This week in music, Year 4 have been looking at call and response drumming, as part of our Africa theme.
We learned that Africans often used music as a form of communication, especially across different tribes, where they may speak a different language.
To start our new Learning means the world theme ‘Cry Freedom’, 7 Blue listened to The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughn-Williams. We discussed what pictures the music created in our minds and how it made us feel. The soaring melody reminded us of bird’s soaring through the sky so the children wrote a Haiku poem called ‘Freedom of the Birds’  Â
We have started our new Learning Means The World theme, Come Fly With Me Asia. First we are visiting India. We have looked at some Indian artefacts. We talked about the Sagan envelopes which people gave money in. We have been trying on Lengha dresses and some people have been given a Bindi. Everyone was given the opportunity for a Tikka (religious red dot) on their forehead and we have been saying ‘Namaste’ hello and ‘Shukriah’ thank you. Mrs Sikka also blessed us with some water. The children also learned about the celebration Raksha Bandhan, we then made some bracelets. Ask the children to tell you about the celebration 🇮🇳⭐️
We have had such a great time creating our own jingle in music today. We used the song ‘ If you’re happy and you know it’ and changed the words to create a jingle for a breakfast cereal.
We have been working so hard to develop our gross and fine motor skills over the last few weeks. Outside we have been climbing, running, dancing and negotiating obstacles. We have also been using scarves, dough disco, cutting, drawing tutorials and so much more to develop our fine motor skills.
In our Learning means the world theme of ‘Happily Ever After’ we have been looking at different types of music and how they make us feel. We discussed the tempo and dynamics of each piece and added our own sounds and movements. We then used this skill to retell a traditional tale adding appropriate sound effects when needed.
This week in our Music lessons, we have been exploring and experimenting with tempo using different instruments. First, we clapped along and moved our bodies to the beat of the music. In small groups, we played ‘Speed Fiend’. The ‘Speed Fiend’ clapped a rhythm pattern for everyone to copy, whilst changing the tempo. We all took it in turns to create our own rhythm pattern with different tempos. Then, we experimented with tempo using different instruments. We composed and performed a fast piece of music and then a slow piece of music.
This week, Year 5 have dived into orbit, creating cyclic (repeating) patterns using musical instruments.
We composed a 4-bar rhythm, before performing in front of our peers!
This week in Year 3, we have been looking at soundscapes in music. In our theme ‘Under The Canopy’ we have been learning all about the Amazon Rainforest and what types of sounds we would here if we went there. We learned a new musical term called ‘acapella’ which is where sounds are created using no instruments. We had a go at creating our own acapella soundscape of rainforest noises. We used our voices and our bodies to create the sounds of water droplets, the wind, monkeys, tigers, waterfalls, thunder and many more!
We have just started our new theme ‘Light Up The World’ and one of our first lessons was to look at the difference between light and dark in all aspects of our life. We looked at a few pieces of music and decided which instruments played ‘light’ music and which ones were best suited to represent ‘dark music’. As a group, we then composed a light and dark tune.
