In this topic the children will be given the opportunity to develop their compositional skills by writing music for their own version of the well known musical story Peter and the Wolf as well as helping to create their own musical story. The children will be able to creatively think about how different instruments/sounds/textures can help to portray a particular character, creature and/or emotion. The children will be given the task of creating their own story using pictures and writing and then adding a musical score to it. This topic will also allow the children to continue developing their singing skills by singing the fun song ‘Shake my sillies out’ as well as developing their musical thinking skills by determining which sounds/instruments suit certain scenarios/characters/scenes the best. This topic is very engaging from start to finish with plenty of activities and original lesson starters, Enjoy!

This topic explores music of the Far East including the following countries: China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Polynesia, Bali and Java. Year 5 will also learn about the importance of the pentatonic scale in Chinese music. They will be given the opportunity to learn to play a traditional piece of Chinese music (Jasmine Flower) on tuned percussion and keyboards and will also be set the task of composing their own piece of music using the pentatonic scale. The class will also be given the opportunity to learn to sing a Filipino & Polynesian song as well as taking part in a classroom Gamelan activity for the last two weeks (they will use classroom tuned percussion to create Gamelan style music). As well as broadening their musical listening and experiences this topic is also great for linking with geography and history too.

This is a 6 lesson topic exploring the music listened to and played during World War 2. The children will develop an understanding of the styles of music civilians and soldiers were listening to during the 1930’s and 1940’s including Vera Lynn, George Formby, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong etc. They will also learn how to play a simple swing/jazz piece of music (C Jam Blues), develop their improvisation skills and sing a fun Glenn Miller inspired song. By the end of the topic the class will have a good understanding of the music of World War 2, the instruments that make a jazz/big band, the role music and songs played during the war, what swing music is and how to improvise using the pentatonic scale. Overall, this topic will help children develop a range of skills including listening and appraisal, singing, musical instrument playing, improvising and performing. I have now added another classroom arrangement of Little Brown Jug

Area of Study 4 & 5 with links to musical examples on YouTube

This is a short project I did with KS2. It contains a Powerpoint with all the relevant information about how to write your own song. You will need to link music to the relevant pictures. It has music for a class to play 'I Gotta Feeling&' by the Black Eyed Peas. There is also a very basic lesson plan with it.

A PowerPoint containing all of the information for Area of Study 3 (Texture and Melody). The Powerpoint includes links to musical examples. Some of the pictures are linked to music on my own laptop so will not work on yours! You'll need to upload your own example (mp3)

I have a created a 'Who wants to be a millionaire&' quiz based on Popular music of the 20th & 21st Century (AQA Music). Four of the questions are based on audio files so you will need to add your own. The answers are in the &';notes' tab underneath the edit page. Enjoy

I have created Power points covering all of the subject content for the Areas of Study 1 & 2 (AQA Music) including links to music examples. Hope it's of some help!