News from our Specialists

Term 3 Music at Donvale Primary School 

There is so much creativity, song making and exploration happening for Donvale students in Term 3!

Prep

Prep students at Donvale got ready to celebrate one of the best days of the year - 100 Days of School! We love using music to mark special occasions, so we learned a special song to help us celebrate this exciting milestone.

We continued exploring the elements of music through songs and games, helping us develop important concepts such as dynamics (volume) and pitch (high and low sounds), along with the musical vocabulary that goes with them - including some special Italian terms!

We also kept exploring music by First Nations artists, discovering how music can be used to tell stories. This term marks the beginning of our journey as young composers, as we started the exciting process of creating and even writing our own melodies.

Grade 1/2

Students in Grades 1 and 2 are having an exciting term! They explored the different elements of music and discovered how these can be used to communicate ideas, feelings, and moods to their listeners. As part of this, students listened to and identified music in Major and Minor keys, and responded through writing, drawing, and creative activities inspired by what they heard. They also used songs to build important musical skills, including dynamics, pitch, and tempo.

Students explored different ways to represent music - through lyrics, sol-fa, letter names, and even instruments! They continued developing their skills as musicians by writing, notating, creating, and playing their own musical compositions.

Grade 3/4

Students learned about and explored a range of musical genres - diving deeply into one that sparked their personal interest! They were guided to investigate the history and origins of their chosen genre, along with its key influences and characteristics.

Students are continuing to develop their singing voices, learning songs in other languages (hint: bonjour!), and enriching their music making by adding instrumental parts - including bass ostinati - to accompany their singing. 

Students also explored how composers use the elements of music to convey ideas, emotions, and scenes. They experimented with digital technologies to create their own evocative compositions, bringing their ideas to life and painting a musical picture. 

Still to come are experiments with unconventional instruments - cups - and discovering how these can be used to create rhythmic percussive music!

Grade 5/6

Grade 5 and 6 students were given the opportunity to pursue knowledge and exploration of personal interest to them and explored and researched a musical genre of their choice. With guided support, they investigated the history and origins of their genre, discovered influential artists, and identified the key features that make each style unique.

Building on our popular unit from last term, students continued developing a soundtrack for their own imagined video game using digital technology. They explored how the elements of music can shape their narrative, creating different moods, scenes, and even different levels of tension in their listener!

Students also learned a traditional folk song and experimented with a variety of ways to sing it as a group. Still to come is exploring how to incorporate instruments and percussion to enrich and enhance the music they create.