Music
Curriculum Leader: Katie Mabey
Miss Mabey is our Music Leader and is responsible for this curriculum area. This means ensuring we teach an ambitious curriculum, supporting our teachers to implement our curriculum through high-quality lessons and checking that lessons are helping our children to know more, remember more and do more.
Music at Chiltern Primary School
At Chiltern Primary School, we follow the Hampshire Music Service Curriculum Musical Map. It provides six half-termly units of work for each year group from YR to Y6 enabling schools to plan a guided journey to musical independence for all their pupils! The map includes a combination of standalone musical units, seasonal units and other units linked to popular topics, this offers schools the flexibility to rearrange and substitute other topics to create the perfect musical itinerary for each year group (additional units are added to this resource on a regular basis for this purpose).
Each half-termly unit focuses on developing specific musical knowledge and skills as outlined in the Hampshire Music Service Pathways to Musical Independence documents – age-related expectations for each year group. Each set of units builds on and reinforces the learning explored in previous years, new learning is introduced through a logical sequence of activities. Learning is cumulative (from one year to the next) throughout the map so schools who are considering using this resource for the first time will need to start by assessing their student’s current level of musical understanding and skills and then start at the appropriate point in the map e.g. Y6 students who have only had limited musical learning opportunities might need to start with the Y4 units of work.
Each unit comprises of:
- a medium-term plan
- a set of teaching notes with the activities explained (which could include song lyrics and notation), audio tracks and flashcards
- a teaching PowerPoint with embedded sound files and hyperlinks to make each unit accessible and easy to teach and the teaching notes are included in the notes section with each slide. The easiest way to use this resource is to print the PowerPoint in “note” form so the teacher can access the teaching notes whilst each slide is projected
- No additional resources are needed to teach these units.
Our units of work
Year 1 Autumn
The Three Little Bears
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Pitch'. Children will explore, respond to and recognise high, middle and low sounds.
Year 1 Autumn
Walking the Dog
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Duration'. Children will explore, respond to and recognise patterns of long and short sounds and to steady beats in music heard and performed. This unit of work will also teach the children about 'Structure' where the children will explore, respond to and recognise simple structures including opening and endings, beginning-middle-end, echoes and responses.
Year 1 Spring
As Cold As Ice
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Duration'. Children will continue to explore, respond to and recognise patterns of long and short sounds and to steady beats in music heard and performed. This unit of work also teaches the children about 'Structure'. The children will continue to explore, respond to and recognise simple structures including beginning-middle-end and responses.
Year 1 Spring
Old Castle
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Playing'. Children will explore and use an increased range of sounds (including body sounds) beginning to use correct percussion techniques and showing an awareness of the use of the dominant hand.
Year 1 Summer
Can I be helpful too?
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Texture'. Children will explore, respond to and recognise solo sounds and layers of sound.
Year 1 Summer
Toys
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Tempo'. The children will explore, use and respond to, recognise and identify loud, moderate, quiet and silence.
Year 2 Autumn
Dragons
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Dynamics'. The children will respond to, recognise and identify getting louder and quieter.
Year 2 Autumn
Christmas is Coming
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Pitch'. The children will respond to, recognise and identify higher and lower sounds as well as the general shape of melodies. The children will begin to recognise steos, leaps and repeated notes.
Year 2 Spring
Man on the Moon
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Timbre'. The children will identify the way sounds are made (vocalised, shaken, struck, scraped, plucked, strummed, blown or produced electronically) and can be used.
Year 2 Spring
Jolly Rogers
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Structure'. The children will respond to, recognise and identify a range of contrasting structures, in particular, verse and chorus.
Year 2 Summer
Wispy Willow
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Pitch'. The children will continue to respond to, recognise and identify higher and lower sounds and the general shape of melodies. The children will also recognise steps, leaps and repeated notes.
Year 2 Summer
Minibeasts on the Move
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Duration'. The children will respond to, recognise and distinguish between steady beat and rhythm patterns. The will also think about how they fit together.
Year 3 Autumn
In the Hall of the Mountain King
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Tempo'. The children will identify, use and understand getting faster and slow in finer graduations.
Year 3 Autumn
Christmas is Coming
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Pitch'. The children will identify steps, leaps and repeated notes in melodies and begin to explore different scale patterns (major).
Year 3 Spring
Chinese Lanterns
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Texture'. The children will identify the use and purpose of different layers in music heard, created and performed.
Year 3 Spring
Mystic Moments
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Timbre'. The children will identify a range of non-percussion instruments by name and distinguish between different ways of playing percussion instruments.
Year 3 Summer
Our School
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Structure'. The children will develop an understanding of conventional structures including question and answer patterns. They will also explore simple ostinato.
Year 3 Summer
Volcanoes
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Pitch'. The children will continue to identify steps, leaps and repeated notes in melodies and explore the further use of scale patterns.
Year 4 Autumn
Anglo Saxons
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Dynamics'. The children will explore how to use dynamics for expressive effect.
Year 4 Autumn
Find it, Make it, Play it
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Texture'. The children will identify and use different types of texture including solo, unison, ostinato parts and layers.
Year 4 Spring
Super Hereos
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Duration'. The children will identify and understand how rhythm patterns fit to steady beats using 4 metre.
Year 4 Spring
Reading Rhythms
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Duration'. The children will identify and understand how rhythm patterns fit to a steady beat using 2, 3 and 4 metre.
Year 4 Summer
River's Journey
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Pitch'. The children will identify melodic shape and explore different scale patterns - minor.
Year 4 Summer
Lucy in the sky with Diamonds
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Pitch'. The children will identify melodic shape and explore different scale patterns - C major scale.
Year 5 Autumn
A Bao A Qu
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Structure'. The children will explore and use a wider range of developmental structures and expressive structures including musical opposites, retrograde and palindrome.
Year 5 Autumn
Read, Write and Remember to Twinkle
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Duration'. The children will identify and begin to understand more complex rhythm patterns.
Year 5 Spring
Frozen Lands
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Pitch'. The children will explore, recognise and identify a minor key and how it influences music.
Year 5 Spring
Map Rappers
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Structure'. The children will explore and use a wider range of developmental structures e.g. rap
Year 5 Summer
Space
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Timbre'. The children will identify instruments within families and different families. The children will also explore vocal combinations as well as refining use of voices and percussion instruments.
Year 5 Summer
Greek Tragedy
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Dynamics and Tempo'. The children will understand how a wide range of tempi and dynamics can be manipulated for expressive effect.
Year 6 Autumn
Short Ride in a Fast Machine
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Duration'. The children will identify and understand more complex rhythms and metres counting in 9 and 6 and possibly 5 and 7.
Year 6 Autumn
Calypso Sparkle
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Texture'. The children will use a range of harmonic devices with greater awareness and understanding in a Calyspo context (chords).
Year 6 Spring
Amazing Machines
This unit of work teaches the children about 'Pitch'. The children will explore, recognise and identify a major scale.