Topic plan: 'Spread a little singing' activities (KS2) - Sing Up

KS2
Spread a little singing!
Celebrations activities
Resources to help your school make more of National Sing Up Day
We hope that every school will celebrate National Sing Up day, not only by singing, but by taking every
opportunity to make ‘Celebrations’ the focus throughout the KS2 curriculum.
Starters
Speaking and Listening activities to launch the topic ‘Celebrations’
Talk about special dates celebrated by the children and their families. Make a class calendar, matching
each celebration to the relevant month. Some festivals, such as Easter and Islamic festivals are
‘moveable’, so encourage the children to check the exact dates for 2011 before adding these to the
calendar. Invent new celebrations to add to your chart, such as the day the school Christmas tree arrives
or ‘taster’ days at secondary schools for Y6. Sing one of the relevant songs from the Sing Up Song Bank
as each festival comes round eg. Chanukkah, Chanukkah, Dreidel song, Purim Day or Sakura.
Talk about famous people whose lives we celebrate and remember for their particular gifts, courage,
convictions or reforms eg. Guy Fawkes, Mary Seacole, Florence Nightingale, Martin Luther King or Lord
Shaftesbury. Encourage the children to work in small groups to research material to deliver as a mini-talk
to the class.
Collect a list of favourite celebratory foods and encourage the children to talk about the occasions for
which they are prepared. Discuss the fact that food for special occasions is often rich, very sweet or spicy
and usually takes a lot of time to prepare eg. a wedding cake or the special food enjoyed at Passover.
Make a list of rituals attached to celebratory food preparation such as stirring the Christmas pudding
mixture and making a wish.
Talk about ‘New Year’ and what this means to people of different faiths, comparing the celebrations and
looking for similarities, such as fireworks, as well as differences. Research five key features for each type
of New Year celebration and combine artefacts, drawings, photos and written reports to create a display.
Sing New Year songs: Auld lang syne and Apples and honey from the Sing Up Song Bank.
Talk about the power of friendship. Invite a grandparent who has maintained friendships for decades to
talk about how these long-standing relationships have lasted. If your school is not already connected to
a setting overseas, make a commitment to set up a link. Encourage the children to talk via email to pupils
in other parts of the world about their celebration events, and collate the information for a presentation in
an assembly. Sing friendship songs from the Sing Up Song Bank, such as: We all shine for each other or
Winter nights.
Instant ideas
10 quick and simple ways to connect ‘Celebrations’ to curriculum activities
• z Make a display of the word ‘Celebrations’ written in as many languages as possible, getting
everyone in the class to contribute a word.
• z Divide the children into pairs and allow them just five minutes to choose 10 items to go in a
‘Cool Celebrations Kitbag’! What do they consider absolute essentials? Balloons, jelly, clothes,
chocolate, friends, music?
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KS2: Celebrations activities
• z Use the word CELEBRATIONS to create acrostics, for example:
Candles
Everyone
Laughter
Enjoyment
Biscuits
Rich food
Aunts and uncles
Talking
Invitations
Oh! No!
Neighbours
Surprise!
• z Create a class celebration song using the resources on the KS2 ‘Spread a little singing’
songwriting sheet.
• z Design a party hat using only one sheet of newspaper, scissors and a glue stick.
• z Write a formal invitation in a Literacy lesson asking a real person in the community to join your
class for a celebration assembly: be sure to sing something appropriately impressive for them!
• z Celebrate physical skills and team work by encouraging the children to work in groups of four
to invent PE challenges in the playground, using small equipment such as hoops, ball, and
ropes.
• z Learn a simple celebratory country dance such as the Circassion circle: it’s fun to participate in
a group dance and an excellent way to feel the beat in your feet!
• z Create a celebration montage of the class. Take digital photographs of everyone in the
class, plus pictures of the classroom and create a large picture from all the overlapped and
juxtaposed images. Sing We are the champions from the Song Bank.
• z Celebrate Healthy Eating by singing the humorous and ironic song: Don’t be a couch potato!
from the Singing Breakfast Club pack. The pack of 30 songs and vocal activities is free to
download from www.continyou.org (ContinYou is an Associate Partner of Sing Up). The song
has lots of scope for actions, drama and props and really needs an audience, so entertain
another class with your performance! You could also try Five portions a day or Make it mesized
from the Sing Up Voice Box.
Big ideas!
5 longer projects to connect ‘Celebrations’ to curriculum activities
CELEBRATE YOUR PEERS
Celebrate individual achievements and personalities in your class by writing kennings. This particular
convention stems from descriptive Viking names for objects eg. ‘death-bringer’ for a sword. Kennings are
easy to write and require no rhyming patterns eg.
goal-scorer
problem-solver
rope-climber
friend-maker
hat-wearer
chocolate -muncher
joke-sharer
pencil-chewer
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KS2: Celebrations activities
Encourage children to write celebratory 8-line kennings about their friends at school: they work really well
as pen-portraits. Can other members of the class guess the subject of each kenning? Sing We’re all in
this together from the Sing Up Song Bank.
CELEBRATE RED NOSE DAY
Celebrate ‘Red Nose’ (Comic Relief) day by designing your own Red Nose PLUS. This entails creating an
additional facial feature: red nose plus… moustache, beard, eyebrows, ears, hair etc. Charge a nominal
fee to everyone for entering the Red Nose PLUS competition and offer to lead a grand parade at the
school gates at home time, charging the parents for the privilege of watching. Send the money to Comic
Relief and be sure to sing the song Make someone happy from the Sing Up Song Bank.
CELEBRATE WITH A STORY
Ask the children to think of a celebratory moment in a book or film and to re-write the occasion with a
comic twist, as if they were present eg.
‘The prince looked that the two ugly sisters and their huge feet and asked: ‘Are there any other ladies in
the house?’
‘Yes!’ answered Buttons, ‘there’s Cinderella and Kayleigh’.
‘Kayleigh?’ shouted the two ugly sisters, in surprise.
‘She’s just popped in from next door to borrow a dustpan from Cinders!’ replied Buttons.
Just then the two girls entered the room. ‘Hi!’ said Prince Charming, ‘come on, Kayleigh, try on this glass
slipper.’ Incredibly the shoe fitted, although it looked a bit strange with her St. Mark’s grey tights and
school blazer.
‘Marry me, Kayleigh!’ begged the prince as Cinderella burst into tears and the two sisters fainted!’
CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Discuss the importance of Black History Month and the key people whose lives we celebrate. Organise
the children into small groups and ask them choose an aspect of Black History to research and to decide
on how they wish to present their findings: a talk, a PowerPoint presentation, a display, a dramatic
performance etc. Use a wide range of reference materials including ICT, books, and museum resources.
Invite another class to share the resulting work and give feedback. There is a range of songs in the
Song Bank that would complement this project: Joshua fit de battle of Jericho, Kum ba yah, Michael,
row the boat ashore, My God, Oh, happy day, Rock-a my soul and Swing low, sweet chariot.
CELEBRATE WITH A PARTY
Use Food Technology sessions to design and prepare a celebration lunch or tea party for a group from
your local community, such as a local playschool or residents from a retirement home. Conduct research
into the sort of food that would suit your guests and plan the event carefully. Things to think about:
• y menu and drinks
• y crockery and cutlery
• y hygiene
• y how to set the tables and chairs
• y table decorations (placemats, serviettes)
• y serving the food
The entertainment afterwards is a big part of the event, so use the Sing Up Song Bank to find the most
appropriate material to sing.
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