Lesson 2: Cityscape

Listening to the song 'Jai Ho' from the film Slumdog Millionaire, children identify ambient sounds and the effect they have on the piece of music, before creating their own sound effects using their voices, bodies and untuned instruments

Learning objectives

  • To understand how ambient sounds can be used to enhance a film score

National curriculum

Pupils should be taught to:

  • Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music 
  • Appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
  • Play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts using their voices and instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression

Success criteria

Cross-curricular links

Before the lesson

Attention grabber

Main event

Differentiation

Pupils needing extra support: Encourage children to use the class list of sounds as a prompt for ideas. Group the children in mixed ability groupings so that these children can be supported by more confident peers.

 

Pupils working at greater depth: Appoint these children as the leaders for each group. During the key questioning, target these pupils to find out why they combined certain sounds and what alternatives could be used. 

Wrapping up

Assessing pupils' understanding and progress

Vocabulary

Created by:
Elizabeth Stafford,  
Music specialist
After a brief spell as an opera singer, Liz embarked on a 20-year career in music education, teaching at early years, primary and secondary. After Liz had her daughter, she started her own business Music Education Solutions® Limited, helping teachers…
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