Develop their awareness of the structure of songs and rhymes, joining in with longer sections
Continue to sing songs that include repetition, e.g. echo songs, songs with choruses.
Children may pitch melodies with greater accuracy.
Children may sing songs without support. Allowing children to sing without adult support (and encouraging school staff to allow this too) helps children find their singing voices and gain confidence singing.
Children may play untuned percussion/sound makers more rhythmically, joining in on recognised sections.
When songs are familiar to children, pause at appropriate points to encourage anticipation and allow children to provide the next part of the song. For example, singing ‘Autumn Leaves’ to a descending scale:
Autumn leaves are falling,
Orange, red and brown.
See them twirling in the wind
And falling to the ground.
Sing the song with/to the children using scarves or ribbons to mirror the pitch direction. Once children are familiar with the song, add a big playful pause on the penultimate word before allowing the children to complete the song, naturally feeling the need to resolve onto the tonic.
Allow children the opportunity to develop their own songs based on known ones (changing a word or phrase from a song – e.g. Humpty Dumpty sat on the [children’s idea]).
Listen and respond to instrumental music with a simple structure, e.g. folk dances such as ‘Chimes of Dunkirk’ (French/Belgian), which uses a binary form structure. Children may like to join in with body percussion, dance sequences or percussion, creating different responses for each section.
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