Teacher video: Musical theatre: Unit overview
Unit outcomes
Pupils who are secure will be able to:
- Explain what musical theatre is and be able to recall at least three features of this kind of music.
- Categorise songs as action songs or character songs.
- Select appropriate existing music for their scene to tell the story of a journey.
- Perform in time with their groups, ensuring smooth transitions between spoken dialogue, singing and dancing.
From January 2025, lessons within this unit will also feature a Recap and recall section and our Presentation mode feature.
Suggested prior learning
South and West Africa
Get startedLesson plans
Lesson 1: What is musical theatre?
Lesson 2: Character or action song
Lesson 3: Create your own musical
Lesson 4: Rehearsing my musical
Lesson 5: Performing my musical
Key skills
- Recognising and confidently discussing
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Key knowledge
- To understand that musical
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Key vocabulary
action song
backdrop
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Unit resources
Assessment – Music Y5: Musical theatre
Assessment resources for this unit. Use
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Year 5: Musical theatre knowledge organiser
Aimed at pupils, a single page
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Year 5: Musical theatre vocabulary display
Subject resources
Music: Long-term plans
A suggested order for teaching Music
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National curriculum mapping
This National curriculum coverage mapping document
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Music: Pupil progression of skills
Progression document showing how skills and
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Assessment
An assessment tool for monitoring the
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Equipment list
A list of essential and optional
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Unit vocabulary
A unit-by-unit list of musical vocabulary
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Music teacher skills videos
A collection of teacher skills videos
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Cross-curricular opportunities
Nothing relevant in this unit.
Suggested next steps
Songs of World War 2
Pupils build on their knowledge from these musical theatre lesson plans, where they combined singing, acting, and dancing, to further develop skills in following melody lines, timing, and pitch accuracy.