Musics

AGE
5-6

Expres
L ess on
Unit: Ourselves Musical focus: Exploring sounds
Subject link: English

1 Lesson Plan

Lesson learning What you will

need
• Creating and responding to vocal sounds

Teaching Activities

Chase the sound Vocabulary

Play a game for exploring the pitch of a vocal sound • Pitch
• Dynamics
Children:
–– explore making different pitches and sounds with their voices as they respond
to a hand action;
–– understand pitch through the use of voice and movement.

Start with singing

Explore vocal sounds and add them to a song
Children:
–– look at pictures to stimulate ideas for exploring vocal sounds;
–– differentiate between different lengths and volumes (dynamics) of vocal sounds;
–– sing a song which includes a variety of vocal sounds.

Playing at the park

Add high, low and sliding vocal sounds to a song
EXTENDED
Children: LEARNING
Music Express Age 5-6 © 2014 A&C Black (an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc)

–– use a variety of pitches to create vocal sounds that represent pictures of

Create a sound collage of a
playground activities; park. Different groups use their
–– sing a song, adding their own vocal sounds to the end of each verse. voices to make the sounds of
different pieces of equipment.

Support: Encourage less confident children to explore making vocal sounds using a varie-
ty of finger puppets during the ‘Chase the sound’ game.

Glossary 3 www.musicexpress.co.uk
 Musics
AGE
5-6

Expres
L ess on
Unit: Ourselves Musical focus: Exploring sounds
Subject link: English

2 Lesson Plan

Lesson learning What you will

need
• Creating and responding to vocal sounds
• Exploring how to change sounds

Teaching Activities

Say it... Vocabulary

Perform a poem that demonstrates different ways of using the voice • Pitch
• Tempo
Children:
• Dynamics
–– learn a poem as they explore a range of expressive voices;
–– use a variety of dimensions (pitch, tempo and dynamics) as they perform a
poem expressively.

Glad to be me
Learn a happy song and add whole body actions
Children:
–– learn a song and think about how to sing and perform the lyrics expressively;
–– make up actions that match the vocabulary of the song lyrics.

Glad to be me performance
Choreograph an action song performance
Children:
EXTENDED
–– perform a choreographed song with actions;
LEARNING
Music Express Age 5-6 © 2014 A&C Black (an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc)

–– perform the song in groups, joining in one group at a time to build a

Listen to some compositions
performance. that use extended vocal
techniques, eg Cathy
Berberian (1925 – 1985)
created a piece called
Stripsody that only uses sounds
found in comics, eg ‘splat’,
‘vroom’ and ‘brr’.

Glossary 4 www.musicexpress.co.uk
 Musics
AGE
5-6

Expres
L ess on
Unit: Ourselves Musical focus: Exploring sounds
Subject link: English

3 Lesson Plan

Lesson learning What you will

need
• Creating and placing vocal and body percussion sounds
• A selection of hand-held
percussion instruments
• Exploring descriptive sounds

Teaching Activities

Show me one click Vocabulary

Perform a body percussion song • Pitch
• Dynamics
Children:
• Tempo
–– learn a song and perform body percussion sounds that increase in number
with each verse.

A surprise meeting
Add expressive vocal sounds and body percussion to a story
Children:
–– explore a variety of vocal and body percussion sounds to accompany a story;
–– follow a storyboard score as they explore making their expressive sounds;
–– change the tempo and dynamics of sounds to make them more expressive.

A surprise ending
Explore the expressive effect of a different ending to a story
Children:
EXTENDED
–– suggest different endings for a story;
LEARNING
Music Express Age 5-6 © 2014 A&C Black (an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc)

–– explore sounds that can be used to accompany the suggested endings;

Create your own story with
–– perform the different endings with accompanying expressive sounds. vocal and body percussion
accompaniment.

Glossary 5 www.musicexpress.co.uk
A surprise meeting