September complete mag

using royalty and magic part 4
We finish up our royalty and magic storytelling in music series this month by
introducing the last of the characters in the Magical Musical Kingdom, and their related
rhythms. The follow-up activities are suggestions of ways that help to reinforce these introductory
concepts of music, helping to establish this natural activity in the most natural way!
And as always, all songs are available on www.youtube.com/musicaliti.
Recap
As a quick reminder, our
background planning to the
Magical Musical Kingdom
included:
Time: 10 parts, 10 characters, 10
musical skills
Rhythms: movement-based (gross
motor), progressively halving or
doubling note lengths
Melodies: pentatonic-based (5
notes), progressively using more
notes
Ages: non-walkers, toddlers and
walkers (broadly, birth to 7)
8
Character: Flying Fairy
Music note: Semiquaver-dotted quaver/
sixteenth note-dotted eighth note
Skip (long-short steps): long-short,
long-short, long-short, long-short
Physical warm-up:
Shoes off, calmly (no talking) listen to
instrumental music while skipping (skip-ty,
skip-ty) around the room, any direction,
either holding baby, or holding hands with
our new walker or pre-schooler.
Vocal warm-up:
Warm up our voices: Do you have
your whispering voice? Yes, I have my
whispering voice. Do you have your
speaking voice? Yes, I have my speaking
voice. Do you have your fairy voice? Yes,
Storytelling in music:
I have my fairy voice! Do you have your
singing voice (singing like an ambulance
tune)? Yes, I have my singing voice
(ambulance tune). Ready to sing!
Song 1: Goblin (game)
Scatter scarves, pages, small things that
can easily be gathered around the room,
and take 2 slow steps to reach them and
collect them up as you sing the song.
Song 2: Goblin Protector (instruments)
Use instruments with a long sound, like
bells, and tap them as you sing the song.
Story part 8:
Queen Quaver and Lady Minim asked
Knight Quaver-Crotchet to please find
the Jewels so Knight Quaver-Crotchet
left immediately to search every tower in
the land to find the hidden jewels. While
Knight Quaver-Crotchet was searching
every tower in the land, he came across
Flying Fairy, who flew everywhere. He
searched her tower, but the jewels just
were not there. When he told Flying Fairy
what Goblin had done and how sad Frog
Prince was, Flying Fairy got very cross
indeed. She never spoke, but played music
because she was surrounded by every
instrument in the world. She wanted to
play a trick on Goblin so using her special
magic, she flew to his dark cave and saw
all the broken instruments. Right at the
back of the cave was a very shiny pot of
gold, hidden behind a tree stump. Flying
Fairy picked it up and flew right to the
moon and hung it on a moon beam as
punishment!
Craft:
Make and decorate a paper pot of gold.
Find somewhere to hang/stick it, singing
the song!
Activity:
Make a pot of gold out of shiny things to
give to someone special!
9
Character: Dragon
Music note: Semibreve/whole note
1 slow step equivalent to 4 walk steps:
very slow walk
Physical warm-up:
Shoes off, calmly (no talking) listen to
instrumental music while taking long, slow
steps (very long step) around the room, any
direction, either holding baby, or holding
hands with our new walker or pre-schooler.
Vocal warm-up:
Warm up our voices: Do you have
your whispering voice? Yes, I have my
whispering voice. Do you have your
speaking voice? Yes, I have my speaking
voice. Do you have your dragon voice? Yes,
I have my dragon voice! Do you have your
singing voice (singing like an ambulance
tune)? Yes, I have my singing voice
(ambulance tune). Ready to sing!
Song 1: Dragon (game)
Choose a spot in the room to be the tower,
and take turns being the big, slow, strong
dragon, and trapping everyone in the
tower, as you sing the song.
Song 2: Do, Do Pity My Case (instruments)
Use instruments that you rub or scrape as
you sing this song, and make up jobs that
the dragon must do when he gets home,
like “my food to cook when I get home”, or
“my floor to clean when I get home”, or “my
toys to clear when I get home”!
Story part 9:
Now Knight Quaver-Crotchet was getting
further away from the Kingdom, the castle
was far away because he was getting
nearer to the lair of Dragon Semibreve.
Everything Dragon Semibreve did was
slow because he was so big. He opened
his eyes slowly, he walked slowly and
even blew fire out slowly. When Dragon
Semibreve blew fire out, everything would
start shaking altogether, his arms and legs,
tummy and tail, until he stopped. Dragon
Semibreve didn’t like things that moved
fast, so when Goblin took the jewels to the
tower, he had to creep very quietly. Knight
Quaver-Crotchet moved very quickly and
before he knew what had happened,
Dragon Semibreve had trapped him in the
tower with the jewels and Goblin.
Craft:
Make and decorate a paper tower. Walk
around the room with it, singing the song!
Activity:
Place toys around the room to knock down
with a big ball, like the dragon!
10
Character: Unicorn
Music note: 3/4 waltz timing
(crotchet/quarter note)
Waltz feel: step-tip-toe, step-tip-toe, steptip-toe,
step-tip-toe,
Physical warm-up:
Shoes off, calmly (no talking) listen to
instrumental music while taking waltzing
steps (step-tip-toe, step-tip-toe) around the
room, any direction, either holding baby,
or holding hands with our new walker or
pre-schooler.
Vocal warm-up:
Warm up our voices: Do you have
your whispering voice? Yes, I have my
whispering voice. Do you have your
speaking voice? Yes, I have my speaking
voice. Do you have your unicorn voice? Yes,
I have my unicorn voice! Do you have your
singing voice (singing like an ambulance
tune)? Yes, I have my singing voice
(ambulance tune). Ready to sing!
Song 1: The Dragon and the Unicorn (game)
March in one direction as the dragon, then
change direction as you march as the
unicorn. Keep changing direction as you
march around the town, singing this song.
Song 2: Song 2: Beautiful Unicorn
(instruments)
Tapping sticks or cups together like unicorn
or horse hooves, sing the unicorn song.
Story part 10:
The dreadful news travelled over the
Magical Musical Kingdom until a beautiful
dancing Unicorn, alone in a field, heard the
sad tale. She always played on her own,
dancing every single day, but when she
heard the news, Unicorn’s horn began to
glow, which meant that she was very cross.
Shaking out her golden wings, she flew
straight to Dragon Semibreve’s tower and
very quickly, Knight Quaver-Crotchet took
the jewels and jumped on her back. Goblin
took so long to creep to the window that he
could only hold onto Unicorn’s tail, as they
flew through the fiery mountains and back
to the castle. King Crotchet was so pleased
to have his Magical Musical Kingdom
restored that he threw a huge party. There
was so much music that Goblin crept away
back to his cave and sometimes, when
the sky is right, you can see that the moon
still looks a little golden, where Flying Fairy
hung Goblin’s gold on the moonbeam.
Craft:
Make decorations for the Magical Musical
Kingdom party. Decorate the room with
them!
Activity:
Have a party to celebrate!
Hoping this has inspired you to start
your own series!
Frances Turnbull
Musician, researcher and author,
Frances Turnbull, is a selftaught
guitarist who has played
contemporary and community
music from the age of 12. She
delivers music sessions to the early
years and KS1. Trained in the music
education techniques of Kodály
(specialist singing), Dalcroze
(specialist movement) and Orff
(specialist percussion instruments),
she has a Bachelor’s degree in
Psychology (Open University) and
a Master’s degree in Education
(University of Cambridge). She
runs a local community choir, the
Bolton Warblers, and delivers the
Sound Sense initiative “A choir in
every care home” within local care
and residential homes, supporting
health and well-being through her
community interest company.
She has represented the early
years music community at the
House of Commons, advocating
for recognition for early years
music educators, and her table of
progressive music skills for under 7s
features in her curriculum books.
Frances is the author of “Learning
with Music: Games and activities
for the early years“, published by
Routledge, August 2017.
www.musicaliti.co.uk
18 September 2020 | parenta.com
parenta.com | September 2020 19