Year 1 have learnt three new songs this term called ‘Days of the week’, ‘The name song’ and ‘Cuckoo’. The song ‘Days of the week’ is sung in a jazz style and this song taught the children the days of the week in Spanish too! The song ‘Cuckoo’ is about a cuckoo, a bird with a call that sounds like its name – a falling two-note melody. The same melody can be heard in this song. For each song, the children learnt an instrumental on their glockenspiels.
This spring, Year 2 have learnt the undeniable classic ‘I am the music man’. This song helped the children learn about the different instruments that make an orchestra, and the different groups these instruments belong to (for example, the violin belonging to the string family.) They also started learning an instrumental for the song too.
Year 5 learnt a reggae song this term called ‘Erie Canal’. They learnt an instrumental for this song on their glockenspiel and then improvised their own instrumentals! They have also started learning ‘Put a little love in your heart’, a pop song from the 1960s by soulful singer Jackie Deshannon (who won a Grammy for Bette Davies Eyes in 1982.)
Our Year 6 children have just started learning the ukulele. They have already had a go at tuning it, know the correct position to hold it and have begun learning different strumming patterns. Everyone can play a C chord and we are currently working on chords F and Dm which will allow the children to play a number of well known songs such as ‘Sunflower’ and Bobby Mcferrin’s Grammy award winning ‘Don’t worry, be happy’. Some children learning the piano have chosen to learn the chords to these songs on the keyboard instead too.
Year 1
Year 2
Year 5
Year 6
