Topic plan: 'Spread a little singing' songwriting (KS2)

KS2 songwriting: celebrations

5 star challenge:

• Warm up voices with this greeting rap to celebrate National Sing Up Day and add your own choreography – the leader could be an adult or one of the children:

  It’s Sing Up day,
  Gotta shout ‘Hooray’!
  Let’s move those feet
  To keep a groovy beat.
  * Now, if you please,
  Get a bounce in the knees.
  Add a hand jive slice,
  Wouldn’t that be nice!
  * Give us all a wave
  ‘Cos we’re ready to rave!
  Hey, Ashfield School,
  You’re looking cool!

  (Remember to substitute the name of your school in the penultimate line.)

5 star challenge:

• Perform it as a 3-part round with the second and third parts starting as shown by the asterisks.

• Have a set of sticky notes on each table around the classroom and ask children to jot down words that they associate with celebrations. Some suggestions include: presents, cards, birthdays, Christmas, New Year, Harvest, weddings, anniversaries, baptisms, sports day/football team wins, a new baby, Eid, Hannukah, Diwali, going to a party, passing an exam … achieving a Silver, Gold or Platinum Award with Sing Up!

• Ask each table to share these celebration words with the rest of the class.

• Remind everyone of the tune of Heads, shoulders, knees and toes - it’s in the Song Bank.

• Notice that each song line uses one more syllable than the one before and that the third line repeats:
  
  Head (I syllable)
  Shoulders (2 syllables)
  Knees and toes (3 syllables)
  Knees and toes (3 syllables)

• Go over your table’s collection of words and play around with these, amending or rejecting any that can’t be adapted to a simple 1, 2 or 3 syllable pattern.

5 star challenge:

• Now use the Heads, shoulders, knees and toes template to create the first half of your own Celebration song. You could write in groups, pairs or as individual songwriters but remember, there’s no rhyming needed. Here’s an example:
  
  Team
  Football
  Won the cup!
  Won the cup!
  Team
  Football
  Won the cup!
  Won the cup!
  
  Add a simple chorus middle line that will suit everyone’s verse. Here are a couple of suggestions:
  
  We will celebrate
  our massive victory …
  
  or
  
  Come and sing this song
  to celebrate today! ...
  
  Here’s an example of a whole made-up song for a school with a Sing Up Award:
  
  We’ve
  Got our
  Gold award!
  Gold award!
  We’ve
  Got our
  Gold award!
  Gold award!
  ‘Cos our whole school’s singing
  each and every day
  We’ve
  Got our
  Gold award!
  Gold award!
  

• Design a National Sing Up Day banner and perform your celebration songs to the whole school in an assembly.

5 star challenge:

• Make up actions for your songs or sign them!

10 star challenge:

• Encourage every class to try this songwriting pattern for a big Songfest.

5 star challenge:

• Accompany your performances with untuned percussion eg. maracas, drums, tambourines, or learn the simple melody and play flutes, clarinets or any instrument taught in your school. It would also work very well with kazoos!

20 star challenge:

• Record the performances and get them played on your local radio.

20 star challenge:

• Sing them to a local playgroup or nursery.