Reception Music

Autumn Term

Autumn 1


Autumn 2 - Celebration Music

  • Diwali Music -

To learn about music from another culture and respond to music with movement.

  • Hanukkah Music -

To learn about music from another culture and to learn the names of some traditional Jewish musical instruments.

  • Kwanzaa Music -

To take part in a traditional call and response song

To find classroom objects to use as drums and play in response to African music.

  • Traditional Christmas Music -

To learn about traditional Christmas music.

To take part in a group song involving singing, voice sounds and playing instruments.

  • Christmas Action Songs

To suggest appropriate actions to match song lyrics.

To sing and move to Christmas songs.

Spring Term

Spring 1 - Exploring Sound

  • Vocal sounds

To explore our voices to make a variety of sounds.

  • Body Sounds

To explore how to use our bodies to make sounds.

To explore different sounds and think about tempo.

  • Instrumental Sounds

To explore the sounds of different instruments.

To experiment with tempo and dynamic when playing instruments.

  • Environmental sounds

To identify sounds in the environment and differentiate between them.

To use musical vocabulary when describing environmental sounds .

  • Nature sounds

To identify and describe familiar nature sounds and differentiate between them.

To use voices to imitate natural sounds.

Spring 2 - Music and Movement

  • Action songs

To understand why songs have actions.

To learn simple Makaton signs to accompany a song.

  • Finding the beat

To explore beat through body movement

To express feelings and emotions through movement to music.

  • Exploring tempo

To explore beat through body movement

To express feelings and emotions through movement to music.

  • Exploring tempo and pitch through dance

To explore pitch and tempo through scarf dancing and body movement.

To express feelings and emotions through movement to music.

  • Music and movement performance

To perform action songs to a small audience.



Summer Term

Summer 1 - Musical stories

  • Moving to Music

To listen to the lyrics and melody and recall part of the story.

To move to music with instruction, changing movement to match the tempo, dynamic or pitch of the piece.

To talk about how a piece of music makes you feel.

  • Using instruments to represent characters.

To listen to the classical piece of music 'Peter and the Wolf and recall the characters of the story'.

To understand that music and instruments can be used to convey moods or represent characters.

To talk about how a piece of music makes you feel.

  • Storytelling with actions

To use actions to retell a story to music.

To sing and perform a group song.

  • Using instruments to represent actions.

To learn how instruments can represent a certain mood, character or action.

To experiment with the sounds of different instruments.

  • Musical story composition

To create a musical story based upon a familiar routine.

To use instruments to represent moods or actions.

To play an instrument as part of a group story.

  • Musical story performance

To create a musical story based upon a familiar routine.

To use instruments to represent moods or actions.

To play an instrument as part of a group story.

Summer 2 - Big Band

  • What makes an instrument

To discuss what makes a musical instrument

To use recyclable materials to create a simple musical instrument.

  • Introduction to the orchestra

To learn what an orchestra is

To learn about the four different groups of musical instruments

  • Follow the beat

To copy and follow the beat

To follow a beat using an untuned instrument

  • Tuned and untuned instruments

To experiment with playing tuned and untuned instruments

To play in time to familiar songs

  • Big band performance

To choose appropriate instruments to represent different parts of a song.

To perform a practised song to a small instrument.