Cambridge Primary

Let’s form a band

A Cambridge Global PerspectivesTM Challenge

Skill focus: Collaboration Stage: 3 Age: 7 - 8 Topic: Sport and Leisure

Learning objectives Success criteria

Collaboration

The team member introduces ideas and works positively with other Learners work together to design and make a musical instrument, contributing their ideas and listening to
team members to achieve a shared outcome the ideas and responses of others.

The team allocate given tasks to team members to achieve a shared

Learners agree a list of tasks to meet the brief of the band and agree who will do each task.
outcome

Identify strengths and limitations of personal contribution to

Learners identify one achievement that contributed to team collaboration and one improvement.
teamwork

Communication
Listen to others in class discussions and respond with relevant ideas Learners talk about what music they like to listen to including any relevant information about the singer or
and questions instruments used. Learners share any knowledge of instruments with others.
Learners demonstrate an appreciation of other people’s views and perspectives about music.
Learners play a guessing game and a matching game by listening to different instruments and can explain
their reasons for their answers and can respectfully explain why they agree or disagree with the answers
given by others.

Challenge summary
By the end of this Challenge, learners will have worked as a team to design and create a musical instrument and then to create a band and perform a song, sharing ideas and
allocating roles. Learners talk about what music they like and listen to others’ opinions. They play a guessing and matching game focusing on the reasons for their choice and
explaining their reasons to others.

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 Activities (sequence)
What music do you like to listen to?
Talk about what music you like to listen to. Play part of the song / piece of music. Say something about the singer or instruments used and why you like it. Ask
learners:

• What music do you like to listen to?

• Why do you like it?
• Do you know what instruments are used? (if any)

Learners listen to others’ opinions about different types of music and respond respectfully with questions or comments. If some learners have not heard of a
particular instrument, song or singer, encourage other learners to explain what/who it is.

Play some songs / pieces of music that learners are likely to be familiar with. Select songs / pieces of music that use different instruments. Can they guess the
instruments? Include a song that doesn’t include any instruments for example Don’t worry be happy by Bobby McFerrin which uses only the voice (which is also
an instrument, this is known as an acapella) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU

Include a song or piece of music from another country that uses an instrument specific to that country.

Give learners pictures of different instruments which include the instruments used in the songs you have chosen. Learners work in pairs to guess the
instruments. Invite each pair of learners to explain to the class why they chose an instrument. The aim of this activity is not to guess the instrument correctly but
for learners to think about their choice and give their reasons for choosing it.

What instruments are used?

Explain that instruments can be used to represent different characters in a piece of music. Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf uses different instruments for
different characters in the story. Encourage learners to think about the different characters and the sound of the instruments. It might be helpful to summarise
the story for learners. (Teacher Resource – Let’s form a band T3.1)
Learners work in groups of four. Give them (Learner Resource – Let’s form a band L3.2) that lists the different characters. Play the music for each character
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIi_q4bNZMM&list=PLuDmepj8uyhdOY-ehbhPL1UABHyVXfo-s
Ask each group to complete the resource by guessing which musical instrument each character is represented by. Visuals can help learners with this task. You
could hold up pictures that represent the characters and instruments or add pictures to the learner resource. You could also tell learners some basic information
about the instruments, for example, the bassoon is a woodwind instrument. You could invite the music teacher or a similar expert to come and talk to the
learners about the different families that instruments belong to.
Ask each group in turn, to name one character and the instrument they think represents it. Ask other groups to offer an explanation as to why they agree or
disagree. Continue until all groups have suggested a character and instrument. Draw out from learners why they selected a particular instrument e.g. was it
lively, loud, quiet, etc. As with the first activity the aim is not to guess correctly but for learners to work together, share ideas, listen to others’ ideas and give
reasons for why they think the instrument represents the character.

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 Design an instrument
Ask learners, as a group, to design and make an instrument which they will then use to perform a song as a band.
This activity is about collaboration and specifically introducing ideas and working positively with other team members to achieve a shared outcome (designing
an instrument).
Before this activity you could invite a music teacher to come and talk about / demonstrate different instruments and the different sounds they make, to give
learners some ideas.
The first stage is design. In groups, learners contribute ideas. Encourage learners to listen to other learners’ ideas and agree which ones they will use. They
can agree as a team or appoint a decision maker. They should think about what they want their instrument to do and what materials they will need.
The second stage is making the instrument. Instruments can be made out of everyday objects. Some examples are provided in (Teacher Resource – Let’s form
a band T3.3).
Provide some basic materials for learners to make their instruments, for example, small boxes, rulers, pencil rubber bands, small stones, rice. Learners can
also bring in any items they would like to use. Monitor and support groups during the task.
How did you decide on your instrument? Did you all contribute ideas?

Let’s form a band

Tell learners they are going to form a band and will use the instrument they designed and created as a group to perform a song of their choice.
This activity is about collaboration and specifically allocating given tasks to team members to achieve a shared outcome.
You could invite a music teacher to talk about group performances or a local band to share how they created their band to set the scene for this activity and
give learners ideas.
Divide learners into groups and ask them to agree a list of tasks to achieve the brief of creating a band and performing a song using the instrument they
designed. Learners should consider how many people are in their team and ensure everyone has a task and a role. Some example tasks and roles:
Tasks Roles
Agree on a name Lead singer
Decide who does what (lead Backing singers
singer, plays the instrument they
created as a group, plays any
other instrument)
Decide on a song
Learners can be creative with tasks and roles. For example, they could decide to film a music video and agree who will use the camera, who will direct etc. You
can add any other tasks that will provide an opportunity for learners to achieve the learning objectives for this Challenge. On the day of the performance

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 encourage learners to dress up and bring any other objects they would like to use e.g. toy microphone.
Each group performs their song to the rest of the class. Invite the class to ask questions about why they chose the name, how they decided who would do
what, what instruments to use, why they chose the song. Or groups can present this information before or after the performance and the class ask any other
questions for clarification. Learners vote for the best performance.
Learners reflect on their contribution to the team focusing on what they did to support collaboration using (Learner Resource – Let’s form a band L3.4). For
example, I encouraged X to share their ideas with team. Encourage learners to give feedback to other learners. You may need to model this e.g. I liked the way
X encouraged X to share their ideas. Include some of your own questions to encourage learners to give productive feedback.

Challenge resources

Provided by Cambridge

Teacher Resource – Let’s form a band T3.1 Learner Resource – Let’s form a band L3.2
Teacher Resource – Let’s form a band T3.3 Learner Resource – Let’s form a band L3.4

Other resources

Music teacher, school band or local musicians

Materials to make simple musical instruments (boxes, bottles, beads, beans, rubber bands etc.).

Personal Local Global

This Global Perspectives Challenge has been designed to be flexible and should be adapted to school requirements and the needs of your learners. Further guidance and
support for planning is given in the Teacher Guide.

Copyright © UCLES 2020

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