Topical Tuesdays: The Streaming Situation – KS2 News Story and Reading and Writing Activity Sheet from The Week Junior

A group of British politicians have been holding an inquiry (an investigation) into how music streaming works, including how the money that companies such as Spotify make from subscriptions and advertising makes its way to musicians. The politicians are now writing a report with suggestions for how the system could be improved.

This resources pack includes an article from The Week Junior magazine, along with a sheet of activities designed to get children thinking, talking and writing about what the story means to them.

Activities include:

• It’s all very well, these rich and famous musicians trying to get the Prime Minister to put pressure on streaming services to change what they do, but why should the Government get involved? Surely it is entirely up to each company to decide what it does; if customers like it, it will succeed and if they don’t, it will fail. Or is it right to act if there is an obvious lack of fairness? What do you think?
• Write a review of your favourite song. If you can, use music-related vocabulary such as melody and rhythm.
• Take the lyrics of a famous song that you like and change it to reflect this news article. Make it as funny or serious as you like but try to keep the same rhythm and rhyming patter
• Sir Paul McCartney was a member of a group called The Beatles. Write a fact file about them, including when they were recording, who the members were and the titles of some of their songs. Also, write a paragraph or two about why they were so popular.

Find the entire series of Topical Tuesday resources to download here.

What is The Week Junior?

The Week Junior magazine looks at current affairs and helps children make sense of the world, provides context and clarity to complex issues, improves general knowledge and encourages discussion and debate.

To find out more about The Week Junior and to download its free resources, please go to schools.theweekjunior.co.uk.

This resource is part of the News Activities Archive collection.
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• News story
• Activities sheet