On Wednesday 21st June we celebrated World Music Day for the second time in school.  We had a music-filled day with a brilliant Junk Percussion Workshop led by The Beat Goes On.  In preparation for this we made our own junk percussion instruments and used them to make music and follow a beat in our workshop.  We also enjoyed a number of other musical experiences listening to and playing instruments.  We can't wait for next year! 

Our topic this term is 'Grow Grow Grow' and we have been reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.  In Music we have learnt a song called 'The King is in the Castle' to link to our topic.  We have enjoyed exploring and changing the pitch and dynamics of our voices and trying out different actions to represent the different characters.

We have ended spring term by watching and learning 'The Cup Song'.  We have demonstrated a lot of perseverance as it is much harder than it looks!  We watched a tutorial (the link is below so you can continue to practise at home!) and played our cups saying the rhyme to help us... 'clap, clap, tap, tap, rap, clap and move, slap and kiss, tap, switch, hand!'  Here you can watch some of the children in Elephants class as they play the cups.  We hope you enjoy it. 

To start our musical adventures this spring term, we had a wonderful musical storytelling session of 'The Dinosaur Department Store' run by Concerteenies for our reception and year 1 children.  Our session began by learning about and listening to the cello being played.  We also practised breathing properly so that we can sing better.  We  joined in with parts of the story using our singing voices and we even learnt some actions to accompany the story too. 

If you could buy a dinosaur from 'The Dinosaur Department Store', which one would you choose?

Following our African Drumming Workshop, we continued on our musical journey through Africa and learnt a traditional Ghanaian call and response song called 'Che Che Kule'.  After learning the song as a whole class, we then added actions and worked in two groups, with one group singing the call and the other singing the response.  We love the song in Elephant class and here we are performing it for you to enjoy!  

We kick-started this year with a lively and fun African Drumming Workshop, which linked to our Hot Countries topic.  We explored rhythm and pulse and performed call and response chants to the beat.  We had the opportunity to dance along to some Traditional African music too. 

Our final musical enrichment of the year was a fantastic music concert!  The Sheffield Music Academy performed Vivaldi's Four Seasons for us and we learned about the instruments which were being played too.  What a treat!

In July, we really enjoyed taking part in World Music Day.  All classes had the opportunity to experience music making in our Junk Percussion workshop and in our classrooms playing instruments.  We were even lucky enough have a live musical storytelling session.  

KS1 have enjoyed learning the song 'The Hairy Scary Castle' to link to our 'Once Upon A Time' topic.  We added sound effects using percussion instruments and worked as a group to sing and play in time. We worked hard to use our voices expressively and to match the correct pitch of the original song.

In KS1, we listened with concentration to 'Aquarium' from the Carnival of the Animals and expressed the way the music made us feel on paper by making pen movements.  We then listened to a contrasting piece of music, the Jaws theme tune and repeated the same activity. 

Can you tell which pen movements represent which piece of music?

Reception had fun making music for 'The Bear Hunt' story!