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Creating headlines for calypso
This Music video introduces teachers to lesson two of the Caribbean unit, where pupils combine topical headlines with calypso’s traditional features of political lyrics and improvisation. After recapping the song What’s the Story, the class will explore how calypso often includes verse and chorus structures before creating their own short news headlines to be performed in the chorus gaps. The activity blends literacy and music, encouraging pupils to shout, speak, or set their headlines to rhythm or pitch.
This video is part of Kapow Primary’s Music scheme – notes. It demonstrates how to guide children in writing, rehearsing, and performing their own calypso-style news lines, supporting differentiation by challenging confident pupils to use rhythm or pitch. Teachers are also given strategies for organisation, such as dividing the class into groups for each chorus gap, ensuring every child contributes to the final performance.
