Sing Up Burton's highly successful Sing Up community has broken new ground in many areas, and we're particularly proud of our Song Sacks project. The idea came about because we wanted to set up some after-school singing activity that supported the curriculum for children in KS1 and EYFS, younger siblings and parents. As part of our project, we were keen to provide curriculum-specific resources for these younger children.
The take-home Song Sacks are special in that they also involve younger siblings, familiarising them with the school environment while also allowing the participation of parents in a supporting and encouraging role.
When developing this, I remembered book bags or story sacks that my own children brought home during their year in Reception – large drawstring bags containing a storybook, along with a selection of related toys and games designed for parents to enjoy with their children at home. What if we could create something similar that involved taking songs home? After much planning, deliberation, songwriting, editing, recording and sewing, the Sing Up Burton team produced a set of 12 Song Sacks.
Each Song Sack contains a CD of songs, a parent information booklet, materials for activities that accompany the songs and a homemade storybook which uses highfrequency words and links to the other contents of the Song Sack.
In our pilot project, an infant school invited 12 Reception and Year 1 children, along with their parents and younger siblings, to a series of six after-school sessions that each lasted about half an hour. During the session, the children and parents sang together and took part in a group activity similar to those contained within the sack. At the end of the session, each child took a Song Sack home and returned the following week to exchange it for another one. We have since begun work on further sets of Song Sacks and are currently considering a set designed to support EYFS learning goals.
If you would like further information on any of our programmes or are interested in our associated training packages, then please do get in touch, maria.banks@eaststaffsbc.gov.uk.
Make your own
Have a go and put together a Song Sack for your group. Breach of copyright is a serious consideration, of course, so you need to either use public domain material or write your own songs. But don’t panic – use these simple steps and you’re well on your way.
1 Decide the curriculum area you want to target
Let’s take counting in twos for this example. Here we have an easy subject, because the words – or rather numbers – have already been written for you!
2 Find a tune
Now, you might be a musician, in which case just play around on your keyboard, guitar, or whatever, until you find a nice simple tune to fit the words. But, if not, try choosing from the list of traditional tunes I’ve included at the end of the article to find something suitable. All of these tunes are in the public domain (ie. not protected by copyright),
so all you have to do is write your own words.
3 Write your own words
Counting in twos is an easy subject, of course – others might prove more challenging. But it could easily become a class activity – the children will enjoy helping to write words for their own song.
For counting in twos it could be something as simple as:
2, 4, 6,
8, 10, 12,
14, 16,
18, 20.
Count in twos.
Try using Hot cross buns for these lyrics which you’ll find in the Song Bank if you can’t remember the tune.
4 Record the song
If you don’t feel confident enough to record yourself singing the song, ask a group of children to do it for you. I’m quite sure that there will be some sort of recording device somewhere in the school that you can use for the purpose. If you choose one of the traditional tunes available on the Song Bank, you can use the Pure Solo player to record your tune in the Sing & Share section.
5 Activities
In our Song Sacks, there was a simple set of 10 cards with the numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 printed on them, which the children simply placed in order and pointed to as they sang the song. In the classroom, or as a group activity after school, we pegged them in order on a ‘washing line’ and pointed as we sang.
For days of the week, the days became mats on the fl oor which we jumped on as we sang our way through the week. These are just very simple examples of the types of activities we included in the sacks. They were cheap, quick and easy to make and duplicate.
6 Find a bag
If you’re good on the sewing machine, you could make your own drawstring bags but, if not, you can buy them – plastic zip wallets might suffice.
Good luck! Feel free to get in touch with me if you’re struggling – I’ll help wherever I can.
Song Bank
Here are some popular traditional tunes you can use to write songs for your Song Sacks. Many more are available in the Song Bank, just make sure that they are marked PD (public domain).
She’ll be comin’ round the mountain
More online
Visit the Online Bonus Downloads in the Magazine Area online to get an Otis Sewing Pattern from Sing Up Burton singing leader Gemma Henderson. Add one to your Song Sack! North Lakes School in Cumbria sent us these which they made as part of National Sing Up Day!
What parents think!
Attendance at our Song Sack sessions is excellent, and almost all families who begin the programme, finish it. Parents have reported that the children love taking the sacks home each week and take real ownership of them. Use of the activities and CD varied among families but all report using the sacks in one way or another, whether it’s listening to the CD alone, using the resources in isolation or engaging with it completely. Amusing anecdotes were related back to the leaders, too! Here are a few:
- “G went to stay the night at his grandma’s at the weekend and she rang me to ask what the little black and white bag was – he’d packed it in his overnight bag!”
- “We never really sang at home before but we have no choice now. When the CD goes on we all have to join in – even my two-year-old daughter – she doesn’t talk yet but she joins in with the singing!”
- “I don’t think A likes the singing much but he listens to the CD and does the things in the book with the stickers and that. Mind you, he does like that song that’s on first – the Song Sack thing – I saw him singing and doing the dance the other day.”
Get in touch
Let us know how you get on with your song sacks, email magazine@singup.org
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