Today we had inputs of Music and Drama.

Music

Today we were learning the basics of how to play the ukelele.

We learned the main 4 chords to play on a ukelele which was useful as this is what most songs are made up of which is highlighted by the song ‘4 Chords’ by the Axis of Awesome. This was a really fun lesson as we had the chance to practice the basic skills we had picked up by playing along to the song ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham. It was very useful as the ukelele is becoming a popular instrument within primary schools and something we will most likely encounter throughout our careers.

Drama

Today we continued with the other half of the class’s micro teaching of their particular children’s book.

This week it was my groups turn to deliver the lesson. The book we chose to use was ‘A squash and a squeeze’.

We read this story to the class and used the drama conventions role in the wall and thought tunnel. This was good to gain the experience of how to deliver a drama lesson and understand what would go well and what would require improvement. It was helpful in increasing my confidence in teaching drama.

Today there was no lecture so we went straight to our inputs of drama and music.

Drama

Today half of the class, in groups, delivered a drama lesson. Each group had chosen a different children’s story to teach drama from. The groups would read the story or give a brief summary of it and then go on to getting us to participate in many different drama conventions such as thought tunnels or role in the wall

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This was a useful task as it allowed us to reflect on what went well and what could be improved on each of the groups lessons. It was good to see the different approach each group took also. Being in the situation of the pupil being taught it allowed me to understand how the pupil would think and feel which was also very beneficial.

Music

Today we were in the mac lab of the university using ‘Garage Band’. This software allowed us to create our own pieces adding in different instruments and beats. We could adjust the timing, pitch etc to create our own unique tracks. This is useful as it would allow children to express their creativity and find enjoyment through creating their own track and experiment by adding different sounds together and hearing how they can fit together, be in time and be altered.

This is a great tool to use as the use of technology is rapidly increasing and this gives way for it to be incorporated into the classroom. The children would find it relevant and would create a more effective learning experience for them. It is a great way to integrate ICT and music.

We then had a plenary focussing on the Sue Hallam article ‘The power of music’. We reflected on our thoughts and created mind maps which we then presented to the class.

creativity-2

In todays lecture we were focussing on why music matters. Through this we were encouraged to consider our own musical experiences, how we can participate with music, how we discover music, our musical awareness and the power of music. All of these things have strong links in the curriculum relating to the experiences and outcomes. It was good to think about these things and reflect on how music is a powerful thing in each of our lives. This would be important for children to consider to realise why music matters and allow them to be more interested in it as a subject and become fully engaged.

Music

Today we were fortunate to have children from the Greenmill Primary School string project visiting us. The children displayed their talent by playing us one of their musical pieces. They then went on to show us some of the musical games they often play. We then had the chance to sit with some of the pupils as they taught us about their musical instruments. The pupil i was with played the violin, she described to me what the different parts of the violin were called and what there purpose was, she showed me how to correctly hold the violin and gave me the opportunity to give it a go myself.

Being taught by the children was good as it gave us the opportunity to see how much they have learned and how passionate they are about music. It was amazing to see how being part of the orchestra had brought to many benefits to these children due to being part of a team they were all very polite, well behaved and friendly and truly did show the impact music can have.

It was insightful to see this type of thing happening in schools and show us what we could help to initiate in our own schools in the future.

Drama

Today we continued on with the story of the dragon focussing on hot seating and improvisation considering how these conventions would would in the classroom.

Our lecturer then read us the first part of the story entitled ‘The Tunnel’. From this we participated in one of the drama conventions ‘role on the wall’ whereby you draw a character from the story. On the inside of the character you write the feelings that they would have and on the outside, the feelings you would have. We then heard the rest of the story and reflected on our previous feelings which had completely changed.

We then split into groups and chose a scene from the story to portray through narration. This was useful as it showed the different ways to teach drama through the one book.