Specialist News

ist🎵 Music Overview 🎵

Prep:

Prep students have been having fun exploring rhythm and the keyboard! They’re learning to find the notes, use the right finger numbers, and take good care of the equipment like winding up headphones and playing gently. They’re also building their repertoire with cheerful tunes such as Mary Had a Little Lamb and Jingle Bells.

Grade 1/2:

Grade 1/2 students have been exploring how to use a metronome to help keep a steady beat and play more accurately. They’ve been trying out different tempos slow, medium, and fast and practising staying in time with the click. They’re enjoying learning Jingle Bells (some are even playing with two hands!) and the more advanced piece Golden. They’re also focusing on using the correct octave, finger numbers, and timing as they rehearse their pieces.

Grade 3/6:

Grade 3/6 students have started the term with a fun research project on their favourite artist or band. They’ve been exploring each artist’s background, achievements, challenges, and musical influences. 

In addition, the Year 3/4 students are getting creative on BandLab experimenting with loops, drum patterns, and recording their voices. 

The Year 5/6 students are also using BandLab to compose their own songs, adding features like EQ, MIDI keyboards, quantising, fades, and layering to build rich textures and harmonies in their music. 

Hello again from Visual Arts!

It has been go, go, go for all students from Prep to Grade 6. I am so proud to be able to witness each student's growth and progress in Visual Arts and to be part of their creative journeys. Let's take a look at snippets of what have been taking place so far this term!

Preps

Prep students began the term by creating their initial tiles with clay. They learnt simple techniques like rolling, coiling and scoring and used toothpicks to make patterns and texture on their tiles. Once these tiles were dry, 2 weeks after creation, they were fired in the kiln and are ready for colour. We will use oil pastels and black acrylic paint to paint them, which is a quicker and simpler method, rather than glazing them in the kiln. 

Prep students looked at self-portrait and learnt to identify abstract and realistic self portraits. They studied abstract self-portraits created by Yayoi Kusuma and Paul Klee and came to the conclusion that artists might use colours, patterns and shapes when creating an abstract self portrait.

This week, Prep students began their study of realistic self-portraits and explored self-portrait works by Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. They will be creating a realistic self-portrait of a half profile of themselves. Here are a few examples of what they had started so far.

Grade 1/2 students began the term by looking at still life drawings and paintings created by Henri Matisse and David Hockney. They looked at similarities and differences between the works of these two artists and were quite impressed when they discovered that David Hockney also has produced many drawings using Ipad and other current technology. Grade 1/2 students completed a step-by-step still life drawing and painting inspired by Henri Matisse's Red Interior Still Life on a Blue Table.

This week they began their still-life drawings using real models which are flowers in a glass jar. Here are a few examples of what they had produced so far.

Grade 3/4 students studied Yayoi Kusama and her artworks,  particularly the ones about pumpkins, these past couple of weeks. They learnt to appreciate Kusama's achievements despite her many challenges of being a Japanese artist in New York. Grade 3/4 students learnt to make pumpkin terracotta pinch pots using techniques such as rolling, pinching, scoring, slipping and carving. They have been most creative, productive and engaged as they formed and shaped their most original looking pumpkins!

Finally, grade 5/6 students have begun working on their T-shirts or skateboard designs. They spent time planning the designs and motifs they would like to have on their work. Grade 5/6 students also had to consider the placement and scale of their designs and motifs to ensure that their t-shirt or skateboard deck would look cohesive, balanced and complete. They were made aware of copyright and personality rights attached to images they could replicate as part of their designs. Grade 5/6 students were introduced to a British contemporary artist named Julian Opie who is well-known for his distinctive minimalist style, which simplifies figures, portraits and landscapes into bold lines and flat colours. Their next step in the next couple of weeks will be to transfer their designs and motifs onto their t-shirts and skateboard decks before colouring them.