Many Year Six classes put on a performance at the end of the year to mark the end of their time at their primary school. Although the end of the academic year is still a few months away,  here are details of a new musical for those teachers who want to plan ahead!

‘Fame Idle is the story of three kids who are confused why everyone around them seem obsessed by celebrity culture and they are not. It’s a musical comedy with a moral message… “Fame ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.” It has a modern score and a witty script that follows Bobby, P.J. and Smudge as they discover what friendship means when faced with a chance of fame – but at what cost?’

Here is a video which highlights some photos and audio from the production:

Many schools have already put on their own performances of the musical and received extremely positive feedback. To find out more for yourself, visit www.fame-idle.co.uk.

Cyberkidz is a Dutch ‘edutainment’ site with lots of educational games, covering Maths, Literacy, Geography, Art, Music and more. The games are sorted by subject and age range, suitable for children aged 4-11.

www.cyberkidz.net

The site has recently been translated into English, so even more children are now able to take advantage of these resources.

Sing Up is a new campaign to encourage schools and communities to use singing in a range of ways. The Sing Up site states that “Every child deserves the chance to sing every day. Singing improves learning, confidence, health and social development. It has the power to change lives and help to build stronger communities.”

The organisation promotes singing as a cross-curricular tool, in line with the National Curriculum. They also provide training for teachers to lead inspirational singing activities with young people. The site has a huge collection of songs, lesson plans, games and activities which teachers can take advantage of in their classrooms.

This Youtube video gives more information about the Sing Up materials.

Here are details of two fantastic resources for those teaching Literacy / Music / History linked to the topic of Ancient Greece:

‘Heroes of Troy‘ is a music resource for school children aged 9 to 11 and offers 7 songs to learn, each linking to an episode of the Trojan War. The website is audio-based, but also includes Teachers’ Notes, words and music for the songs, backing tracks…and well-known music presenter David Grant is on hand to teach all of the songs.

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/troy/

It’s intended to target a range of music objectives at Key Stage 2 but also links to the history topic Ancient Greece while offering opportunities to link music with literacy and performance.

Winged Sandals offers animated versions of different Greek myths, along with games and other online activities to try. This has always been popular with children whenever I’ve used it at school.

www.wingedsandals.com

Famous musicians and other celebrities have been getting involved in a range of activities which form part of the government’s ‘National Year of Music’.

Research shows that engaging in music is beneficial to children’s development in a number of areas, ‘including language, numeracy, social skills, physical development and emotional intelligence.’

The government is hoping to double the number of children in KS2 (aged 7-11) who are given an opportunity to learn an instrument for free by 2011.

What is your school doing as part of the ‘National Year of Music’?

Image: ‘needs to be played‘

I’ve just added a fantastic new game to the Music pages of Teaching Ideas. It’s called ‘Name that Note‘ and it’s designed to test your knowledge of the musical stave. You can review the treble, alto, tenor and bass clefs and there are different levels (to match your ability!).

How many points will you score?