Creating music for The Tempest

Yr 5 have been having a go at creating some music and sound effects for their end of term production "The Tempest". Here are some of the first attempts.

Rainforest soundscapes

Musical quotes for classroom

I am searching around for some quotes to display in a music room. This is what I have found so far.

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
Red Auerbach

Where words fail, music speaks
Hans Christian Anderson

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it's a really stupid thing to do
Elvis Costello

Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding he sings
Ed Gardner

Ah Music. A magic beyond all we do here.

JK Rowling

Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing

John Erskine

It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by.

Billy Joel

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent

Victor Hugo.

Still looking for more so if you have any please share by leaving as a comment below. think I might talk to the very talented Mrs Brimblecombe to see if she has any good ideas about how to create some artwork around them.

Djembe drumming with a year 4 class.

Yet another lovely afternoon spent in the company of highly talented AST Caroline Seggolo. Last time I was with Caroline she was sharing with me top tips on teaching recorders to a whole class. Today I was watching Caroline teach drumming to a year 4 class.

It was an amazing experience. The kids worked incredibly hard and showed remarkable concentration for a Friday afternoon. Caroline had high expectations of the children and they certainly rose to meet them. It was a delight to watch the children persevere to improve their performance. It was strangely moving to find the children swaying and moving in time with the music and their smiles as they appreciated the impact of playing perfectly together.

I wish all children had the opportunity to take part in such high quality music lessons.

Just discovered Wylio.com

photo © 2006 Gisela Giardino | more info (via: Wylio)


I have been searching for images to use on presentations for my class but keep stumbling over the thorny issue of copyright. However the wise and generous teachers I follow on twitter had lots of advice for me - @johnskelleher recommended Wylio.com which has a great collection of creative commons pictures you can use with without worry. I have signed up for the free account so look out for exciting new grahics! Thanks John!

I also got lots of other suggestions which I will also be exploring. Thanks twitter pals!

Music teacher inset

We had a marvellous inset session with all the music coordinators in the borough last night. Soo is a great believer in the "say it then play it" philosophy so we all had a go with the instruments! Soo was demonstrating how to use aspects of a song to create accompaniment.


Inspired by her teaching I decided to dust off the chime bars to use with year 2. The children worked really hard to come up with this. It took quite a bit of persuading that less was more but they agreed this was the best version they had come up with!