PSHE songs for assembly c/o Sing up!

Assembly songs KS 1 & 2
Spring Term 1 - SEAL theme Good To Be Me

Week 1
Warm up - H..E..L..L..O
Teach Good To Be Me (to be sung in Friday assembly? KS 1 already know it)
Self esteem message

Week 2
Warm up - Bananas of the world..
Good To Be Me
Teach Great Day (main section)
positive frame of mind  glass half full/half empty discussion

Week 3
Warm up - 1,1,21, etc 1,5,1,4,1,3,1,2,1,5,1,4,1,321
Sing Great Day
Teach other parts (led by YSL)

Week 4
Warm up - say lickety split
Learn  3 little birds  ( give kids chance to sing solo the following week)
Sing Great Day
Having confidence that things will work out, linked to high self esteem

Week 5
Warm up - grandma, grandma
Good to be me
3 little birds  ( with individual solos)

Week 6
Warm up - clap rap
Teach Got To Build It (a good one to sing on a Friday assembly)
We are all useful people capable of sorting out our differences

Week 7
Sing through all the songs we have learnt. Poll on fronter to vote on their favourite song?

So that is my plan for Poplar pupils next term. What would we do without Sing up! Every single song mentioned is available free for anyone to download. So if you are a Poplar pupil or parent visiting here you can check out the songs by searching the songbank here. http://www.singup.org/songbank/

Thank you Caroline!

Try our slideshow creator at Animoto.

Hello year 5,

I wasn't able to deliver our thank you cards to Caroline so I have done the next best thing and made her a slideshow of them. Please feel free to leave any comments for Caroline here.

Merry Christmas!
Mrs Schneider

Young Song Leaders in action!

Take a listen to my young song leaders -







These are all great warm ups that the children are teaching to the younger classes. They have really risen to the occasion and have proved themselves terrific teachers. Below you can hear the kids talking about their experiences

What a wonderful world .....

I simply wanted to share this wonderful video. For the days when words fail us this is a simple reminder of what it is all about. Bring on the awe and wonder!

My comments are on Music Education UK!

I first came across Music Education UK on twitter. I joined in a few conversations about primary school music and was then asked to write a comment piece for their September issue. However the government's mishandling of the publication of the National Music Plan meant this issue was held back so I was then asked to share my thoughts on the plan. You can read it by clicking here

Getting the children to blog and music technology

I have long been a fan of blogging. I started in 2006 to blog about school dinners and children's food issues. I came to realise it was an amazing tool which help me reflect on what I was doing. The act of writing a post forced me to really evaluate what I was doing, decide on priorities and identify key points. This really helped me learn more about the subject and although I started it to share my learning I found that it was helpful to me even if only a few people read it.

Once I decided I wanted to become a music teacher I have used this blog in much the same way. I try to keep a record of key articles on books that have influenced me and to record important teaching ideas I want to go back to.

I want the children to also benefit from this so I have set up a blog for the year 4 classes I teach. We are about to embark on an opera Olympic project to celebrate the 2012 games called "Ring around the world". It will be a perfect project to get the kids blogging about. Firstly we will need to do some research about the countries we have been given so we are hoping to use the blog to help us find people from said countries to leave us comments. Secondly we will be brainstorming ideas for our compositions which children will be able to blog about and comment on each others ideas. Next we will be learning songs to perform - we can record ourselves singing and post them on the blog as a record of our progress. Finally we are hoping our audiences will be able to give us feedback.

In the first instance I have set up the blog using artwork created by the children to use as headers. The first stage will be asking children to comment. Once they are proficient at that, I will add them a group at a time as contributors so children can write their own posts. Assuming that this works out the children will then be invited to apply for full author status so they can add posts as and when.

Using technology is a key part of the music curriculum but it is an area many shy away from. This new blog will be cross curricula but I am really hoping that when we begin our compositions and start working toward the performance the act of blogging, recording our work and experimenting with it using audacity we will be starting to get to grips with it.

If you have a second please take a look at "Ring around the World" - there is a slideshare of the children's artwork. I know they would love it if you could leave them a comment!