Performing Arts 

Performing Arts Newsletter - Term 1, 2025

It has been a wonderful start to the year in Performing Arts! Students across all year levels have had fun immersing themselves in music and drama activities designed to enhance their skills, creativity and confidence. Here is a snapshot of what each grade has explored this term:

Foundation

This term, Foundation students have enthusiastically embraced listening and moving safely within the Performing Arts space. With the help of our Performing Arts bee, Queenie, students have discovered steady beat through movement and parachute activities. They’ve especially enjoyed practicing farm animal sounds and body percussion and incorporating them into the song “Cows in the Kitchen.”

Grade One

Grade One explored the song “Obwisana” from Ghana. Students enjoyed mastering rhythms with egg shakers, maracas, and bongos, before adding the musical note D using xylophones, boomwhackers, chime bars, and resonator bells. They very much enjoyed watching and listening to “The Kangaroo Song” by First Nations artists William Barton and Sean Choolburra. They also listened to string and woodwind instruments as we explored orchestra families. Students also participated in the call-and-repeat activity “Dark, Dark Wood” focusing on dynamics (loud and soft).

Grade Two

Grade Two students bravely led their classmates in the call-and-response song “Charlie Over the Ocean” this term. They incorporated woodblock and triangle rhythms along with notes G and E on instruments like xylophones, boomwhackers, glockenspiels, and chime bars. Students were fascinated by William Barton’s didgeridoo performance, creating soundscapes of the wetlands using woodblocks and guiros. They also carefully listened to the dynamic shifts in the “Radetzky March.”

Grade Three

Our Grade Three students enjoyed learning the song “A Ram Sam Sam”. They rehearsed hand movements, tambourines, triangles, and hand drums. Splitting into groups to play xylophones and glockenspiels, they demonstrated great concentration. The students developed their listening skills by distinguishing different pitches and started exploring musical notation on the stave. They were moved by Yothu Yindi’s “Sunset Dreaming” and compared different arrangements of Brahms “Hungarian Dance no. 5” played by an orchestra, a solo pianist and a pair of comedic musicians.

Grade Four

Grade Four tackled the classic “Day-O” adding egg shakers, drums, xylophones, boomwhackers, and glockenspiels. The students embraced diverse cultural experiences through listening activities featuring “My Island Home” by Warumpi Band and Christine Anu, Beethoven’s iconic “Symphony No. 5,” and the thrilling “Dr Who” theme. They also honed their rhythmic accuracy and concentration playing the “Pass the Beat Around the Room” game.

Grades Five and Six

Both Grades Five and Six kick off each lesson with the immensely popular “Bop or Flop”, where they passionately debate songs by artists such as Queen, Kendrick Lamar, and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, refining their musical vocabulary in the process. At the start of the year both grade five and six voted on whether they would like to play ukulele or xylophone. All Grade Five classes voted to begin learning the ukulele and have so far been able to learn to play the Chords Am7 and C7. Grades 6TR and 6SF also chose ukulele and have progressed to the F chord and more complex melody playing. 6KT chose to play the xylophone and have challenged themselves to play the bass and harmony sections of a more complex song than they had attempted before. 

Both year levels also learnt about improvisation in drama, showing their skills in the games “Bus Stop” and “Werewolf”. Through these activities, students have creatively improvised engaging stories and vibrant characters, showcasing their blossoming dramatic talents.

I look forward to another term filled with creativity, enthusiasm, and continued growth in Performing Arts! 

Alana Ingles 

Performing Arts Teacher