Great day
Arranged by Francesca Matthews, this great song will put you in the mood for a great day!
Learn the song with Beccy Owen

Try out the melody and all its accessible harmonies for a joyful sing

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Lyrics

 
 

Activities

PDF

Activity ideas based around the song

Have a sing 
The song is in four parts. Is there someone else who could learn it with you? Depending on how many people you’ve got, you could each try a different part. If not, have a go at singing the tune altogether (called melody one). Remember to keep the singing bright and cheerful. The lyrics for this part are:

Great day!
Great day and the sun is shining.
Great day!
The sun's gonna shine on everyone.

Body percussion
Do you know what body percussion is? It’s when YOU become the musical instrument and use your body instead of percussion instruments. The fourth section, called melody four, is simple. It’s ‘dum, dum, dum’ (repeated 3 times) ‘sun’s gonna shine on everyone’. Have a listen to it and then try clapping it as a rhythm. After doing this a few times, replace the claps with other sounds. You could include stamps, clicks, claps, knee slaps (not too hard) and chest taps. You will have made your own body percussion groove.

Your greatest day
Imagine your perfect day – what would it include? You could choose:

  • To visit places you love
  • Who you'd like to spend the day with
  • Your favourite foods to eat
  • Music you'd want to listen to
  • Games you'd play 

Draw a comic strip, make up a story or write a diary entry based on what the day would be like.

Think positive
Start the day with a power pose. Stand up tall, with your feet grounded to the floor. Put your hands on your hips and hold your head up high. Say some confident statements out loud to help you start the day in a positive frame of mind. Make some of your own up or try these ones:  

  • Today's going to be a great day
  • I am going to approach challenges with confidence
  • I am going to try my hardest in all I do
  • I am positive, kind and strong

Rewrite the lyrics
Can you have a go at writing some new words? Start by speaking the lyrics slowly and pay attention to the number of syllables in each sentence. A syllable is the number of sounds in a word. Count them if it helps. The phrase ‘gre-eaat day’ is sung with three syllables or sounds. What could you swap with 'great'? You could replace it with ‘su-per day’ or ‘bri-lliant day’. The next sentence is ‘great day and the sun is shining’ so you could swap the words to: ‘so good to be playing football’ or ‘such fun playing in the park’. Have a go yourself! 

Thesaurus
A thesaurus is a bit like dictionary. It helps you to find synonyms, which are words with a similar meaning. Do you know any other words that also mean great? Make a spider diagram of all of the other words you can come up with. If you find some new ones that you have never heard of, you can look them up in the dictionary. Here are some to start you off: wonderful, brilliant, fabulous. Did you know, the word ‘great’ also has lots of different meanings. Great can also mean huge (in size), lots (in number) and noble (important).

Great day bingo
There are lots of things that make someone’s day a great one. Think of some actions you can do to improve someone else's day such as:

  • Write a note to a friend
  • Say thank you to your teacher / bus driver
  • Give a compliment to two people
  • Share something with a friend

Draw grid of nine squares, made up of three rows of three squares, and in each box write down an act of kindness. You might like to decorate your grid and make it nice and colourful. See how many acts you can tick off as the week goes by until you have none left – BINGO!

RPS Making Music Smart Teacher 2017 Teacher 2018 Besa Music & Drama Education Awards Music & Drama Education Awards 2023 Finalist