Performing Arts

   Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2025, and welcome your input:

Penelope Lang (Performing Arts) penelope.lang@education.vic.gov.au 

Wominjeka!

VSSS 2025

Our sixteen dancers and five reserve dancers enjoyed our first hub rehearsal in our school gym last week. It was great to meet the two talented choreographers from the Performing Arts Unit and the teachers and students from the visiting schools. We have now learnt the beginning of five dances. These have been placed on the VSSS Dance 2025 Google classroom page for the students to rehearse at home. The songs are also on our new bell music so I really hope to see some of you dancing your way back into your lines at the end of recess! Check out the photos below of our busy rehearsal day. It was hot work!

Instrumental Lessons

At the end of this page is information about our school's Instrumental Program that is run by Groove Foundations. We offer lessons on most instruments and have an outstanding team of musicians who deliver this program to over 100 students. The first 'trial' lesson is free of charge and your child will get the opportunity to perform in an end of year instrumental concert if they want to. You also have the option of choosing a lesson during the recess breaks if you would prefer that your child is not taken out of his or her class lessons. Feel free to contact Jordan Scotney who would be happy to answer any of your questions.

School Choir - Tuesdays

This year, the Junior and Senior choirs will meet during the 3rd recess break on a TUESDAY as follows:

JUNIOR: - Weeks 3, 5, 7, 9

SENIOR: - Weeks 4, 6, 8, 10

Junior Choir is open to students in Years One and Two, whilst Senior Choir is open to students in Years Three to Six. If your child has never done choir before, they are welcome to come along for a session to try it out before they commit to the semester. If they wish to stay in choir then it is very important that they bring along a plastic wallet or binder with pockets so that they can collect the lyric sheets for the songs we are singing. There are still many students who do not have choir folders and therefore are not able to take lyric sheets home. Both choirs will have the opportunity to perform at various assemblies throughout the year. I will notify you in advance if your child is singing.

Dress-up Costumes - Donations required

Thank you SO MUCH to the very kind parents who dropped some dress up costumes into my room. I am still very keen to continue building up our collection, especially small dress-ups (sizes 3 to 6) that would fit our Foundation students. If you have any in your playroom at home that you no longer use, I would LOVE to take them off your hands. 

IN OUR PERFORMING ARTS ROOM

Foundation

We have had a busy few weeks in our Performing Arts lessons. The students have been working on their beat and rhythm skills. We clapped along to the Easy Bluey Beats and moved in time to the well know song, 'Mr Clickety Cane'. Our favourite verse was definitely, 'Belly flop in a pizza!' The students were given the opportunity to use their creative imaginations to make up their own ideas to add to this famous Peter Combe song. Some included:

"Eat your soup with chopsticks"

"Walk your dog underwater"

"Clean the table with an egg"

"Take your unicorn in the pool"

"Fly to space on a pizza"

The students danced to the song, 'Jumping Land' and concentrated very hard on counting, marching and clapping all at the same time. We have become superstars at making whole class circles and using our singing hands when we sing the class roll each week. We have talked about what 'actors' do and how they 'pretend' to be different characters on our TV, at the movies and at the theatre. We had a lot of fun experimenting with facial expressions and singing the song, 'If you're happy and you know it'. We are now exploring a variety of percussion instruments and the different ways these musical instruments are played. 

Year One and Year Two

The students have been exploring the elements of beat and rhythm through a variety of music games, rhythm reading, clap echoes, singing and playing percussion instruments. 

We watched 'The Music Show' and learnt that the 'beat is the heart of music' and that rhythm is made up of long and short sounds all put together. If we had to choose, most of us decided we would be a 'rhythm' in life....they seem to have more fun in music! We moved to the 'Steady Beat Rap' and enjoyed floating around the room to music with no beat. The students are developing their practice of reading rhythms using stick notation and rhythm syllables. They have been enjoying playing our djembes and rhythm sticks and have improved their ability to concentrate and follow the music patterns on the board (rather than follow me). We discussed the role of a music conductor and how music can speed up, slow down, be loud and be soft. Some students had the opportunity to 'conduct' some clapping dynamics with the class. The students are now creating and presenting 'Fruit Salad Rhythms' (pear - ta, apple - ti-ti, watermelon - tika-tika)  and have been presented with a variety of entry points for this task. It has been great to see students challenge themselves with some tricky rhythms. What clever composers we have at USPS.

Year Three and Year Four

The students have been loving our 'Pass the Beat' game and it definitely has been a common request from all grades over the last few weeks. It is great that such a fun game can also improve those very important beat keeping skills that underpin everything we are currently working on in performing arts. We have been exploring the different rhythm syllables and have used a variety of 'rhythm reading' tasks and songs to improve fluency and accuracy. The students worked in small groups to present a short rhythmic pattern on rhythm sticks whilst other group members kept a steady beat on the Djembe. They were then given the opportunity to improvise a rhythm (whilst still keeping in time with the beat). We discussed the importance of a 'count it' and worked on using, 'get ready here we go' or 'one, two, three, four'  rather than using rocket countdowns! I reminded the students that they are musicians and not astronauts. We played whole class 'rhythm harmonies' in three groups and the students are now creating a short rhythmic composition in groups of three. They will say, clap then play these rhythms on an unpitched instrument of choice. 

Year Five and Year Six

The students in Years Five and Six have been been expanding their understanding of the elements of music, with particular emphasis on beat and rhythm. The student's prior-knowledge was ascertained through a short multiple choice music quiz which will now inform our lessons for the rest of the semester. The students have been exploring the connection between beat and rhythm and the importance of listening to other musicians during a performance. We have looked at the 4/4 time signature and the different rhythm syllable names (ta, ti-ti, tika-ta, tika-tika). The students then used their creative imaginations to create and perform their own composition using words from a given category ie Fruit (plum, mango, watermelon), Food (chips, taco, guacamole), Sport (track, tennis, trampolining). We used the well known nursery rhyme, 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' to identify and match the missing rhythms to the lyrics. We then played this on percussion instruments whilst keeping in time with a steady beat. It has been great to see their rhythm reading skills improve over the last two weeks and to watch more experienced musicians help others in the classroom.