Music Express: Age 6-7 (Book + 3CDs)

Until recently, Helen MacGregor was Teacher Adviser for Music in Kent. Helen is a freelance consultant in primary music education and has written many of A&C Black's most popular and successful music titles, including Bingo Lingo, Singing French, Singing English and Singing Phonics. Helen collaborated with Stephen Chadwick on Roald Dahl's Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs and on Roald Dahl's Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Unit 1: Ourselves The children discover ways to use their voices to describe feelings and moods. They create and notate vocal sounds, building to a performance. Unit 2: Toys The children move and play to a steady beat and to sound sequences. They learn to control changing tempo as they take a scooter ride. Unit 3: Our Land The children explore timbre and texture as they explore descriptive sounds. They listen to, and perform, music inspired by myths. Unit 4: Our Bodies The children develop a sense of steady beat using their own bodies. They respond to music and play rhythm patterns on body percussion and instruments. Unit 5: Animals The children link animal movement with pitch movement to help develop understanding and recognition of changing pitch. They interpret pitch line notation using voices and tuned instruments. Unit 6: Number The children explore steady beat and rhythm patterns. They play beats and patterns from Renaissance Italy to West Africa, and create their own with body percussion, voices and instruments. Unit 7: Storytime The children are introduced to famous pieces to stimulate composition. The children interpret a storyboard with sound effects, and develop their own ideas using voices and percussion. Unit 8: Seasons The children develop understanding of pitch through movement, songs and listening games. They become familiar with pitch shapes and perform them in a variety of musical arrangements. Unit 9: Weather The children have opportunities to create descriptive sounds and word rhythms with raps and songs about the weather. They create a descriptive class composition using voices and instruments. Unit 10: Pattern Using simple notations, the children play, create and combine minibeast rhythms using body percussion and instruments. Unit 11: Water The children sing and play a variety of pitch shapes, using movement and reading from scores. They create a class composition which describes the sounds and creatures of a pond. Unit 12: Travel The children learn a Tanzanian game song and accompany a travelling song using voices and instruments. They listen to an orchestral piece and improvise their own descriptive 'theme park' music.