Making music
Aim:
To demonstrate the value of co-operation.
You will need:
Musical instruments, or items that can make 'music', the words to songs sung in rounds.
Duration:
20 minutes
Making music and singing songs together requires co-operation. Demonstrate what happens when everyone tries to make their own individual piece of music at the same time, by letting the group all choose or improvise different instruments and make a noise.
Stop the noise, and ask one person to volunteer to be a conductor. Explain that the conductor will indicate who should play when, and how loud, by pointing and raising/lowering their hands. Now make music together with the conductor controlling the sound - is there an improvement?
Next sing some songs together that are sung in rounds. You could try singing at first where anyone can join in whenever they choose! Next sing the songs properly, following the convention with different groups joining in at certain lines. Which version sounded better?
These examples show us how important it can be to co-operate together to achieve results. If we only think about ourselves, and do whatever we want, we often don't get anywhere.