Unit 7 – History
In this section Year 2 students are introduced to music in the context of prehistoric times. The section has two main objectives. Firstly, students are introduced to the concept of past music, thus paving the way for lessons on history of music in later years. Secondly, the teacher stresses the importance of singing, body percussion, hand drumming and possibly even dance by explaining that these forms of music-making have existed, or must have existed, since the earliest times.
Activity 1 – Prehistory
Prehistory lasted thousands of years and there was no writing, therefore, written history was non-existent. However, prehistoric instruments, such as flutes, were found. These so called flutes were made out of animal bones so that people could still express themselves through sound. We can also assume that prehistoric people used to sing and make percussion instruments as well as using body movements as a means of producing percussive sounds.
The teacher reads out the introductory paragraph provided to the students. Inthe first activity a picture of Ħaġar Qim with prehistoric musicians in the foreground is coloured.
Activity 2 – Voice and body sounds
In this activity, students try to reproduce sounds, such as clapping, stamping, shrieking, humming and hissing, as indicated in the pictures.