maybe your own holiday when you were a child, or Maisie Goes on Holiday. I'm a closet Peppa Pig fan and the Peppa Pig Goes on Holiday video is great fun!

Who is the Pirate? (timbre)

This is a voice recognition game so the children need to know each other reasonably well for it to work. Everyone sits in a circle or on the carpet. Each child in turn goes behind a screen so that they can't see the rest of the group. The teacher points to a child within the group, who then says, 'I am the pirate! Hand over your silver and gold!'. The child behind the screen has to guess which child spoke. Every child has a turn at guessing and at being the pirate.

You may be surprised that, even if you ask the children to make it harder by disguising their voices, the other children still guess who it is!

Apusskidusski (two ways!)

This is a traditional Swedish song, with a lovely tune, called I Medelhavet. Here is an approximate translation of the original words, with an additional verse that I made up. It's a song for a mother or father to sing to their child, but you could ask the children what they think the words mean and then they could make up a third verse. In this version, the song is almost like a lullaby.

• In middle ocean
• Sardines are swimming
• Apusskidusski Apusskidu
• But in my own heart
• You're swimming too
• Apusskidusski Apusskidu
• __
• Up in the blue sky
• The birds are flying
• Apusskidusski Apusskidu
• But in my own heart
• You're flying too
• Apusskidusski Apusskidu

In the video, the song is begins in Swedish and is then translated into four other languages, including English. You'll be amazed at how different the song sounds at an upbeat tempo and I wonder how many children will prefer this version! Sometimes children surprise me with a preference for gentle music.

Down There Under the Sea

You'll probably need to listen to this song and sing along several times to learn it really well before teaching it, as it's easy to muddle up the words, big blue ocean and deep blue sea! You could teach it using the First Me, Then You method and then use the sound track to sing along to. The verses go in this order:

• Lots to see
• Lots of fish
• Whales and sharks
• Crabs and shells

For each verse, choose different instruments for children to represent the different things in each verse eg shell shakers for their verse about crabs and shells – shake only on the words crabs and shells, and so on.

Row Row Row Your Boat

The children love doing rowing actions in time with this song, sitting one behind the other with legs out to the sides. I like to do the original verse first, with the ending Life is but a dream - this way, the children enjoy the 'naughty' version about the crocodile even more! The song is so well known that I have not written out the words.

Seaside Graphic Scores (downloadable)

The children need to work in small groups and ideally they be able to choose from a range of untuned and tuned instruments. They could go to the music corner group by group, then come together at the end of the day for performance time.

1/ Structured Seaside Score - Voices (structure, pulse, rhythm)

The children understood the score quickly and we performed it first using just voices. There are three lines to this graphic score and it's read from left to right like text in a book, and like conventional notation. In line 2, the shark and the seagull sound at the same time, like in a musical score where more than one note is played at the same time.

Using Instruments (timbre, structure, texture)

When instruments are used instead of voices, using two instruments played together in line 2 creates a thicker musical texture. I added a steady pulse on the xylophone, to keep everyone in time, which added another layer of complexity.

2/ Unstructured Seaside Score (texture, timbre, pitch)

This score is more of a suggestion and is less formally structured than the previous one so it may focus more on the elements of texture, timbre and pitch. The children have the same choice of instruments but the structure is less formal so each group of children can make their own interpretation.

Stepping Over the Waves Game (a performance piece)

You'll need plenty of space needed – it could be outdoors in summer, or in the hall. I saw it done by a dance company and it's actually really easy!

Half the class lies end to end in 4 rows of around 4 children. They roll slowly towards the other children who walk, in 4 rows of 4 children, towards them and step over them as if stepping over waves. This looks very effective from the front and can be used in an assembly or school performance – but not recommended on a raised stage in case someone rolls off!

You could use any suitable music, but this sea sound-effect works particularly well:

Seaside story sound picture (texture, structure)

Before you begin, download and print out Seaside Story. First, the children listen to the recording below, then ask them where they think it is and what is happening. Notice and draw attention to the fact that the sounds are happening at the same time (thick texture), not on their own, one after the other (thin texture).

Next, ask the children think of all the sounds they might hear on holiday near the sea. Then the children go in groups, with a classroom assistant, to the music corner to experiment with using body sounds, found sounds and instruments to create seaside sounds. Some of the sounds might be made on their own (thin texture) and some at the same time as others, creating a thicker texture.

When each group has had their turn at the music table, explain that you are going to make a sound picture in which each group makes the sound they are responsible for at the right time in the story. Then read the story and ask for suggestions of who should make which sounds, and where. The story starts and ends with silence. When everyone is ready, read the story accompanied by the sounds, and make a recording of it.

Extension

A really effective thing to do next is to show the children, by indicating silently, when to make the sounds without the story being read, creating a purely musical performance. Record this too and, after the children have listened to both, ask them which version they prefer, and why. Finally, the children could make a big timeline graphic score, showing what happens where.

Fishy Moves

First, the children listen in a still, quiet way to Aquarium from Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals. One way to achieve 'still and quiet' is to ask the children to find a big space on the floor and lie down pretending to be a starfish, with eyes closed. Make sure they are far enough apart not to nudge each other!

Moving to the music

Next, ask the children to move to the music, keeping feet very quiet. If you have floaty dance scarves, this is an ideal time for the children to use them to express the graceful musical phrases.

I'll share a secret with you now. When I was a child of this age, we had a radio programme in which we had to pretend to be swaying trees and suchlike. I thought it was daft and didn't realise until later in life that moving to music and doing silly things was FUN. That's why I nearly always join in with the children!

Discussion

After listening and moving to the music, show the video so that the children see the instruments being played - notice that there are two pianos as well as orchestral instruments.

After watching, you might like to respond to the children's own comments and then you could ask, 'What makes this music sound like fish gliding through water?' (Logically, it doesn't - but imagination is a wonderful thing!) Ask for lots of describing words for the music and help the children with including using Elements of Music Words such as tinkly timbre for the high notes on the pianos, and the swishy, gliding sound of the glass harmonica near the end. You can't see it in this video but I suspect that the part is played on a glockenspiel, which will be a bigger version of the tuned percussion instruments with shiny, metal bars that children have in school.

Floaty scarves are lovely to use and you can buy a pack cheaply online.

Fishy Sounds (pitch, structure)

This activity really belongs in the Creative Music section but it follows on well here because it's a perfect time for the children to use those little glockenspiels that are often neglected. First you'll need to re-cap on high and low pitch (littlest glockenspiel bars produce the highest pitch and it's unrelated to volume). If you model the activity first, explaining how you are using high and low sounds and fast and slow sounds, the children will understand more easily.

Ask the children, in pairs, to create their own fishy music. Most children are, in my experience, more creative when they have some structure to work with rather than just being asked to make something up. Here's a suggested plan:

• the sun rises
• the fish swim slowly to the surface
• the seagulls fly high, then swoop down quickly
• the fish swim away quickly
• the seagull flies up into the sky

Each pair of children needs one glockenspiel and one untuned instrument. It's possible to do this activity with several pairs of children at once but do make sure that the volume is not too loud - using soft-headed beaters helps.

The children make up their piece of music, practise playing it, then perform it for the rest of the children after which they may revise their music and perform it again. It's great to record the music so that the children can listen to and admire their own work - and, of course, self-assess. Recording the music also provides a record of achievement for you.

Make Graphic Scores

Graphic scores are time-lines for what happens in the music and when. First ask the children how they can show high and low pitch in their graphic score, as well the order in which the sounds are made.

Treasure!

This is the most brilliant activity - you have to do it! You need:

• One large, real parachute
• One 'treasure chest'
• 'treasure' to go in the treasure chest

Fill the treasure chest with different kinds of treasure, for example, sea shells, costume jewellery and gold coins.

Spread the parachute out along the floor, making sure that it covers the treasure chest underneath it, in the centre.

Have each child hold onto a piece on the parachute and lift it up and down to make waves.

Assign so many children at a time the role of divers and ask them to dive for different objects, for example, 'Divers, dive for something that is round' or, 'Divers, dive for something that is blue'.

Make sure that all the children have had a turn at being a diver before the game ends.