Making it count

Singing is a powerful and accessible tool for teaching and learning; Sue Nicholls explains how it can complement Literacy and Numeracy throughout the school day, helping your school achieve more.

When we sing, our bodies surge with endorphins, making children more receptive to new knowledge and experiences. It also relies on committed cooperation and a sense of togetherness to achieve successful performances. This ‘team-building’ element transfers perfectly to classrooms where learners work in autonomous groups to determine how research and study tasks should be allocated and executed.

All primary subjects can benefit from an injection of regular singing, but many of the Song Bank songs have been selected to underpin concepts in the core subjects of Literacy and Numeracy, using carefully selected vocabulary to embed specific ideas and concepts, eg. Alphabet athletics, A B-U-G and Chocoholics. But remember that songs also provide other less explicit but important links to Language and Mathematics, enhancing skills in both subjects. Here are a few:

Listening skills

Singers have to be able to listen for cues, starting notes, entry points, introductions, accompaniments and harmony parts. This purposeful and ‘active’ listening when singing reinforces the Speaking and Listening strand of English at both Key Stages. 

Developing language and rhymes

Children absorb and learn lyrics by focusing on and anticipating rhyme patterns, which adds to their understanding of how rhymes work, ie. that same-sounding word endings don’t always use the same spelling structures, as in ‘kite’ and ‘flight’, and that ‘near’ rhymes, such as ‘line’ and ‘behind’, are workable and acceptable. Song lyrics also provide a bank of rhyming vocabulary to be harnessed and adopted for creating poetry. And, of course, they are largely written in verse form and are therefore useful for unpicking to identify poetic structures and rhyme templates.

Building vocabulary and writing skills

Lyrics also often contain powerful and vibrant vocabulary, which can be ‘recycled’ or utilised as scaffolds to extend and embed writing skills. When composers set words to melodies, they have to place appropriate emphases on key words and underplay the unimportant ones. This skill is one that upper juniors need to employ when constructing complex sentences in KS2 writing tasks.

Engaging with emotions

Songs that are written for older juniors often reflect and address delicate and emotive subjects far more successfully than approaches delivered through direct prose. Thus they provide a more subtle and accessible route to discussions of difficult or sensitive issues tackled in PSHE and Citizenship lessons.

Maths in music

The close relationship between music and Mathematics has long been recognised and acknowledged. Most western-style music has an irresistible ’pulse’, or strong beat, on which the individual rhythmic patterns of a song are stacked and developed. The beats are also grouped numerically, eg. in 2s, 3s or 4s etc, giving an indication of a song’s character and purpose: a march (4/4 time),

a waltz or lullaby (3/4 time),

a jig (6/8 time). Numbers also dictate the internal structure of a song, shaped by phrases which group bars together, giving a vocal piece its sense of cohesion. The pitch of each note is also defined mathematically; its ‘frequency’ being dictated by the number of oscillations per second.

Musicians and educationalists know that singing can influence and support the curriculum through many different perspectives. Sing to support your Literacy and Numeracy and keep your pupils energised, enthusiastic and enriched with the power of singing! Visit the Song Bank to access a wealth of songs.

Song Bank

Search for songs by subject using the Song Bank's advanced search tool. It's easy to use and there are loads of songs to access.