Working creatively with sound
- We are learning to explore sounds made by simple percussion instruments.
What to look for
- Pupils making sounds using simple percussion instruments, for example tapping, shaking and scraping
- Pupils handling instruments correctly and carefully
- Pupils making loud and quiet sounds
- Pupils making fast and slow sounds
- Pupils beginning to choose sounds to create effect
- Pupils making sounds in response to given stimuli
Focus circle time on helping the pupils to explore ways of handling instruments and making sounds, for example:
- ‘Pass the instrument’ around the circle; have the pupils produce a sound using the instrument, while saying:
- their name;
- their favourite colour; or
- their favourite animal;
- ‘Pass the beanbag’ (or a small cuddly toy) around the circle while everyone sings a well-known rhyme. At the end of the song, invite the pupil holding the beanbag to select an instrument from the centre of the circle. Ask him/her to find and play an instrument that they can:
- tap, scrape or shake;
- play quietly or loudly; or
- use to make a sound that reminds them of, for example, running, tiptoeing, an elephant trudging through the jungle or fish swimming.
- Hold up pictures as stimuli and invite the pupils to suggest corresponding sounds.
Use instruments to explore together and elicit sounds to accompany stories, songs and rhymes, for example:
- Three Little Pigs:building houses, e.g.
- straw – maracas;
- sticks – claves/coconut shells;
- bricks – tambour; and
- wolf – drum;
- Mix a Pancake: making the pancake, e.g.
- mixing – bells;
- stirring – scraping tambour skin;
- sizzling – maracas;
- tossing – cymbal; and
- catching – drum;
- I Hear Thunder: listening to the rain, e.g.
- raindrops – fingers on tambour;
- another simple story or poem on CD to which children can add appropriate sound effects.