Music: Lower Key Stage 2

Learning to tell stories through music. Listening to music and considering the narrative it could represent. Paying close attention to the dynamics, pitch and tempo and how they change. Creating original compositions to match an animation, building up layers of texture.

The children develop their singing technique. Learning to keep in time and work on musical notation and rhythm, the unit finishes with a group performance of a song with actions.

Children learn what ballads are, how to identify their features and how to convey different emotions when performing them. Using an animation as inspiration, children carefully select vocabulary to describe the story, before turning them into lyrics by incorporating rhyming words and following the structure of a traditional ballad.

Revising key musical terminology, playing and creating pentatonic melodies, composing a piece of music using layered melodies.

Learning about ragtime style music, Dixieland music and scat singing. Children create a jazz motif using a swung rhythm.

Children listen to a range of rag and tal music, identifying traditional instruments as well as creating their own improvisations and performing as a class.

A topic of discovery; children will explore the rainforest through music and be introduced to new musical terms. They will also use a mixture of body percussion and tuned percussion instruments as the children create their own rhythms of the rainforest, layer by layer.

Learning about the origin and features of rock and roll music, pupils learn how to play the Hand Jive and Rock Around the Clock, looking specifically at a walking bass line, before performing a piece as a class.

Learning to listen to changes in pitch, tempo and dynamics and relate it to something tangible and familiar. Linking to their geography learning, the pupils represent different stages of the river through vocal and percussive ostinatos, culminating in a final group performance.

This Japanese inspired topic looks at the springtime festival of Hanami, which celebrates the fleeting beauty of spring flowers. Children use descriptive vocabulary to create a Haiku, put it to music and finally add percussion sound effects to bring all elements together before a final, group performance.

Getting a feel for the music and culture of South America, children are introduced to samba and the sights and sounds of the carnival.

Drawing upon their understanding of repeating patterns in music, pupils are introduced to the concept of motifs.