Musical Connections: How music can connect children to their environment 

This blog is a condensed version of Chapter 12 (part 2) of Teaching Climate Change and Sustainability in the Primary Curriculum edited by Karin Doull and Susan Ogier, published by Sage and seeks to show how music can be a tool that can connect primary-age children to issues of sustainability and climate change.

By Helen Mead, Sarah Lloyd and Jon Audain 

Music is a connector. It connects us to memories, people, moments, emotions. This connection is something we can tap into when looking at climate change and sustainability education.   

We are living in a time when the impact of human actions on the environment is a very real and sometimes overwhelming issue for our young people. We need to support our children to connect with the emotions that learning about climate change can bring and music is a tool to do this.

Music for connection | Explore how music can make children feel

• Choose 3 contrasting pieces of music, one which you think may be calming, one which might create an energetic response and one which may make the children feel happy. 
• Encourage children to relax and focus on their personal responses to the pieces. Allow children to verbalise their responses and use this emotional connectivity during discussion on climate change.
• Create a drawn response to a piece by taking a pencil for a walk. 

Through music we can connect to those around us. When we make music with others endorphins are released and a sense of social bonding is created. To make changes to our environmental impact we need to work together towards a common goal, whether that be as a class, school, local or global community. 

Music for awareness | Use singing as a tool to teach about climate change and sustainability

• Singing is a fantastic way to create a general feeling of connection between your children and by its very nature create a sense of increased community and belonging.   
• In addition to supporting wellbeing, singing is a great way to raise awareness and engage with issues surrounding climate change and sustainability. You will find a wealth of songs and musicals around these themes.  
• Some examples:  
  • ‘Eddie the Penguin Saves the World’ – Out of The Ark
  • ‘Plastic Pirates’ –  The Schools Musical Company 
  • ‘The Big Green Adventure’ – Edgy Productions 
• Although these resources need purchasing you will find songs such as ‘One World’ free from Portsmouth Music Hub’s Song Source. 

Through music we can connect to the world we are living in. From indigenous cultures, through popular music and classical genres, musicians have taken inspiration from the natural world. Listening and responding to music inspired by nature can bring children back to a connection to the world around them. It is only through this connection that an understanding around the issues of climate change and sustainability can have meaning to an individual.

Music for awareness | Explore Indigenous Australian (Aboriginal) – Songlines

• Listen to some examples of Aboriginal songlines and explore how sounds on the didgeridoo represent different animals. 
• Listen also to modern indigenous Australian artists such as Emily Wurramara. Children may spot connections to the natural world in her song ‘Black Smoke’. 
• Children could compose their own songline-inspired music, creating a ‘map’ of a journey through the Australian outback or create a musical journey through their local landscape.

Themes of nature can be found throughout many musical genres, none more so than classical music. Some examples you could explore with your class are Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6. 

This musical connection to the natural world is not just confined to the past. Contemporary composers and performers are addressing the issues of climate change with increasing urgency, adding a musical voice to the issues at hand e.g. ‘Elegy for the Artic’ (2016, Ludovico Einaudi); ‘Become Ocean’ (John Luther Adans, 2014).  

The influence of pop music and pop musicians on our young people is huge. Ecology and environmental issues became a topic for pop songs in the 1970s with performers such as Joni Mitchell (Big Yellow Taxi) and Marvin Gaye (Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)) combining lyrical melodies and challenging lyrics to bring the issue into mainstream prominence. Performers as diverse as Billie Eilish (All the Good Girls Go to Hell), Michael Jackson (Earthsong), Metallica (Blackened) and Will.I.Am (SOS Mother Nature) have all lent their voices to the environmental cause.

Music for engagement | Explore lyrics and music videos

• Explore the lyrics of some of the songs listed above with your class. Ask them to highlight the lines that stand out to them, contain imagery they like etc. Create a display of illustrated phrases taken from these songs. 
• Watch the music videos for some of these songs e.g. Earthsong (Michael Jackson) or Eyes Wide Open (Gotye). Discuss the images used and the effect it has on the person listening to the song. Children could create their own music videos, using their own artwork or photography inspired by the lyrics of the song.

Music has been and continues to be a powerful voice for expressing ideas, whether that be classical works, protest songs or performance pieces. Through music we can help young people to connect to the natural world, to express their emotions and find their voice. Music can become the ‘golden thread’ to weave through learning about sustainability and climate change.

Helen Mead is an Inclusion Lead at Portsmouth Music Hub, as well as a school-based music teacher and lecturer in Initial Teacher Training (ITT) for primary music with SCITT and Winchester University. Helen also creates educational content for national organisations. 

Sarah Lloyd is a primary music specialist in a Southampton school. Sarah contributes her expertise to the creation of learning resources and has co-authored chapters on primary music. She also shares her expertise teaching aspiring teachers on the University of Winchester’s ITT program.  

Jon Audain is a Senior Lecturer in Education in the Institute of Education, University of Winchester. Jon is the author and collaborator of over 20 books and Chair of the Technology, Pedagogy in Education Association (TPEA). 

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