Music in Year 3 - Rhythm and Pulse

Date: 22nd May 2026 @ 2:35pm

The children in Year 3 have really been enjoying their music lessons.

So far, we studied singing in a round to songs such as Frere Jacques, which supported our Modern Foreign Languages, and London’s Burning.

The children have sung the melody (tune) in unison (together).  The children also sang songs with the same structure (how a piece of music is put together) about rocks which helped them recall some of our science facts and vocabulary too.

The children have move to using our body parts to create a pulse (beat) and a rhythm (a pattern of notes) of a tune.

Then, we wrote our own rhythms using musical notes such as crotchets (one beat) and quavers (½ a beat) in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 signature.  This week, we have played untuned percussion instruments to support our chants, rhythm and pulse.

As promised, some of the children were allowed to play the instruments they made at home for their project.

The children thought:

‘I enjoyed making a noise with my group.’

‘I loved singing rounds with Frere Jacques and London’s Burning’.

‘Frere Jacques helped me with my French.’

‘We changed the words to London’s Burning so it was about rocks.’

‘The tambourine made a good sound.

‘I found that I could make different sounds with my instrument.’

‘I liked playing the different instruments in my band.’

‘The drum was favourite because it made a nice noise.’

Next, we will include rests as part of our beautiful, noisy, musical compositions and sing hymns and shanties too.