Building and staging a song to tell a story
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can use my voice and body to share how a character is feeling in a song.
Key learning points
- We can develop our characters by showing our moods, feelings and ideas through our bodies and our voices
- We can create a thicker texture by singing in a round
- A round can be used to show two characters working well together and connecting more
- Where and how we stand and sing on stage can make the story more engaging and clearer for an audience
Keywords
Round - a song structure where multiple groups sing the same melody but start at different times
Texture - the combination of different layers of sounds
Staging (verb) - making decisions about creating a performance of our version of a story
Motivation - the reasons behind what a character might say or do to achieve their goal or get what they want
Common misconception
Singing the song is enough to help the audience follow a story because the story is in the lyrics.
Singing in character by understanding your character's motivation and how that might influence their actions helps bring the lyrics to life by singing and performing with our whole body, thinking about our posture and expression.
Teacher tip
When teaching the round, focus on the pulse and which words land on the beat. Clapping on the beat can help with this. When you put the two parts together, encourage quieter singing to begin with so each group can hear how the two parts fit together.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
4 Questions
Q1.The is the playing or showing of the steady pulse, like the ticking of a clock.
Q2.Which words might describe the texture of a song?
Q3.What is pitch?
Q4.When we perform, we ...
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Little Brother Dance with Me is an example of a ...
Q2.Match the character building block to its question.
Q3.When we are making decisions about creating a performance of our version of a story, we need to think about the ...
Q4.What is a freeze frame?
To help you plan your 4 music lesson on: Building and staging a song to tell a story, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 4 music lesson on: Building and staging a song to tell a story, 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 2 music lessons from the Singing together: how stories are shared through song unit, dive into the full primary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.