1 Going for a song
ADULT-LED
Write your own dinosaur songs.
Resources
Ideally, a flipchart and pen, but they are not essential
Preparation
* Remind the children of the tune 'She'll be coming round the mountain' or teach it to them.
* This activity is best carried out when all the children have had some experiences of dinosaur role-play, puppet play or small-world play as they will be able to use their play-based experiences to help write the song.
Key learning intentions
To enjoy listening to songs, and to make up their own songs
To extend vocabulary
Activity content
* Explain to the children that you are going to create a new version of the song 'She'll be coming round the mountain', and that it is going to be about dinosaurs.
* Begin by sharing a verse or two that you have composed, for example:
A tyrannosaurus rex is chasing us,
A tyrannosaurus rex is chasing us,
A tyrannosaur is chasing, a tyrannosaur is chasing
A tyrannosaur is chasing after us!
nContinue with the names of other dinosaurs, suggested by the children.
Help them think about how that particular dinosaur behaves, in order to complete the verse. For example:
A pterodactyl's flying overhead,
A pterodactyl's flying overhead,
Can you hear his huge wings flapping?
Can you hear his huge wings flapping?
A pterodactyl's flying overhead.
* Where appropriate, write some of the verses down with the children, in a shared writing session. These sessions need not be long. Talk to the children as you write, and encourage them to tell you what they notice about features of print.
Things to say
Remember how you moved when you were dressed as a triceratops. What was it like? What kinds of things have you made the dinosaurs do in small-world play? I wonder which other dinosaurs could be in our song.
Stepping stones
* Children with little experience will join in with repeated refrains.
* Children with some experience will listen to the song with an increasing attention span.
* Children with more experience will initiate a conversation, negotiate positions, pay attention to and take account of others' views.
Extension ideas
* Record the children singing their song, and play it back to them, so they can hear how it sounds.
* Write out each verse or print them off the computer in a large font, and display in sequence along a wall, with illustrations drawn by the children above the text. Encourage the children to read/sing the verses independently, as well as using it for small group sessions.
* Make the text of the song into a book, illustrated with photos of small-world dinosaurs, and keep it near the small world, to encourage the children to sing as they play.
* Develop actions to the song, using the children's ideas.
* Perform the song with actions, outdoors, where you can be really exuberant.
2 Sound effects
ADULT-LED
Add sound effects to the small-world play area to create a special kind of atmosphere.
Adult:child ratio 1:6
Resources
Dinosaur small-world play scenario, with a good variety of dinosaur toys, surfaces and textures and preferably, more than one of each variety of dinosaur; good selection of percussion instruments - enough for the children to be able to choose which ones they will use Key learning intentions To respond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear think and feel To express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of materials
To identify, continue and create a pattern
Activity content
* Talk to the children about the stories that they have been making in the small world.
* Encourage them to tell you about the action that has taken place, where the dinosaurs have been and what they have been getting up to.
* Ask the children to tell you about the different characters of the dinosaurs; which ones are fierce and which are friendly, and so on.
* Explore the percussion instruments with the children, so that they are familiar with the different sounds that they make.
* Talk with the children about the different sounds that they might hear in the small world - the crunching of leaves, thudding footsteps, for example.
* Work with the children to create sound effects for the environment, using the instruments you have provided.
* Build up the noises, so that a sound picture is created.
* Record it and play it back to the children.
* Leave a collection of instruments near to the small world so that the children can experiment with the activity on their own.
Stepping stones
* Children with little experience will show an interest in what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel.
* Children with some experience will explore further a particular experience using a range of senses. They will begin to use representation as a means of communication and they will describe experiences and past actions, using a widening range of materials.
* Children with more experience will try to capture experiences and responses with music, dance, paint and other materials or words. They will develop preferences for forms of expression and they will talk about personal intentions, describing what they were trying to do.
Extension ideas
* Choose a different instrument or sound to represent each of the kinds of dinosaur. Agree these with the children.
* Arrange the dinosaurs in a line, and play the tune! If you have more than one of each dinosaur, you will be able to create a musical pattern.
* Take photographs of the toy dinosaurs, print off multiple copies and then laminate them or mount them on card.
* Lay the cards out in a pattern. Can the children identify and continue the pattern, by using the instruments to play the 'tune' that you have laid out?
* The children can also use these cards to compose a variety of dino-tunes.
Some children may enjoy devising their own ways of writing down their tunes so that others can play them.
* Make sure that there are opportunities for the children to perform their compositions to each other.
* Use the instruments to develop conversations between the dinosaurs. Pairs of children hold an instrument each to represent a different dinosaur, and 'talk' to each other by playing the percussion instruments.
