Myths about teaching can hold you back
- Year 2
Creating an ostinato to help us keep in time
I can create a rhythmic ostinato to help us keep in time together.
- Year 2
Creating an ostinato to help us keep in time
I can create a rhythmic ostinato to help us keep in time together.
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- An ostinato is a repeated musical pattern.
- Playing an ostinato to a strong beat can help us to sing and play in time together.
- We can create our own rhythmic ostinato to help us to keep in time together.
- We can combine different layers of sound to create texture, such as playing different ostinati at the same time.
Keywords
Pulse - the regular, steady heartbeat of the music
Beat - the playing or showing of the steady pulse, like the ticking of a clock
Rhythm - the pattern of notes that we play and sing
Ostinato - a repeated musical pattern
Texture - the combination of different layers of sounds
Common misconception
An ostinato, like the rhythm of a song, changes throughout a piece of music.
An ostinato does have a rhythm, but this rhythm is repeated over and over again throughout a piece of music. The rhythm stays exactly the same.
To help you plan your year 2 music lesson on: Creating an ostinato to help us keep in time, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 2 music lesson on: Creating an ostinato to help us keep in time, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 1 music lessons from the Singing together: how singing helps us work together unit, dive into the full primary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
Drums (enough for half the class to have one each or for a small team of 1-6 pupils), Claves (enough for half the class to have one pair each)
Licence
Prior knowledge starter quiz
4 Questions
Q1.A __________ is a traditional folk song sung by sailors to help them work together in time.
Q2.How do sea shanties help sailors work together?
Q3.We can clap the __________ of words to play a rhythm.
Q4.What is this rhythm called?

Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.What is an ostinato?
