Fair Trade Theme Tune
Curriculum Links: Music 1.2 (a), 1.2 (b), 1..4 (a), 2.1 (d); PSHE 1.2 (a), 2.3 (e); Citizenship 1.1 (b), 1.1 (c), 1.3 (c), 2.1 (a), 2.1 (c), 2.2 (a).
Learning Objective: To compose a Fairtrade theme tune
Learning Outcome: Students create, develop and extend their musical ideas by selecting and combining different instruments.
Resources Needed: Producer stories, variety of instruments, A3 paper.
Starter: In pairs students have a few moments to come up with a 20 word definition of Fairtrade. Discuss ideas with the class.
Main Activity: How much do they know about Fairtrade? Divide students into groups and distribute the A3 paper. Using producer stories students draw a mind map about the benefits of Fairtrade (e.g. organic, good quality goods, the Fairtrade premium etc)
What is a theme tune? What is its purpose (e.g. to be recognisable, promote a brand/TV show, encourage people to watch a programme/buy an item) Groups think of as many TV theme tunes and advertising theme tunes as possible. What’s the difference between them? What genre of music are they? (e.g. classical, pop, a jingle) Do they have words or are they just music? What theme tunes appeal most to young people? Why? The class comes up with a criteria for a successful theme tune.
For example:
• It’s memorable
• It appeals to the target audience for that product/TV show.
• It’s short
In groups students come up with a Fairtrade theme tune to be used on a television/radio advert to promote Fairtrade products to young people.
Looking at their Fairtrade mind maps students decide on the:
• Types of instruments to use. Will they reflect the countries which benefit from Fairtrade?
• Genre of music which they believe best reflects Fairtrade and will appeal to target audience.
After all groups have performed their theme tune the class decides which was the most effective and why.
Plenary: Using some of the producer stories to help them, students act out a way farmers and their communities have benefited from Fairtrade. The rest of the class have to guess it.
Extension: Record the most popular theme tune and use it to advertise the school’s Fairtrade tuck shop.
Click here to download the accompanying Producer Stories in Welsh.