A Wolf song for KS1-2: rhythm & percussion

The Wolf Howls is a song created for schools and their music students of 7 years old upwards with a basic understanding of simple rhythmic notation, who wish to play classroom instruments. The song is divided into several parts for students including the tambourine, triangle, small drum, glockenspiel and xylophone with the backing chords played on a ukulele and melody on the piano.

A resource for tuned and untuned percussion instruments to help students learn to play basic ostinati in an ensemble from early Primary or Elementary school years. Students from Year 2 upwards (7-11 years) can learn to play repeated rhythms to a fun song about a wolf who is hungry and who howls through the song.

With basic knowledge of rhythmic values, students learn to count in a 4 beat time signature and accompany music, which has classroom percussion instruments playing alongside the ukulele and piano.

This is a project which can last up to 6 weeks or a half term, depending on student ability. Students can work in groups or stations as a team and move to a different instrument each week within the same song. It is a project where counting beats can be explored and progress can be formative and summative for assessment.

Included in this resource is an mp3 file with full instrumental audio, plus a pdf of all instrument parts and a full score, plus a movie of the score as it plays and a lyric sheet if needed. The audio features a 4 beat count-in on the tambourine, before the music begins.

How I use this resource:
Have the percussion score sheets to share on a screen for whole class viewing and discussion.

Set up separate stations/tables with one kind of instrument and their respective score/rhythm sheet.
Discuss 4 beat time signatures. Point out the individual bars/measures and have students clap the rhythm. Demonstrate that the rhythm repeats in the song for each instrument on the score.
When divided into groups, circulate to reinforce the counting and the rhythm and how to play/hold the instruments. At this point, there is usually an obvious leader in the group who is counting correctly and this can lead to great teamwork.
Once students start to become more confident with their rhythms, bring students back to the main floor to perform the song with the backing track. Each group of instrument players will need to sit together either in a group or a row, so they can see and support each other.
Discuss difficulties and recap the following lesson before groups rotate to play a different instrument.
By the end of a few weeks playing different instruments, the students should be able to improve their performances of the song as a whole.