Crew MW – End of Spring 2 round-up

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

We did lots of exciting things during our final weeks of Spring 2.

We planted our own sunflower seeds and can’t wait to see how they grow! We carefully made sure that our seeds had enough compost before looking at our tiny seeds and even whispering kind things to them so that they would grow beautifully. We then made sure that they were well covered and we will keep checking in on them so that they grow into super sunflowers!

As well as planting our own seeds that will turn into flowers, we looked carefully at the different parts of flowers that had already grown. We talked about the stem, the leaves and the petals. We carefully dissected each of the parts, thinking about what they looked like, how the felt and we even smelt the petals! We then used the parts to create natural art. We also used some of the petals to add to our water tray to make beautiful potions and perfumes!

We also looked at the Easter story and talked about why Easter is important and the need for us to celebrate it many years later.

We spent some time admiring our beautiful work from this expedition that is now on display outside our classroom. We enjoyed spotting ourselves and our friends on the pictures, finding our work and talking about all the fantastic learning we have done this term!

Finally, we celebrated our fantastic Spring Term by inviting our lovely grown ups into school to our Celebration of Learning. We performed our song ‘Gingerbread Man on the Run’ before completing Easter crafts with our grown ups. We also shared our beautiful work books and talked about all of the hard work we had done this term.

A big thank you to all the grown ups who came in to share this event with the children – they have worked so hard and we are all so proud of what they have achieved!

A really busy, but really fun term! Well done Crew MW, you are all superstars!

Crew Mcloughlin – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

During this lesson, we began looking at performing the Twinkle theme on pitched instruments. We used glockenspiels and worked hard to use the notations to ensure we were playing the correct notes with the correct rhythm.

We then thought about how we could create a new variation based upon the changes we had discussed in our previous lesson as well as some new suggestions. Working with a partner, we created a short variation before sharing these with the rest of our crew. We tried to identify how the performers had created their new variation as well as praising and offering critique for improvement next time.

Crew Godley and Crew Robson – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

We continued with our work on ‘Trains’ during music by thinking of different sounds that you would hear on a train or that a train makes. We thought about how we could use our voices and body percussion to create these sounds.

We then practised following a conductor using crescendo and diminuendo actions whilst performing the train sounds we had decided upon.

Miss McGlone played us a rhythm using a drum and after a discussion, we decided that this rhythm could be used to represent the wheels of the train. She then used a shaker to play a beat that was twice as fast as the drum. We said that this could represent the passengers on the train jiggling along as the train moved. Finally, she played a guiro that went twice as fast as the shaker. This represented the sound of the engine. We talked about how the drum and the shaker could stay at their original beat whilst all being layered on top of each other. We listened to an example of how each individual beat could be played at the same time to create a piece representing multiple different parts of a train journey.

We are ready to begin creating our own compositions next lesson that include lots of rhythms layered on top of each other, as well as using crescendo and diminuendo techniques.

Crew Godley and Crew Robson – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

We began our new music unit ‘Trains’ by thinking about different modes of transport. We then listened to 4 pieces of music inspired by different modes of transport. We had to listen carefully and draw the type of transport we thought was represented by the music.

We were then introduced to the musical terms ‘crescendo’ and ‘diminuendo’. When the music gets louder it is called a ‘crescendo’. When the music fades away and gets quieter it is called ‘diminuendo’. We looked at the symbols that are used in written music to show this.

We practised a short rhythm and repeated this multiple times. We decided on a visual prompt that our conductor (Miss McGlone) could use to show crescendo and diminuendo and as we repeated the rhythm, we followed the actions of the conductor to make it louder or quieter.

Crew Marsh – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

We began our new unit of music ‘Musical Conversations’ by listening to a piece of music called ‘Dueling banjos’. We talked about what we noticed was happening in the music and decided it sounded like the instruments were talking to each other and having a conversation. We then got into a circle and using the box of instruments in the middle, two people had a conversation with an instrument of their choice. We thought that we needed to set some rules for the people with the instruments. 1) take turns, 2) you can’t play at the same time, 3) you can play what you like, for as long as you like. We then swapped so everyone had a turn to have a musical conversation with a friend.

We then split into pairs and had our own personal musical conversations only this time, we were thinking about how we might represent different emotions within our conversations (e.g. having an argument, being silly, being happy, being shy etc). Once finished, we then shared some of our conversations with the rest of the class and we had to guess the emotion we thought they were showing.

Crew Hamill and Crew Thompson – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

We continued with our work on ‘Latin Dance’ by learning about Cuban music and where it gets its influences from. We discussed how it uses a special rhythm called the clave rhythm and we used untuned percussion instruments to find the clave rhythm to a song called ‘El manisero (The Peanut Vendor)’.

We then used glockenspiels to practise the A minor and F major chords. Our final performance is going to be a whole class arrangement of ‘Latin Dance’ so we practised adding the chords in alongside singing the lyrics with the backing track. We thought about what we needed to do to make it even better during the next lesson!

Crew Shields – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

We continued with our work on ‘The Doot Doot Song’ by recapping the chord sequence used within the piece. We used the glockenspiels and worked in small groups to create the chords needed. We worked hard to make sure we were all playing at the same time.

We then finished off the lesson by listening to different styles of acoustic guitar music. As ‘The Doot Doot Song’ is an acoustic piece, we talked about the different instruments that layer together to create a piece and how these layers can be different in order to create different variations. We listened to Jolene (Dolly Parton), Blowin’ in the Wind (Bob Dylan), Gone (Jack Johnson and Ben Harper), and Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (Lead Belly). We identified many similarities and differences.

Crew Mcloughlin – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

We began our new unit ‘Twinkle Variations’ by looking at a body percussion piece. We had to recognise the actions represented on the diagram before performing as a whole class. We felt like we recognised the rhythm of the piece and the more we practised, we began to realise it was the same tune as ‘Twinkle Twinkle’.

We discussed how composers could take a simple theme, like ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ and make subtle changes here and there to create a completely new variation. They could alter the speed and tempo, the rhythm and the order.

We then listened to some of Mozart’s twinkle variations. Whilst listening, we thought about the changes Mozart had made to create a new variation. Some were trickier than others to appraise!

Crew Shields – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

As part of our snapshot of learning, we looked at a song called ‘I Wanna Sing Scat’. After listening to the song and identifying some of the areas where lyrics were easy to pick up, we talked about the rhythm and how some of the lyrics only happen on certain beats. We spent a lot of time looking at how the rhythm and beats affected the sound of the piece as there were main lyrics, and then different backing vocals. It was a really tricky concept to get our heads round but we persevered and in the end when we split into two groups, it began to sound really professional!

Crew Mcloughlin – Music

14th April 2024Sarah Mcglone

To finish our work on ‘You To Me Are Everything’ by The Real Thing, we practised iconic disco dance moves to get our bodies warmed up. We then performed the initial verse and chorus of ‘You To Me Are Everything’ before further exploring cover versions of the same song by Karizma Duo and The Jetfighters. We discussed similarities and differences before looking in more detail at the tempo, pitch and the instruments used in each piece and how this changed the feel of the music.