Performing Arts 

We've had another exciting and busy term with the talented performers at Sacred Heart! This term, our focus remained on music, giving each student the chance to learn, challenge themselves, and have a lot of fun in the process.

Foundation students thoroughly enjoyed learning the song "Frere Jacques" in French. They had fun pretending to ring church bells and fall asleep. This term, they had the opportunity to use a variety of instruments, including tambourines, triangles, xylophones, chime bars, and boomwhackers. We explored several movements from "The Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saëns, trying to identify the animals suggested by the music. We then added movements using scarves, balls, and a parachute to mimic the birds, kangaroos, and elephants portrayed in the music. 

Grade One students have been practicing their "toorali-ollari-addity's" while learning the song "Botany Bay." They used castanets and triangles and split into two groups to play either C or G on the xylophones, boomwhackers, or chime bars. They were challenged to follow the music on the screen to know when to play. Additionally, they composed animal-themed music on the xylophone, developed their own notation, and played it for their classmates.

Grade Two students enjoyed exploring the sounds of Mexico this term. They learned "La Cucaracha" in both Spanish and English. Using a variety of instruments, including claves, castanets, egg shakers, maracas, and guiros, they added tuned instruments like chime bars, boomwhackers, and xylophones, paying attention to the coloured notes on the stave to play correctly. We also learned a Mexican folk dance called "Los Machetes". Luckily for the students, we used drumsticks in this dance instead of the traditional machetes! Students continued to work on their composition skills and created their own short xylophone piece, which they performed for the rest of the class.

Grade Three had a fantastic time learning "Taba Naba," a song from the eastern Torres Strait Islands. We started by learning the lyrics in Meriam Mir and then added traditional choreography for the 'sit down dance.' Students used claves, shakers, guiros, and bongos to accompany the song. They also created body percussion compositions and had the chance to improvise using a single note on the xylophone.

Grade Four students enjoyed learning "Monkey and the Turtle," a song from the Torres Strait Islands sung in Creole. It tells the story of a monkey and turtle who decide to steal some bananas. We added claves, shakers, guiros, and tambours to the song and played it as an ensemble. Students created four-beat rhythm ‘dominoes’ on the xylophone using stick or standard notation and pieced them together to form their own 32-beat composition.

"Bop or Flop" continued to be a hit with grades five and six. Students had strong opinions on songs like "Electric Pow Wow," Billie Eilish, Elton John, and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," using music terminology to articulate their thoughts.

Grade Five students learned "Waltzing Matilda," while grade six students learned "Bound for South Australia." We used untuned percussion instruments and then learned about the notes on the stave, creating mnemonic devices to remember them. The students read printed sheet music and played the corresponding notes on the xylophones. This was very challenging for most students, but they felt a huge sense of accomplishment once they got it! Grades five and six were also very lucky to be able to use the Soundtrap program to improvise and compose music digitally.

Term three will shift towards drama and dance, with activities like playbuilding, puppet making, choreography, and drama games. If any families have any old hats, jackets, glasses or trousers we could use as props, we would gratefully accept the donations.  I’m looking forward to seeing what these amazing performers can do! 

Ms Ingles  -  aingles@shcolac.catholic.edu.au