What's he talking about?
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by Pete Moser on 30 March 2016
Tagged with:
iMAP
"There was a young boy who switched on a switch
It made him twitch, to switch on a switch
He needed the switch, to turn on the light
Oh how good to banish the night
Such a delight"
The 3 days at West End Primary start with this tongue twister of a poem. The focus this time is ENERGY with Year 5, Europe and Food with Year 4 and Transport with Year 3.
As I walk in and sign in at reception I promise the people in the office to make them a song while I'm here (see Staff Team).
I start by working with good friend Simon Jobling, now the deputy head and also class teacher for Year 5. Very excited to be in his class and the children are a great bunch. Within 30 minutes we have an acrostic lyric with a melody created from random numbers and then I start with small groups. The way songs spark out of a nowhere fascinates me - I wait for a phrase in the conversation and then it's like the ideas tumble and form into new shapes. We write
Energy : a flow of strange images in a catchy melody
Watch Out : why we need electricity in our lives and what might happen if it went
People Power : the people in our lives who help the power get around
Solar Beat : lets think about natural power sources
Nature War : how we make war on nature and how that comes back to bite us
Flying Bikes : a lovely circlar melody in praise of bikes
Cynthia : mad train of thought lyric takes us into community to find CAKE
Into the West End : why we need transport infrastructure to stay alive
What's he talking about : the song grows out of this idea as I try to get them to tell me
Let me Help : all the things that help a seed grow inspired by a great Adrian Mitchell poem for kids
Just for us : Silly travels of food from across the continent
Allotment : we hear about a granddads allotment in Halifax and looking at pictures develop a great picture of produce
It made him twitch, to switch on a switch
He needed the switch, to turn on the light
Oh how good to banish the night
Such a delight"
The 3 days at West End Primary start with this tongue twister of a poem. The focus this time is ENERGY with Year 5, Europe and Food with Year 4 and Transport with Year 3.
As I walk in and sign in at reception I promise the people in the office to make them a song while I'm here (see Staff Team).
I start by working with good friend Simon Jobling, now the deputy head and also class teacher for Year 5. Very excited to be in his class and the children are a great bunch. Within 30 minutes we have an acrostic lyric with a melody created from random numbers and then I start with small groups. The way songs spark out of a nowhere fascinates me - I wait for a phrase in the conversation and then it's like the ideas tumble and form into new shapes. We write
Energy : a flow of strange images in a catchy melody
Watch Out : why we need electricity in our lives and what might happen if it went
People Power : the people in our lives who help the power get around
Solar Beat : lets think about natural power sources
Nature War : how we make war on nature and how that comes back to bite us
Flying Bikes : a lovely circlar melody in praise of bikes
Cynthia : mad train of thought lyric takes us into community to find CAKE
Into the West End : why we need transport infrastructure to stay alive
What's he talking about : the song grows out of this idea as I try to get them to tell me
Let me Help : all the things that help a seed grow inspired by a great Adrian Mitchell poem for kids
Just for us : Silly travels of food from across the continent
Allotment : we hear about a granddads allotment in Halifax and looking at pictures develop a great picture of produce
3 days later we perform in front of the whole school!
Next term we will work on the songs some more, make a recording and then perform at the West End Festival on June 25th.