PRIMARY MUSIC Listening Activities SET 5 Female Composers

Ideal for cover, primary outreach, or distance learning, this structured resource pack is a great introduction to analysing music, and is perfect for young students between Years 2 and 5 who are beginning their learning journey in Music, or for older students with lower ability. It’s also great as a regular Friday afternoon class activity, especially as an engaging Composer of the Week resource.

Five whole 1-hour lessons are included in the pack with fun, themed colouring worksheets for the students, a 25-slide detailed PowerPoint with up-to-date YouTube links, and full teaching guidance so that you will feel completely supported whether you are a music specialist, or not. This is Set 5, and the final set, in my Primary Music Listening Activities Series, and this set focuses on female composers.

Full Details:

Students use their knowledge of colours to help them understand musical features relating to the musical elements. There are 5 themed lessons, each with its own colouring-in worksheet: On Loch Ness; Stuck ‘Outback’; The Souvenir Shop; Treasure Hunt; Around the Campfire. A specific piece of classical music is the focus of each lesson, and the music has a link to the theme. For instance: ‘On Loch Ness’ is based on the 2nd movement of Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony; Fanny Hensel’s Nocturne in G Minor is the focus for ‘Around the Campfire’. Louise Farrenc, Clara Schumann, and Barbara Strozzi are the other female composers featured in this resource pack.

Each worksheet has 8 pairs of numbered statements, 2 or 3 of which are opinion-based, and the others are related to specific features of the piece of music used for the lesson. Each statement has a colour pattern, and where statements are a little more complex students can use their knowledge of colour to find the right answer. For instance: young musicians may not be able to distinguish between flutes and clarinets, but they will know a Koala should not be blue and red! So, the correct colour pattern matches the correct musical statement, allowing students to listen to the music whilst they colour-in, focusing on the sound of a flute, clarinet, or on whatever the musical statement is about; over time, they learn to recognise the sounds.

This system allows young students to develop musical analysis skills by building on prior knowledge of colour, not to mention familiarisation with female composers of the Western Classical Tradition, who are often unfairly ignored. Also, the opinion-based questions offer great opportunities for emotional and social development.

I take great care to ensure my resources are of the highest quality, both in content and in presentation, and I wholeheartedly recommend them to both you and your students. I welcome feedback and enquiries from my colleague-customers the world over, and I can be contacted directly at rainynightmusic@hotmail.com. I would be delighted to hear from you, and I thank you for considering this resource for your classroom or home.