Music room

Happy new year! I hope you had a marvellous Christmas.

Here is the plan for the next half term.

Year 1

MACHINES

Musical Focus: Beat_The Children explore beats through movements, body percussions and instruments. They combine steady beats with word rhythms and explore changes in tempo.

SEASONS

Musical Focus: Pitch

The children develop further their vocabulary and understanding of pitch movements, exploring pitch through singing, tuned percussion and listening games.

Year 2

ANIMALS

Musical Focus: Pitch

The children link animal movement with pitch movement to help develop understanding and recognition of changing pitch. They interpret pitch line notation using voices and tuned instruments.

NUMBER

Musical Focus: Beat

The children explore steady beat and rhythm patterns. They play beats and patterns from Renaissance, Italy to West Africa and create their own with body percussion, voices and instruments.

Year 3

CHINA

Musical Focus: Pitch

The children explore the pentatonic scale and ways of notating pitch. They listen to traditional Chinese music, sing, read, and compose music, ending in a musical celebration of the Chinese New Year.

TIME

Musical Focus: Beat

The children develop their understanding of beat, metre and rhythm. They combine melodic and rhythmic patterns, and use staff notation as part of a final performance.

YEAR 4

BUILDING

Musical Focus: Beat

Building-themed songs allow the children to explore how music can be structured to provide different textures. They use layers and rondo structure to combine ostinati played on body percussion and tuned instruments.

AROUND THE WORLD

Musical Focus: Pitch

The children explore pentatonic melodies and syncopated rhythms, learning that the fundamental dimensions of music are the same all over the world.

YEAR 5

LIFE CYCLES

Musical Focus: Structure

Explore the human life cycle with music by Johannes Brahms, Luciano Berio, Franz Liszt and Claudio Monteverdi. The wide variety of musical moods, styles and genres inspires singing, performing and composing using new techniques and structures.

YEAR 6

GROWTH

Musical Focus: Street Dance Performance

‘The Street’ is the setting for this unit of buskers and flash mobs. The children explore Ravel’s Bolero through rhythmical mime, learn songs with instrumental accompaniments, and create a dance to build into a thrilling street performance.