Author: Miss Stewart

We’ve been learning a song called ‘Frog in the Meadow’ and keeping a steady beat by using our bodies. In the song, there are four beats at the end where we had to jump like a frog. Each time we sang the word ‘glumph’ we had to show one beat of music with one frog jump. This led us on to the popular song of Crazy Frog which the class absolutely loved! Here we are doing some movement activities to the song.

This week in music we have been learning about the importance of music during Chinese New Year. As part of our learning we watched a Musical Storyland episode called ‘The Great Race’ by BBC Teach, where members of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra play a range of instruments and tell the story.  We saw a new Chinese instrument called a guzheng which is played by plucking the strings.  You can see all the instruments in the picture below.

Photo courtesy of BBC Teach

We also learned that this year is the year of the dragon and in the clip below, you can see us using scarves to move like the dragon dancers that perform at Chinese New Year celebrations.

Tuesday 30^th January 2024 was a special day at Sound Primary School as we were visited by both the Junior and Senior Jarl Squads of 2024.

The Junior Jarl Squad, led by Guizer Jarl Skeppare Nokkvesson (aka Oran McCulloch), were in fine voice during their time with us, supported by a group of young local musicians who did a brilliant job. ‘Yes Sir, I can Boogie’ was definitely a highlight! The clip below shows all the pupils from p1 to p7 joining in with the Up Helly Aa song.

The Senior Jarl Squad, led by Guizer Jarl King Harald Olafsson (aka Richard Moar) were also pretty spectacular both in sight and sound. A fantastic line up of local musicians provided the music for the Up Helly Aa song and also their squad song which made us all want to get up and dance! Here is a clip of all the pupils from p1 to p7 joining in with the Up Helly Aa song. The Jarl commented how loud and enthusiastic our singing was. High praise indeed from a ‘King’!

This term we have been continuing to develop our knowledge and understanding of pulse, rhythm and pitch through rhymes, action games and singing games. In the video you can see our performance of a rhyme called ‘Engine, Engine Number 9’. We kept the pulse of the rhyme using our hands and arms to be the train wheels moving along the track and look out for how we show the rhythm of the last line of the rhyme the second time through.

We were treated to a performance by the Shetland Youth Orchestra last week in the Sound Hall. The orchestra is made up of children from all over Shetland including both primary and secondary, and their musical talents are amazing!

We were introduced to all the different instrument families including brass, woodwind, strings and percussion. We listened to a mixture of music including classical, swing and even a theme tune or too. We particularly liked the Wallace and Grommit theme tune which they played as we were leaving the hall.

What a very enjoyable way to spend a Friday afternoon!