Home and School Activities

Early Years and SEND Classes

Singing with Caroline – Part 1  Fun warm-ups and songs with Surrey Arts SEND tutor Caroline Pearce. Suitable for children aged 5-7 too!

Singing with Caroline – Part 2  More warm-ups and songs with Surrey Arts SEND tutor Caroline Pearce. Suitable for children aged 5-7 too!

Singing with Caroline – Part 3  More warm-ups and songs with Surrey Arts SEND tutor Caroline Pearce. Suitable for children aged 5-7 too!

Singing with Caroline – Part 4  More warm-ups and songs with Surrey Arts SEND tutor Caroline Pearce. Suitable for children aged 5-7 too!

Classics for Kids Completely free – games, audio files and information about composers. Good for young beginners.

Sing Up Home Schooling Area  Sing Up has made available their collection of free resources and activities to keep children and young people learning and singing outside of school. New resources will be added regularly.

BBC 10 Pieces At Home  These are simple weekly activities where children will be encouraged to watch a Ten Pieces film and then do a creative activity in response. Activities are fun, simple and require no specialist equipment. Our hope is that these will be useful activities for teachers to send to their students working at home.

Royal Opera House “Create and Learn” Whether you’re looking for simple activities, a creative home-schooling project, or theatre-craft fun, Create and Learn invites you to explore the magical world of the theatre from home. Each week we’ll bring you FREE fun, new activities to get you singing, dancing and making.

BBC Bring the Noise Project – free primary school music, songs and resources for teachers, pupils and parents.

Primary School Ages

Vocal Warmup with Catherine  Surrey Youth Training Choir conductor Catherine McKay-Upcott leads a short vocal warm-up for SYTC which is suitable for all young singers.

Singing Playgrounds Online A musical postcard to welcome Surrey schools to the Singing Playgrounds Online programme.  Click here to find out more and to apply for a 1-year subscription for £50!

Singing Playgrounds At Home A host of free songs and videos from Ex Cathedra’s award-winning Singing Playgrounds.

Elephants in the Custard – London Philharmonic Orchestra’s new musical film A free 25-minute musical film for Key Stage 1 children (age 5-7) based on the book Elephants in the Custard

Express Yourself – London Philharmonic Orchestra’s new film series exploring emotions in music, for KS2 children and families Aimed at children aged 7–11 and presented by award-winning musician and broadcaster YolanDa Brown, the series explores music to express feelings of joy, anger, sadness, playfulness and more.

Ping Pong Ball Song  Surrey Youth Choir conductor Cole Bendall leads an active warm-up song.

Pass the Cup! A fun rhythmic game to play at home or in school. How many levels can you reach?

Pass the Cup Level 2!  Can you pass Level 2 and make up your own new levels?

Bananas of the World Unite! Surrey Youth Choir conductor Cole Bendall with another active warm-up song.

My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean  Surrey Arts singing teacher Cerys Reading teaches actions, words and music to “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”. Can you do all three?

Beat Goes On  Free online body percussion sessions with Ollie Tunmer of the Beat Goes On

Vocal Warmup with Ruth  Surrey Arts singing teacher Ruth Munro leads some exercises to get children’s voices warmed up and ready for singing.

Alive, Awake, Alert!  Surrey Arts tutor Ambie DeSoutter teaches a fun song with actions to wake you up!

Introduction to the Surrey Youth Training Choir  Surrey Youth Training Choir conductor Catherine McKay-Upcott gives a brief introduction to the choir and what it’s like to be a member.

Introductory Guide to Drum Kit  Surrey Arts percussion teacher Jason Reay provides an introductory guide to the drum kit for new players. Get your sticks out and play along!

Junkyard Percussion with Surrey Arts   Explore beat-making with everyday items you have at home and mix up some sounds! Before you get started with this video by Surrey Arts teacher Jason Reay, see if you can find one or more of the following items (remember to ask permission first): tub / box, metal dish, cardboard tube, wooden spoons or chop sticks x 2. Have fun!

Body Percussion with Surrey Arts  Surrey Arts percussion teacher Mike Wheeler gives a demonstration and mini-lesson to help you get started with body percussion — use your body to build up a groove!

West African Drumming with Surrey Arts   Surrey Arts percussion tutors, John Overton and Trevor Walker introduce and delve into West African Drumming together and provide creative ways to recreate the musical sounds from the great African plains at home.

Samba Workshop Part 1 – Make Some Instruments!  Surrey Arts percussion tutor Peter Reyner gives an introduction to Samba and shows you how to make your own percussion instruments from things you’ll find around the house to play this exciting music. Have fun and get creative!

Samba Workshop Part 2 – Get Playing!  Surrey Arts percussion tutor Peter Reyner continues with an introductory Samba workshop that you can take part in using the instruments you made in Part 1. Get playing!

Out of the Ark: A Song A Day  Keep children entertained and spirits high with a song a day from Out of the Ark

Classics for Kids Completely free – games, audio files and information about composers. Good for young beginners.

Sing Up Home Schooling Area  Sing Up has made available their collection of free resources and activities to keep children and young people learning and singing outside of school. New resources will be added regularly.

Bollywood Brass on YouTube  Bollywood Brass have made a fun resource for schools and home learning – a lockdown ‘play along’ video of a classic Bollywood song Dum Maro Dum.

 BBC 10 Pieces At Home  These are simple weekly activities where children will be encouraged to watch a Ten Pieces film and then do a creative activity in response. Activities are fun, simple and require no specialist equipment. Our hope is that these will be useful activities for teachers to send to their students working at home.

Royal Opera House “Create and Learn” Whether you’re looking for simple activities, a creative home-schooling project, or theatre-craft fun, Create and Learn invites you to explore the magical world of the theatre from home. Each week we’ll bring you FREE fun, new activities to get you singing, dancing and making.

BBC Bring the Noise Project – free primary school music, songs and resources for teachers, pupils and parents.

Play Opera with Welsh National Opera   Geared towards young children, this interactive show is designed to keep children entertained during lockdown, with educational aspects around singing, classical music, and even back stage elements such as costume and design.

BBC Bitesize lessons  KS1, KS2 KS3 and SEND music sessions covering a range of musical styles.

Together With Music A project which aims to connect schools with care homes through music. Schools submit a song in video format via their website which is then shared with a designated care home with the longer term aim of developing a relationship with that home. The aim is to bring some joy to care home residents at these difficult times.  

SEND Activities

Big Top Musical Adventures Big Top workshops are inclusive, educational and fun for everyone! Themed musical adventures which you can join in with from home.

Drake Music Scotland Music making opportunities for children and adults with disabilities. They have lots of lovely music videos you can join in with at home.

Little Amber Trust  Musical opportunities for babies and young children who are blind or partially sighted. They have 48 music activity cards and a range of songs to promote language development and also general development.

Nordoff Robbins Nordoff Robbins music therapists have a whole range of music activity videos and resources online to help families during Covid-19.

Singing Hands Makaton signed songs organised in searchable topics e.g. nursery rhymes, wild animals, colours, pop songs etc.

Sing Up Makaton songs A broad selection of signed songs suitable for younger children.

Soundabout Inclusive Choir You may want to join the choir or simply listen to some of their songs.

Soundabout live sessions Fun music sessions and daily hello songs for people of all ages with PMLD and SLD. You can watch all the previous videos or join them live at 2pm every Tuesday and Saturday on the Soundabout Facebook page.

SoundSpark Listen Up Lewisham!  A relaxed harp concert for SEND children.

General learning and fun facts

Ted.ed Talks on a variety of subjects, including music

Who invented the bass drum pedal? –  (Cornelius Ward) 

What was the first classical piece to use the triangle?