Year 5 - The Groovy 70s

It's Music Week and we have been journeying to the Groovy 70s!

The week started with a drumming workshop, and a visit from Mr Porter who showed us his gramophone. It was exciting to have two musical visitors in one day, and the children enjoyed experiencing both live music and the sounds of the gramophone. 

Then, on Tuesday, we jumped back 50 years and enjoyed listening to some funky fresh tunes and having a boogie in the classroom. The teachers even looked the part! The children listened out to identify which musical instruments they could hear, and they gave 12 top songs from the 70s a star rating out of 5. Class favourites included September by Earth, Wind and Fire, Blame it on the Boogie by The Jacksons, Dolly Parton's Jolene, Stevie Wonder's Superstition and the infamous I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. We also learnt about the different things that were created in the 70s: from Star Wars to the Rubik's Cube, looked at the fashion of the times, and created our own moodboards. 

In preparation for our music week assembly we spent the week learning some of Dancing Queen by ABBA, ready to perform as part of the whole school medley. The children were surprised to learn that they actually knew many of the songs from this decade, including some by Queen and Elton John. 

In Writing, we began to research some famous icons from the 70s such as Freddie Mercury and Dolly Parton, in preparation of writing biographies about their lives and their greatest achievements. Did you know that Dolly Parton wrote the songs 'Jolene' and 'I Will Love You' in the same day?!

We even visited the 70s in Maths when the teachers set up 'record shops' to help teach the children about managing a budget. They had to work together to make decisions such as budgeting for roller disco tickets, and earning more money by babysitting or delivering newspapers. 

As part of music week, some children were selected to attend a songwriting workshop with a talented Year 10 musician and songwriter at Drapers' Academy. They decided to create a disco funk song inspired by the roller disco scene of the 70s, created a band and then composed, learnt and performed their song - all in half a day! We were really impressed! Watch this space for the final recording of their track 'Let's Get Groovy by Japez'.

Later in the week the children were set the challenge of designing their own record covers, and many of them chose to design one for our very own band and their debut track. There were some very groovy designs! 

Ask your child to tell you what they learnt about life (and music) in the 70s!