Cyprus Animals

During the Environmental Education lesson, Year 6 students examined the issue of Cyprus animals that are near extinction. When they were informed about the competition, they wanted to write a song about this serious issue. They searched about it, they examined its various aspects and then they worked in groups to write the lyrics. The whole class discussed about the lyrics and made some changes. The students wanted to share a very important message about the endangered species of Cyprus: these animals don’t hurt anyone but on the contrary, they are valuable parts of the food chain and their extinction will affect human quality of life.
During the Music lessons, students worked in groups to compose music for their lyrics. Each group presnted their composition to their classmates and chose the parts that would be the most interesting. After that, they decided to incorporate body percussion to make the song unique. So, they chose the heartbeat to be the base of their rythmic instrumentation. The heartbeat shows their love for the animals and the heartbeat of the animals too. Then, they wrote down the chords for the melodic percussion (xylophones: arpeggios / metallophones: chords) and gave roles to each other ( orchestra-choir).
The Cyprus animals that the song talks about are the following: the griffon (gyps fulvus), the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), the Mediterranean monk seal, the black snake (Heirophis cypriensis), the Egyptian fruit bat ( Rousettus aegyptiacus) and the Cyprus mouflon (Ovis gmelini ophion ). The message at the end of the song is that the endangered species worth protection and saving and each one of us should do its best to stop animal extinction.