Music at key stages 1 and 2    (Year 1/2)

• Choose a stimulus, eg rain. Choose a song related to the chosen stimulus, eg Rain, rain, go away, I hear thunder or Dr Foster. Ask the class to sing this song in different ways and discuss the effect, eg singing the song angrily, sadly, happily, hopefully. [Link to unit 1 Singing]
• Play pieces of music that describe different types of weather to the children. What kind of weather do you think it is and why? [Link to unit 1: Listening]

• Talk about the different kinds of weather that make a sound, eg heavy downpour, thunder, howling wind. Find words to describe them and say them in a way that reflects their meaning, eg rumbling thunder in a low voice, howling wind in a howling voice. Also, explore words that describe how they might feel, eg cold, shivering.

• Using these words, explore different ways of saying them to create an effect, eg getting louder to reflect thunder getting nearer, slowing down to reflect rain stopping.

• For each type of weather, ask the children to suggest instruments that make sounds like those described by the selected words. Take each of the weather words in turn and ask the children to think of instrumental sounds to match them, eg a drum roll for the word 'thunder', rapid taps on a woodblock for the words 'pitter patter'. Discuss ways of improving the instrumental sounds. Experiment with different beaters, with dynamics, tempos and duration.

• Encourage the children to try putting sounds together using words/voices and instruments. Ask the children to work in pairs: one child is responsible for a vocal sound, the other for an instrumental sound. The children combine voices and instruments to describe a chosen kind of weather. Discuss the effect. Can the rest of the class guess the kind of weather that is being described?
• Explore the effect of silence.
• Ask the children to decide on combinations that relate to the words describing the weather.

• Talk about a typical weather sequence, eg thunder, lightning, rain. Discuss with the children how musical ideas can be organised, eg using structure of beginning, middle and end.
• Plan a sequence of weather, eg light rain - heavier - thunder and lightning - light rain stopping.
• Give the composition a title. Plan the vocal and instrumental sounds that can be used. Talk about timbre, tempo, dynamics. How could sounds overlap to create more descriptive sounds? After this discussion, which should encourage children to recall internalised sounds, choose instruments and experiment to improve the intended effect. Are there any instances where vocal sounds would be more effective than instrumental ones? What other sound sources could we use, eg a large card wobbled to create the sound of thunder? Should there be any periods of silence? Ask the children to practise their own sounds, then rehearse as a class. Record the rehearsals and discuss to improve the work.
• Try different sequences. Picture cards could be used to help children remember the different sections, eg picture of drops, heavy rain, lightning.