Before the lesson
Watch
- Teacher video: Folk song
- Teacher skills video: KS1 Singing (from ‘Music, Teacher skills, Singing (KS1)’
- Teacher video: Musical vocabulary
Have ready
- Presentation: Folk song lyrics – optional (Attention grabber)
- Teacher notes: Folk song lyrics (see Classroom resources)
- Link: ‘Countryside sounds loop’ on VideoLink
- Link: ”The Lark Ascending’ by Vaughan Williams’ on VideoLink
Learning objective
- To learn about the music of the British Isles and create music of our own
National curriculum
Pupils should be taught to:
- Use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs
- Play tuned and untuned instruments musically
- Experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the interrelated dimensions of music
- Listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality recorded music
Success criteria
- I can sing a song confidently
- I can create a musical soundscape
- I can use musical vocabulary to talk about the music I hear
Cross-curricular links
- Nothing relevant to this lesson
Attention grabber
Teach the children the song, ‘Lavender’s blue’, referring to the Teacher notes: Folk song lyrics for the words and the Teacher video: Folk song for the tune and instructions.
You may want to use the Presentation: Folk song lyrics (slide 4) to help you teach the children the song.
Presentation: Folk song lyrics
Show on your interactive whiteboard
Main event
Discussion: Countryside music
The song ‘Lavender’s blue’ is set in the countryside.
Ask pupils to discuss in pairs the kind of sounds you might hear in the countryside and share their suggestions with the class (see ‘Differentiation’ if any child is struggling with this).
Make a list on the board of all the children’s ideas, prompting them as necessary.
Composition: Countryside soundscape
Put the children into groups, and then ask each group to pick one of the sounds written on the board and find as many different ways as they can to make that sound using voice, body percussion or classroom objects (such as pencils or rulers).
Get each group to share their sound ideas with the class and decide on the best one to include in a soundscape.
Create a soundscape as you did in Lesson 1 (see ‘Music, Year 2, On this island: British songs and sounds, Lesson 1: British seaside sounds’) by pointing to each group in turn, to make their noise and then point to two or more groups to make their noises at the same time to create a layered effect.
Ask pupils: What dimensions of music could we add to our performance to make it more interesting?
Try out some of their suggestions.
Key questions
- In which part of the British Isles is this song set? (The countryside.)
- How could you recreate sounds from this environment?
Differentiation
Pupils needing extra support: It might be useful to play the link: ‘Countryside sounds loop’ on VideoLink to help them consider how to recreate them.
Pupils working at greater depth: Could lead the soundscape performance; ask them to name the interrelated dimensions of music that you have used in your soundscape.
Wrapping up
Play the link: ”The Lark Ascending’ by Vaughan Williams’ on VideoLink but do not tell the children the title of the piece of music.
Let the children hear the beginning of this piece of music, which is inspired by the British countryside. Do not tell the children the title of the music but ask them:
- What they can hear in the music.
- What they think the music is about.
Reveal the title of the music and discuss how this is represented in the music, using musical vocabulary (see the Teacher video: Musical vocabulary for support).
Assessing pupils' progress and understanding
Pupils with secure understanding indicated by: Singing accurately and finding multiple ways of making the same sound, and describing the music using musical vocabulary.
Pupils working at greater depth indicated by: Singing accurately and confidently as well as finding different but still appropriate ways of representing the same sound, naming the interrelated dimensions of music and using these terms to describe what they hear.
Vocabulary
Duration
Dynamics
Pitch
Structure
Texture
Timbre
Tempo