5-7 Years (Key Stage 1)

Quest 7: Musical Composition

Topic Heading: Musical Composition
As a class we are going to produce a soundscape of music depicting life and
Task:
activity in the rainforest over a 24 hour period of time.
Time: 2 sessions maximum
Materials: • Access to relevant websites and rainforest information texts.
 This might include the Conservation International video about
using an iPod to record birdsong:
http://www.conservation.org/fmg/pages/videoplayer.aspx?videoid=40
• Rainforest Sounds - through the day and night (available in the Free
Resources/ Rainforest Multimedia area of the website)
• Percussion instruments.
• Examples of music inspired by the rainforest or Saint Saen’s ”Carnival Of
The Animals”
• A recording facility.

Process:
• Introduce the children to the task.
• Tell the story of 24 hours in the rainforest.
• Break the 24 hours up into 6-8 segments of time.
• Identify the creatures that will be active in the particular segments.
• Identify other sounds i.e. not made by creatures that might be heard e.g. rain.
• Form the class into groups.
• Allocate specific time segments.
• Highlight availability of resources .
• Play examples of relevant music.
• Once children are in groups allow a time for brainstorming and free thinking. At the end of the initial
planning time invite a report back to the whole class on progress made.
• Set a time frame for the composition.

Product Success Criteria:

A soundscape of musical composition depicting life and sounds of the rainforest over a 24 hour period of
time.

Conclusion:
A group based feedback.
Focus:
• Could we identify sounds of creatures?
• What we learnt as a group.
• What was difficult.
 • How did we solve it?
• What could we do next?

Development:
• Make a recording of the composition.
• Play it as assembly music.
• Use it as a starting point for a class assembly.
• Don’t forget that you can submit this work to the PRP website and use it to gain a higher award.
• Material may be used for PRP publicity leading up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference
in Copenhagen 2009.