Welcome to the Music Shed

"Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand" STEVIE WONDER
You will notice that some of the videos aren't exactly visually inspiring, instead inspiration should be drawn from listening to the music and lyrics. Music can instantly change the way we feel or think which is why I think you should try using music to inspire writing and literacy based activities. 

I hope you find these videos useful.

Mark 
@PrimaryMark

Clouds - Snoopy: The Musical

This is a brilliant song from the musical version of the famous 'Snoopy' cartoon. Picture the scene, the familiar characters Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy, Linus, etc, are sat outside on a warm summer afternoon looking up towards the clouds telling each other what they can see. 

When listening to this piece of music encourage children to close their eyes so they can visualise what each character is describing. 

I used this song as inspiration for a poem about trees. Children have to write a poem based on all the different shapes they see in the trees surrounding our school. 

Teaching ideas: 
  • Take the children outside and ask what they can see in the clouds, this could lead to a piece of descriptive writing.
  • Write a description based on the clouds. 
  • Retell the story of the song from one of the characters point of view.
  • Ask children to think about the different objects, landmarks or faces that they can see in everyday objects. Many people say that you can see faces on cars, can children find recognisable features in other objects? Use this activity to show how children can extend descriptions in stories.

Prokofiev - Peter And The Wolf

This is a very popular piece of classical music which I think has huge potential in Literacy. Developing character is not always easy for children but I think this video will really help children develop characters in their stories. Each character in the story of 'Peter and the Wolf' is described through music, not words. The carefully chosen instruments help us visualise movement and actions in the story.

WARNING: The video is nearly 30 minutes long so select clips carefully. 

Teaching ideas:

  • Find a large space, play the piece of music and ask children to move around in role. This could lead to writing a character description.
  • Explain why certain instruments have been chosen to represent characters.
  • Retell the story of 'Peter and the Wolf'
  • Find another piece of music with solo instruments that you think might help describe characters. 

Toy Story 3 - Cowboy

This piece from the soundtrack of Toy Story 3 is fast, exciting and adventurous. The music accompanies a scene in the film where Andy, the young boy who owns Woody and Buzz, is playing with all of his toys.

Teaching ideas: 
  • Ask children to create a graphic score on a scrap piece of paper. If you're not sure sure what a graphic score is there are very much like the story mountains we might use in Literacy but it's a graphic representation of a piece of music. It could just be a scribble or a few bumpy lines. Children could then label their story mountain using words to describe particular parts of the story/song. 
  • Describe how the instruments represent characters in the scene.

Fantasia and Fantasia 2000

You'll remember these films from 1940's and 2000, animated stories set to classical music. The stories have obviously been written to accompany the music which begs the question 'Can we do this with every piece of music?'. Have a look at the example I've provided below, have a listen to other pieces of classical music too. 

The Sorcerers Apprentice:

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8gOh0wEgLg

Teaching ideas: 
  • Write a description of the character Mickey Mouse represents (The Apprentice) 
  • Write a poem based on the story using exciting vocabulary to show how the characters move and interact with each other. 
  • Retell the story.
  • Create a comic strip based on 'The Sorcerers Apprentice'.
  • Let children listen to a completely different piece of classical music, what story ideas can they come up with to accompany the music? Get the children to act out and explore their story before writing it.


BBC Ten Pieces


I thought that it might be worth mentioning this in the Fantasia section. The BBC recently produced a wonderful DVD called 'Ten Pieces', the aim was to showcase classical music. Schools can actually request a free DVD of the programme, have a look at the site using the link below: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01vs08w