Book Reviews: Spring Assembly Songs

Spring Assembly Songs

by Mark and Helen Johnson

Though it might not feel like it, winter's grasp is slowly loosening as the days grow longer and warmer. Spring is a time of new beginnings – a perfect excuse to celebrate all that life has to offer. Luckily, Out of the Ark's latest songbook provides ample fodder for any assembly that you have in mind to celebrate the changing of the seasons.

Music

All of the songs here manage to set the mood perfectly for spring – all have nice, bouncy tempos and uplifting lyrics and chord progressions. In terms of singing and playing, most of the songs are in simple time signatures and keys so there shouldn't be anything that students would struggle to sing, or a Grade 5+ pianist to play.

Mark and Helen have, once again, composed a great range of songs that succeed in capturing the essence of spring while retaining a strong individual identity. No two songs sound the same, a testament to their musical and lyrical abilities. I particularly enjoyed the jazzy arrangement of ‘It's a Spring Thing’, and ‘You're the Best Mum for Me!’ is guaranteed to be a tearjerker (in a good way!) at any assembly.

The Words on Screen app is incredibly intuitive

If you're unfamiliar with Out of the Ark then, as the name suggests, the company has a Christian ethos and this does show up as a theme in a lot of its output. While this is a Spring songbook, it does contain some which are specifically linked to Easter and which are therefore understandably Christian in content (for example, ‘He is Risen’). The assembly plans at the back of the book have clearly labelled ‘Bible bits’ and can work with or without this element, depending on what your school needs. It's there if you need it and you're not missing out if it's not useful for you, given how many songs are here.

Additional content

Along with the aforementioned assembly plans, the book is packed with a whole host of extra goodies that will be of immense use to any teacher. Each page of lyrics is paired with an activity page. These contain useful teaching tips, activity plans, ideas for stepping it up, glossed terms, and achievable goals – all of this is tailored to each specific song, providing countless hours of engaging content.

If you purchase the premium pack, then a CD-ROM will be bundled in with the audio CD in a smart fold-out case. Putting the CD-ROM into a computer will give you access to printable pages from the book – very useful for the activity sheets, lyrics and sheet music. You'll also be able to run the Words on Screen application which does exactly what it says. The interface for the application is very simple to use and well-designed – just pick your song and off you go. You can set it to play with or without vocals and the audio quality is very good so if you've not got a pianist, then don't worry. As the song plays, the current line is highlighted, karaoke style, so that any class can follow along easily. The lyrics are set out like a PowerPoint presentation so you can go back to a specific part of the song that you want to work on. The app also makes your life a little bit easier by encouraging you to complete your licensing form as you use the application, so that you're not having to remember at a later date which songs you used. Within Words on Screen, the premium pack also gives you access to some fun signing videos if you want to teach your class a new skill along with links to dance and craft content.

All in all, a great songbook for KS1 and KS2 music classes. Just the right thing to get you in the mood for spring!

outoftheark.co.uk/spring-assembly-songs