The Irish Music & Dance workshop provides half and full-day workshops introducing students to the vitality of Irish traditional music and group dancing. Students experience playing the Irish Bodhrán (a hand held drum played with a stick), singing an Irish song in Gaelic, or dancing a traditional Irish group dance with other students. There is also scope for existing musicians to play a piece of Irish music, this can be on a variety of instruments. 

 NC objectives:

 Traditional Irish Dance – NC Dance objectives covered

• Aquiring and developing skills
• Selecting and applying skills and compositional ideas
• Evaluating and improving performance
• Knowledge and understanding of fitness and health

Traditional Irish singing and bodhran playing – NC Music objectives covered

• Controlling sounds through singing and playing – performing skills
• Creating and developing musical ideas – composing skills
• Responding and reviewing – appraising skills
• Listening and applying knowledge and understanding

Stories around the world

Stories and music are an inherent part of human culture and communication. An activity shared through the generations and something that we can all identify with, This workshop uses theses two art forms to introduce children to different cultures and to encourage creative activities.

Using a story as the starting point, children will participate in music and dance, which will be brought together for a final presentation of the story. Stories can either be selected by the practitioner or in negotiation with the school, to fit in with other classroom/project work. Not only are most aspects of the music national curriculum covered but cross reference a number of other subjects including English and science (see below for details).

Activities can be repeated and developed by the classroom teacher using school resources.

SAMPLE WORKSHOPS

 KIBUNGO – Brazilian rainforest story

• Warmup game
• Group music making – conducting/etc
• Learn traditional dance
• Show children Cena and Panpipes (traditional south African flutes)
• Discuss rain forest, animals you can find, explore sounds using voice
• Tell story, children participate acting out playing instruments and dancing

SPIDER THE DRUMMER – African story

• Warmup game
• Group music making – conducting etc
• Introduce drums, movement to drums, musical statues (children playing)
• Create simple piece based around drums and other percussion
• Tell story, children participate with mime, drumming and dancing

AYA AND THE NEW MOON – Indonesian story

• Warmup game
• Conducting
• Introduce xylophone gamelan pentatonic CEFGBC
• Dancing, explore relationship between musician and dancer in Balinese music dancers lead, indicating when musicians should change/play slow, fast, loud soft etc.
• Create piece of music using chime bars xylophone gong and drum
• Tell story and incorporate music and dance

 NC objectives:

PE objectives covered:

• use movement imaginatively, responding to stimuli, including music, and performing basic skills [for example, travelling, being still, making a shape, jumping, turning and gesturing]
• change the rhythm, speed, level and direction of their movements
• create and perform dances using simple movement patterns, including those from different times and cultures
• express and communicate ideas and feelings.

PSHE objectives covered:

• to listen to other people, and play and work cooperatively

ENGLISH objectives covered

En1 Speaking and listening

Drama

• working in role
• presenting drama and stories to others [for example, telling a story through tableaux or using a narrator]
• responding to performances.
• use language and actions to explore and convey situations, characters and emotions

To listen, understand and respond to others, pupils should be taught to:

• sustain concentration
• identify and respond to sound patterns in language [for example, alliteration, rhyme, word play].

En2 Reading

Literature

To develop their understanding of fiction, poetry and drama, pupils should be taught to:

• use their knowledge of sequence and story language when they are retelling stories and predicting events
• learn, recite and act out stories and poems
• identify patterns of rhythm, rhyme and sounds in poems and their effects
• respond imaginatively in different ways to what they read [for example, using the characters from a story in drama, writing poems based on ones they read, showing their understanding through art or music].