Today, Robins had lots of fun improving their guitar skills.
They are now preparing Christmas songs for the December performance.

We only had our first lesson on Monday and now we’ve had our second lesson (Wednesday).

In this lesson we listened and appraised a few more Abba songs including Dancing Queen, The winner takes it all and …. Waterloo.

When Mr Lo first mentioned Waterloo there were a few giggles… but Mr Lo soon put them right and told them… “No…. it isn’t a toilet with water…!”

Listening to the songs many pupils expressed their opinions including

Paige – I really like the beat. I’ve heard the songs before.
Leah – I like the words （lyrics)
Tanatswa – I also like the beat
Scarlet – I can hear the guitars again.
Jessica – And we can hear the pianos.

With just two lessons, Robins have excelled again; take a sneek peek at the clip below to see the progression made!

It’s a new week and a new topic! This week we’re covering Music! Robins have travelled back to the 70’s and listened to the hugely famous Mamma Mia.

First Mr Lo showed a photo of Abba and asked Robins to guess the decade it’s from. Most chose the 80’s but now we know it’s the 70s! (Abba was a Swedish pop group formed in 1972)

Robins actively listened and pointed out they could hear the drums, guitar and other percussion instruments.
Although we can’t sing the song due to the current Covid restrictions we did develop our rhythm skills and learn about musical notation.

Can you remember which notes we concentrated on? (G / A )

Here is a guide to help you remember.

Finally, Robins had a go on the Glockenspiels and even performed part of the song MamaMia. Have a look at a short clip below!

Extension: At home ask your grandparents if they can remember any more Abba hits!
Don’t forget you can access the lesson on Charanga. Go here to login –> https://charanga.com/site/ (click the pupil login button on the left)

If you can’t remember your login details; please ask Mr. Lo to let you know .

Robins are getting better and better at playing the guitar.

The second tune they have learnt is a Spanish style tune called Ferruca.

It’s trickier than the 1st tune due to the timing and rhythm and the Robins have loved shouting “ole” at the end.

Robins are really enjoying their guitar lessons. Every session they have been showing excellent behaviours for learning including curiosity, perseverance and concentration.

Even though they have only had three sessions the Robins are now able to play the E and B string blues with an accompaniment which sounded great.

Below is a video with some clips of our excellent learning!

Year 4 have started their new music unit. The children started the lesson listening to and discussing the new song, ‘Lean On Me’ by Bill Withers. The children were very good at discussing the instruments they could hear during the song. They also started learning the song! We will be continuing with this next week.

Year 4 performed an ABBA song this afternoon! So much fun was had by all the children. They then went on to accompany the song with the glockenspiels.

They really tried hard to keep the beat going and keep in time. We found it a real challenge to play the instruments, keep the beat and sing! See what you think.

Today, Robins enjoyed listening to rap music!

As soon as the song began, lots of children couldn’t resist moving to the beat!

They listened to and appraised “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and discussed the instruments they could hear within the composition (bass guitar, drums, keyboard and tambourine).

About half the class really liked the song, recognising it from the television programme entitled the same and all joined in, trying to rap along in time with the words.

Robins listened and appraised a song by Bob Marley today, called “Three Little Birds.” They learnt this genre was reggae music and discussed which instruments they thought were used too. They looked at the structure of the song and couldn’t resist singing along and moving to the beat!

The majority of the class enjoyed listening to this piece of music and singing along too!

During their guitar lessons with Mr Gill, Robins class started to learn how to read guitar tablature. They are also learning to play La Bamba.