Around the World with Bessy

Part One and a Half

Learn to play the spoons, either following on from Bessy’s Kitchen Percussion Workshop or from scratch. Use this helpful link from our collaborator, www.jomaypercussion.co.uk
Make your own kitchen themed instruments and explore their sounds eg. Recycle a variety of containers and fill with seeds, dry pasta, bottle tops, etc. Construct a bucket bass using bucket, mop handle and string. Make bucket hand drums from upturned buckets or plant pots.
Create different food related rhythms for each group of instruments eg “mop the floor” “bro-cco-li and ca-rrots” etc.
Sing the `’Skye Boat Song” and explore all the verses. Sing Frère Jacques together then as a round. Start with a 2 part round and then try it as a 4 part round.
Consider liaising with your local supermarket or other appropriate venue to busk there as a choir, ensemble, band etc, to raise money for a charity or for school/music department funds.

The show is virtually a live performance of the book. Create your own class/school/group version as a narration, playing and/or singing the music using the tracks from the book and projections of your own images.
Make the book into a play where the children act out the characters using dialogue as well as narration.
Discuss the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and other festivals where drama is performed.

Explore alliteration and onomatopoeia “the scallywag seagulls, squawking and squabbling over a stolen morning roll”
Discuss the rhythm of the words of the food related rhythms.
Write your own lyrics to the music.
Discuss the meaning of ‘Busking’.

Find Bessy’s home village on the map.
Follow Bessy’s train journey into Edinburgh.
What is Edinburgh famous for? Discuss your own home town/city.
Find Edinburgh on the map – how could you get there? What other modes of transport could you use?
Discuss your homemade instruments in terms of recycling and up-cycling.

Count a steady beat in 4 to act as the unifying pulse for the food related rhythms. Get the pupils to count and tap this together. Keep the beat going as the pupils start to build their rhythms.
Workout how many repetitions of each rhythm works best…choose from 4, 8 or 16, standard musical phrase length.
How many steps are there on Fleshmarket Street Close? Is there a set of steps like these in your town? Do you know of other long flights of steps anywhere…castles, monuments, gardens
The “Royal Mile” runs through the heart of Edinburgh from the castle to Holyrood Palace. What is the longest street you know of? How long and how many houses if any are on it?
Bessy and Spud’n’Spencer collected coins in the Busking Basket. Discuss currency, sterling and others.
Bessy is saving up to buy her plane ticket to New York. Discuss the cost of the ticket and how much for how many days she would need to earn to afford it.

Record and layer the food related rhythms on the homemade instruments using GarageBand or other software.
Make a a journey planner of Bessy’s trip to Edinburgh on Google Maps.

Discuss recycling. Should the homemade instruments be filled with dried food or bottle tops?
Discuss sound. How does chanting and playing rhythms make you feel? Do you sound like a team? Is it more fun working alone or in a group? How do the different sounds make you feel? What are your favourite sounds? Why?
Bessy feels nervous about going Busking for the first time. Why? What makes her feel better? Think of other ways to help yourself or friends if the nerves strike.
Bessy found the Fleshmarket Close steps hard work. Discuss why we exercise and its benefits. Set an appropriate exercise(s) challenge for each pupil for the duration of the project, such as sit ups, star jumps, jogging on the spot etc…use the track, “Bessy’s Theme” to indicate the start of exercise time and also to accompany the exercise. Have fun and play the track randomly and unannounced throughout the day so that when they hear the melody, it’s time to stop what they are doing and immediately start their exercise. Keep a chart of how many reps each pupil manages. Discuss how they feel after the exercise, if it gets easier the more often they do it and what time of day is best for them to do it.