Sounds of Intent in the Early Years project - sample plan

As part of the national Sounds of Intent in the Early Years  project, Soundabout practitioners are visiting children's centres around the country to deliver 10-week music projects for families with children under five. Soundabout practitioners work alongside children's centre staff members training them in the Sounds of Intent in the Early Years framework and observing the musical development of the children in the group over the weeks of the project.

Here is a sample plan from one of our Soundabout practitioners. The plan includes a range of activities to promote development in all domains of the Sounds of Intent in the Early Years framework. It is a plan which can be adapted for children at all levels on the framework. 

 

E.G. SESSION PLAN - SOIEY

 

 

Content

Notes

Aims

Sounds of Intent

WELCOMING

Recorded music: The rain it rains

 

• Song to match the weather of the day!
• Relaxed music

• Listening (different genres)
• Setting musical atmosphere
• Settling

REACTIVE (response to recorded music, opportunity to hear different genres of music)

Song: Hello Everyone

 

• Establish a beat before beginning the song

• Familiar start
• Individual welcome/hello
• Acknowledging who is here/who is part of the group
• Familiar words and melody – chance to join in with the song and develop voice and sense of pitch

 

REACTIVE (response to familiar songs)

INTERACTIVE (joining in with familiar songs)

Song: Jonathan, where are you?

 

• Random order so that the children can’t anticipate their go

Song: Let’s wave hello to Jonathan

• Observe what the children are doing and use their actions

FAMILIAR

SONGS

Song: Get our bodies moving

 

• Allow children suggest different body parts

 

• Body awareness
• Familiar words and melody – chance to join in with the song

INTERACTIVE (singing songs in a group – chance for singing alongside, call and response etc.)

REACTIVE (gauging child’s response to individual songs)

PROACTIVE (singing/joining in with vocal sounds and body sounds)

Song: Open, shut them

 

• Focus on hands and relationship with others

• Bonding through music (adult and child)
• Familiar words and melody – chance to join in with the song and develop voice and sense of pitch

Song: I can hear Daniel walking down the street

• Focus on feet – moving

 

• Child-led – respond to the different ways the children move their feet
• Familiar words and melody – chance to join in with the song and develop voice and sense of pitch

Song: Heads, shoulders, knees and toes/Che che koolay

 

• Fast and slow – children choose speed
• Body awareness

Song: Copy me do!

 

• Model one or two and then children/adults suggest different sounds

 

• Child-led – children suggest sounds themselves

Song: Where is Benny?

AND

Look at Benny

 

• Put Benny in a different place to last week
• Ask children to suggest Benny’s actions

• Looking around the room for Benny –, hiding and seeking
• Familiar song – chance to join in with the song and develop voice and sense of pitch

LISTENING

Recorded music: ?

• Ask different family to bring in music each week
• Children can move to the music or listen – whatever they feel

• Listening to different types of music, different melodies
• Developing a sense of beat
• Freedom to respond to music in their own way
• Sharing personal music with the rest of the group

REACTIVE (Response to recorded music and different genres of music)

INSTRUMENTS

Song: Let’s pass the drum around

[Materials: Hand drum]

• Model to the group first
• All ways of playing accepted

• Sharing an instrument/turn-taking
• Listening to each other
• Opportunity to play/explore the drum

PROACTIVE (making sounds with instruments)

INTERACTIVE (playing instruments with others)

REACTIVE (response to instrument sounds)

Song: This little [egg] of mine I’m going to make it shake!

[Materials: Egg shakers and mini tambourine bags]

• Ask the group which type of instruments they’d like to use: egg shakers, mini tambourines?

• Playing together
• Following musical instruments
• Making suggestions for ways of playing
• Coping each other – musical interaction

Song: Play together and stop

• See if one of the children would like to conduct the starting and stopping

• Being part of a group
• Playing instruments in different ways
• Exploring different sound quality

Free play

[Materials: Large bag of mixed instruments]

 

• Three different groups of instruments around the room
• Encourage children and adults to move around the room to try different sounds

• Chance to explore the instruments in their own way
• Chance for spontaneous interaction with others to occur

PROACTIVE (making sounds with instruments)

INTERACTIVE (potentially interacting with others with instruments etc.)

Song: Making music together

• Ask the group to come back together and to bring one instrument they’ve enjoyed playing with them

• Playing together as a group
• Acknowledging each child’s sound in the group

INTERACTIVE

(taking turns – each child put their sound into the song)

SCRUNCHY/

FABRIC

 

Song: Can you lift the scrunchy up and down?

[Materials: Scrunchy and fabric]

• Offer the choice of scrunchy or fabric

• Combining music and movement – developing a sense of beat
• Multisensory opportunity
• High and low pitches

INTERACTIVE (multisensory activity)

Song: Going underneath

or Let’s go in the ring

 

• Sing about each child in the group

• Acknowledge each child
• Moving fabric/scrunchy to beat – encourage a sense of beat
• Fast and slow

CLOSING

 

Song: Nanuma or Iav Nanna

• Lullaby with rocking
• Chime bar/singing bowl to provide grounding

 

• Sense of beat through rocking
• Relaxation
• Developing adults’ voices/singing
• Familiar song – chance for children to join in with the song and develop voice and sense of pitch

REACTIVE (response to a familiar lullaby)

INTERACTIVE

(child potentially joins in with the singing)

 

Song: Time to say goodbye

 

• Actions

• Familiar ending
• Say goodbye to each child individually

REACTIVE (response to familiar song)

INTERACTIVE (potentially joining in with the song)

Recorded music: Three little birds

• (Change song each week)

• Relaxed ending
• Listening to different genres
• Marking the end of the session

REACTIVE (response to recorded music, different genres of music)