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Primary/Key Stage 2 Music Resources Index

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Year 7 Baseline Assessment

2016 GCSE (9-1) Music

Resources Index

Music Cover Bank

Songs and Performing Arrangements Bank

Music Starters

and “DOITNOW’s” Bank

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Seasonal Topic Packs

Musical Contexts Starters and “DOITNOW’s” Bank

 

Musical Contexts Starter Activities suitable for the “start of term” and new Year 7’s

 

What is Music? (Handout & Teacher’s Notes .pdf)

What is Music? (Audio .mp3)

Pupils discuss and attempt to define the word “music” and listen to six extracts discussing them as “music”.

 

My Name Is…..? (Handout/Score & Teacher’s Notes .pdf)

My Name Is…..? (Audio .mp3)

A great way of getting young people vocalising/singing at the start of term and a good way of learning new Year 7’s names!

 

The Lighthouse Game (Teacher’s Notes .pdf)

A game for controlling the use of classroom percussion instruments and establishing rules for instrumental work

 

 

 

 

 

Musical Contexts “DOITNOW’s” and “Plenary” PowerPoint Presentations

·               Play It!

·               Create It!

·               Acrostics

·               What’s Your Opinion?

·               Name That Tune

·               Brainstorm!

·               Who am I?

·               What do you think this is?

·               Connections

·               What can you hear?

·               Key Word Bingo

·               Compare and Contrast

The new Musical Contexts “Plenary” PowerPoint Presentations give a range of short ‘end of lesson’ activities encouraging pupils to revise and consolidate their skills, knowledge and understanding of the lesson/unit.  The  range and content of each “Plenary” PowerPoint Presentation varies according to the topic/unit, but activities include:

·               If this is the Answer, what is the Question?

·               Tell me Three Things...

·               5-5-1

·               Odd One Out

·               Diamond 9

·               Different Shoes

·               Student as Teacher

·               What If?

·               Across the Curriculum

·               Blob Tree

·               Tweet

·               Advert

·               Silhouettes

·               True or False?

·               Test the Teacher

·               Two Stars and a Wish

·               Lucky Dip Machine

·               Show Me...

As part of the new website strategy and resources reorganisation taking place during 2018, Musical Contexts is in the process of redesigning all “Starter and Plenary Activities” within units into “DOITNOW” and “Plenary” PowerPoint Presentations.  This will reduce the number of physical resources required for download/use by having embedded audio and video files within Presentations.

Some of the activities given on the “DOITNOW” and “Plenary” Presentations are best completed by providing pupils, pairs or groups with an individual ‘white board’, thus reducing on copying costs, although they can be completed on paper or in pupil’s music books.  The “DOITNOW” and “Plenary” activities are suitable for both the Secondary/Key Stage 3 and the new 2016 GCSE (9-1) Music specifications.  Differentiation will therefore be by outcome e.g. with GCSE Music pupils requiring to draw on subject-specific vocabulary from the new specifications, whereas Secondary/Key Stage 3 pupils may use a more basic level of musical vocabulary.  Suggested ‘answers’ or points for discussion are given in individual “slide comments” sections.  Each PowerPoint presentation is fully ‘customizable’ and ‘editable’ allowing teachers the opportunity to select, sequence (or even delete!) any of the activities.  These PowerPoint “DOITNOW” and “Plenary” presentations also allow for easier updating of resources so check back frequently for further updates!

The range and content of each “DOITNOW” PowerPoint Presentation varies according to the topic/unit, but activities include:

 

·               What do you see?

·               Key Word Definitions

·               Sort them Out!

·               Mix and Match

·               Silent Debate

·               Musical Anagrams

·               Connect Fours

·               Key Pad Conundrums

·               Musical Dingbats

·               Thunks

·               Draw This

·               List-o-Mania

Please feel free to copy, modify, customise, personalise and use Musical Contexts resources for your own use, with your students and pupils, within your own school or college and on internal Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). 

​Please use the resources responsibly and ethically, as continued irresponsible free sharing and poaching of paid published resources (particularly “free sharing” to Facebook groups and the current trend of setting up “free” music resource websites using Musical Contexts and other published resources) is not only a breach of copyright, but the implications of making these publicly available on websites, even if only for a short period of time, are that other schools and teachers can freely access them meaning a loss of earnings for authors and publishers, jeopardising future resource development for YOUR subject specification and will only sadly see the demise of sites such as Musical Contexts which rely on the support (and honesty) of schools and teachers for future development. 

Musical Contexts is unitedly working with a range of publishers together to monitor Facebook groups for such “free sharing” and regular checks to the web are made using a program which scours the web for PDFs using automated code (scrapers).  Any subscriber found freely sharing Musical Contexts resources online will have their log-in cancelled with immediate effect and no refund given in respect of this.

Building Bricks - 5 Minutes Silent Reading

For teachers who prefer to begin their lessons with quiet, focused openers.  All contain “Questions to Think About” which can also be used as Cover or Homework tasks.

1. The Building Bricks of Music

2. Pitch

3. Tempo & Duration

4. Dynamics

5. Texture

6. Timbre & Sonority

7. Articulation

Musical Contexts 5 Minutes Silent Reading Starter Activities

Hooks and Riffs - 5 Minutes Silent Reading

For teachers who prefer to begin their lessons with quiet, focused openers.  All contain “Questions to Think About” which can also be used as Cover or Homework tasks.

1. Repeated Musical Patterns

2. Ostinatos

3. Riffs

4. Hooks

5. The Habanera & Carmen

6. Bolero