Friday Headlines

The Sound of Music!

Preparatory

26 May 2023

Last week Westbourne girls spent the morning in the EHS Music School. They played, explored, watched and most importantly laughed a lot!

Activities were split into three sessions. Firstly, the girls explored rhythm. They listened to various rhythms and had a go at repeating them by clapping, stamping and playing percussion instruments. They had the chance to play the maracas, woodblocks, bells, drums and claves. Teachers demonstrated how to play all of these instruments correctly too. The children were taught new words such as ‘dynamics’ and they practised playing loudly and quietly, as well as ‘crescendo’ where they became louder as they played.

The second activity involved them listening carefully to different styles of music following which, they were then given opportunities to talk about what they could hear. They listened for different instruments playing and simply discussed how the varying music made them feel. They considered whether it made them feel relaxed and sleepy or made them want to get up and dance! Children did all this using an app on the iPad where they could select a different colour to use on the screen. Each change in colour meant a change in music style. ‘Rainbow’ colour seemed to be the favourite!

The final activity allowed girls to explore a wider range of instruments, which included a piano, a bass drum, a violin and a trumpet. The girls were encouraged to look closely, touch and watch each instrument being played. The hammers beating on the strings inside the piano gained the interest of many! Working out what the trumpet was made of sparked many suggestions from glass to cardboard to metal. In this session, girls also learnt about pitch and were encouraged to use their bodies to help demonstrate when they heard a low sound and when they heard a high sound. The last job the children had was to strike the bass drum, which was much larger in size than many of the children themselves!

After these very busy workshop sessions, the children returned to Westbourne. In Nursery, the girls were given further opportunities to play percussion instruments and carefully colour pictures of a wide variety of instruments. In Kindergarten, more time was spent listening to music and expressing their own feelings and talking about what they could hear. In Reception, the girls took to the outdoors to sing and play percussions instruments thinking about the new musical aspects they had learnt such as dynamics, pitch and rhythm.

A most enjoyable ‘Beyond the Curriculum’ Day.

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