Model Music Curriculum KS1 Singing

Links to suggested songs from the MMC

National Music curriculum:

Model Music Curriculum:

Yr1

This is a call-and-resopnse song, popular in the Cub Scouts of America.

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A call and response song designed to get children using their voices to portray different moods and emotions.

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The word 'Shiloh' in the song, is the name of an ancient Hebrew city, but it has also been used by some Christian groups to refer to Jesus Christ.

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Referred to as "Trad. Bangladesh: Mo matchi (Song of the Bees)" in MMC.
In the song 'Mou Machi Mou Machi' by Khalid Sangeet, poet, lyricist and composer Mahbubul Khalid describes the busy life of a honeybee as imagined by an innocent child.

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'Kye Kye Kule' is an African folk song. Some suggest that it's a traditional West African song possibly from Ghana.


Listen to the song here
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The original definition of an acre was the amount of land that one man could plough between sunrise and sunset using a pair of oxen. "An Acre Of Land" is an English folk song that has it's origins in an older song from Scotland called "The Elfin Knight", and appears in various forms in different parts of the country. It is closely related to the better-known "Scarborough Fair", where the singer describes performing impossible tasks.

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This song was recorded in 1996 by Ella Jenkins. She was born in 1924 and had a career recording songs for children that began in 1956. She was nicknamed the “First Lady of Children’s Music”. Her work draws on African-American call and response singing and she cites Cab Calloway as an early influence.

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This song was originally a cry used by street vendors. Hot cross buns are a traditional English, spiced and fruited bread bun with a cross pattern on the top, associated with Good Friday and Easter.

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Yr2

This is a song that certainly dates back to America in 1848 when it was known as 'Little Sally Walker',
although it is also claimed to be of earlier, English origin, where she was known as 'Sally Water'.

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"Star Light, Star Bright" is a nursery rhyme of American origin.
The superstition of hoping for wishes granted when seeing a shooting or falling star may date back to the ancient world. Wishing on the first star seen may also predate this rhyme, which first began to be recorded in late nineteenth-century America.

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"Hey Hey Look At Me" is an easy improvisation game with students improvising words and actions.
Melodic elements "so" and "mi" and rhythmic elements "ta" and "ti-ti" can be taught with this song.

Listen to the song here OR
Listen to a different version of the song

"Rain, Rain, Go Away" is a popular English language nursery rhyme.
Similar rhymes can be found in many societies, including ancient Greece and ancient Rome. The modern English language rhyme can be dated at least to the 17th century.

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Like 'Eeny Meeny Miny Moe', 'Acka Backa' appears to be a song/chant that children would use for counting or choosing.
'Acka Backa' can be traced at least to the 1940s United States.

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OR
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Although now only a children’s skipping song, the song has references to pagan fertility rites.
The farmer who stamps his feet, is perhaps a morris dancer driving the evil spirits from the soil, and the reference to marriage could be the ritual marriage which occurs in many mummers plays.

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From the 'Singing Sherlock' book for KS1 music.

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This is a folk song from Suffolk often sung as a nursery rhyme. Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector and ruler of the English Commonwealth that replaced the monarchy after the English Civil Wars, until his death in 1658.
After the monarchy was restored in 1661, his body was removed from it's tomb in Westminster Abbey, and hanged as a traitor (for his part in the execution of King Charles I) and his head placed on a spike. It is thought that this is what is referred to in the third verse.

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An English folk song from the East Anglia and southern counties. A tale of a young lady outsmarting a caddish young man.

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A traditional folk song from the south-west of England. It was first published in Folk Songs of Somerset (1909). Cecil Sharp, who collected and catalogued English folk songs in the early 20th century, suggested that “taking the words and tune together I consider this to be a very perfect example of a folk song” Listen to the song here

Or
Listen to a different version here

'HATTI MATIM TIM' is an imaginary animal in Bengali folklore. It lays eggs in open field and has two straight horns. In Bengali, "laying eggs in the field" means "doing nothing" or "wasting time."

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This song was written by Jean E. Webb and appeared in The Child's World ( Songs, stories and verses from Kindergarten of the Air)

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Cauliflowers Fluffy is a English harvest song which is sung at harvest time at schools all over the United Kingdom. It also appears in the UK hymn book "Come and Praise", published by the BBC.

Listen to the song here

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Listen to another version here