Starters and Plenaries for Music

Elements of Music

Format	card sort
Concepts	pitch, tempo, dynamics, instruments, texture

Starter

Copy the following onto card and cut out around the dotted lines, forming ten separate cards, and shuffle them so that they are not in order. Make sure you have enough cards for every student (or sets of cards for pairs/groups of students) in your class. You may wish to laminate these for future use:

Elements of Music: Cards

Choose the most appropriate method of organising the starter:

Whole class

For these activities, you will need a card for every student in the class:

Give every student a card at random. Choose one student to read out what is on their card. Ask students who have a card with the same word or the corresponding definition to raise a hand or stand up. Repeat until all words and definitions have been used.
Shuffle the cards and then distribute one card to every student in the class. Ask students to walk around the classroom until they find someone with a corresponding word or definition. This pair then has to find other pairs with a different key word and definition. The winning group is the first to be made up of ten students, each with a different word or definition. You may wish to distribute the full sheet at the end for them to check their answers.

Small groups or pairs

For this activity, you will need a set of cards for every group/pair. You may wish to ensure they are copied onto thicker card so that it is not possible to see the writing through the back of the card when turned face down.

The groups/pairs place their set of cards face down on a table. The first student turns one card over, and then a second card; if the second card belongs with the first, the student picks the cards up and keeps them as a pair. If not, both cards are replaced where they were, face down. The student who collects the most pairs is the winner.

Individual students

For this activity, every student will need a set of cards.

Students should arrange the cards into two columns: the key words in the left column, and the corresponding definitions on the right. They may wish to fit them into the following grid:

Elements of Music: Grid

(These ideas are appropriate for any card-sorting activity and so can also be found under Templates.)

Extension

As extension work, students could be asked to do one of the following:

Write the words and definitions out in their books for future reference.
Devise a pair of symbols to represent each key word. For example, an aeroplane and a snail to represent tempo; or a lion and a mouse to represent dynamics.

Plenary

Provide a variety of sounds (recorded examples or sounds played live on an instrument) to students. Ask them to describe the pitch, tempo, dynamics, texture or timbre of each sound/extract.