Composition and Graphic Notation - Music Planning for KS2

This is a unit of work for music originally planned for Year 4, but I have used to great effect across KS2. It focuses on teaching pupils how to record their ideas more formally on paper, but also provides ample opportunity for children to listen carefully to well known pieces of music - mostly classical.

It was originally planned in 2011, but has been updated to cover all aspects of the current musical curriculum.
• Use and understand staff and other musical notations
• Play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression.
• Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music.
• Appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians.
• Develop an understanding of the history of music.
• Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory.
Key musical vocabulary covered includes: timbre; pitch; tempo; dynamics; rhythm and pulse.

This resource includes:
• Planning – linked to the current Music National Curriculum.
• Presentation – in both Smart Notebook and Powerpoint format.
• Videos – hyperlinked within the presentations. I was unable to upload this as a zipped folder so I am hoping that the hyperlinks work despite the fact I have had to upload the files separately. If not they will be quite quick to switch to manually.
• Example of a simple graphic score produced by my class.
• Blank 16 bar graphic grid for pupils (ideally photocopied onto A3).
• Lesson 1 acts as a baseline assessment.
In order to add a cross-curricular element, Session One can be easily adapted to suit current affairs or class topic, and Sessions Four and Five can be adapted to suit a text being studied in Literacy or Guided Reading (details given in planning).

NOTE: Once downloaded, please save the video clips/music extracts and the PowerPoint in one folder together so that the hyperlinks on the PowerPoint can find the clips!

**Musical instrument cards mentioned in Lesson 1 are not included in this resource and are not essential for the lesson (instruments can be allocated by the teacher or chosen by pupils rather than using the cards for random selection). Instrument cards are available to purchase separately from my shop if it is something you would like. **

Thank you for looking :)