Themes

Each term we follow a series of themes which generally tie in with the seasons. Autumn might start with a reprise of summer holidays at the beach or a look at the traveling fairs that tour Oxfordshire in  October. Falling leaves become more noticeable in November and the frost sets in in winter. Spring and summer songs can include insects, gardens and farms. Other topics might be colours, food, transport or wild animals.

Woven into these topics, of course, are the musical themes of pulse, dynamics, tempo, timbre and pitch, but I don’t make a big to-do about them with these very young children. Rather my approach is to make musical activities fun and to develop their listening skills.  The children get a great sense of achievement from joining in with group activities, so learning to control their percussion instrument becomes a game where everyone (well, most people) in the session can jingle, tap, scratch or stop the sound at the same time.  Listening skills are developed by songs that use their keen sense of anticipation, such as ‘sleepy bunnies.’ By pausing for variable lengths of time in the middle of that song the children really have to listen for the ‘wake-up’ chords.  Our current record is 30 seconds in complete silence

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