The Year 3 music programme follows 12 units that all have a cross curricular link to enable application of skills across the entire curriculum. Below is a break down of the units that children will look at each term within their music lessons.

Autumn Term

Environment - The children explore songs and poems about places. They create accompaniments and sound pictures to reflect sounds in their local environment.

Building - The sights and sounds of a building site provide the inspiration for exploring and creating rhythms. The children play games, sing and compose music to build into a performance.

Sounds - How are sounds produced and classified? The children explore timbre and structure through musical conversations in music from around the world.

Poetry - Three contrasting poems are explored and developed. The children use voices, body percussion, instruments and movement to create their own expressive performances.

Spring Term

China - The children explore the pentatonic scale and ways of notating pitch. They listen to traditional Chinese music, sing, read and compose music, ending in a musical celebration of Chinese New Year

Time - The children develop their understanding of beat, metre and rhythm. They combine melodic and rhythmic patterns, and use staff notation as part of a final performance.

In the Past - The origins of pitch notations are introduced as the children make hand signals and compose three-note melodies. They learn basic dance steps and prepare a performance.

Communication - The children learn to make music inspired by technology and computing. They explore and compose sounds for earcons, emoticons, mobile phone ringtones, computer games and apps.

Summer Term

Human Body - Skeleton dances and songs teach the children about the human body. Percussion instruments are used to improvise, create word rhythms, and build a final skeleton dance.

Singing French - Un, deux, trois and away we go to e enhance language learning through songs. Children are introduced to French greetings, vocabulary and numbers as they play lively singing games.

Ancient Worlds - Explore ancient Greece with music inspired by Orpheus, Echo and Theseus. The children perform a song cycle and a round, and compose their own ostinati.

Food and drink - A feast of chants, songs and performances. Composing word rhythms, singing a round, and creating musical recipes will develop the children’s skills from breakfast through to dinner time!