Specialist Team News

Performing Arts

The Curriculum Focus in Performing Arts

Prep: 

Students are trying out a variety of activities from warm up dances, to singing songs and playing some untuned percussion instruments.

Year 1:

Students have been reviewing reading music when playing the bucket drums. They have also learnt about the African djembe and how to play different drumming patterns. 

Year 2:

Students have shared their Willy Kids compositions and have created a rhythm composition based around Lego block sizes.

Grade 3/4 – Students have started learning about rap music and the rhyming structures present in songs. They have had a go at creating and sharing an activity called ‘Rap my Name’.

Grade 5/6 – Students have started learning about the feautres of song parodies. They have selected a popular song chorus and had a go at turning it into a parody.

Music Clubs

Choir 

This year the Willy Primary Choir will be run by Lynne Georgiadis on Wednesdays at lunchtime (1.40 – 2.10pm) in the Music room. 

This music club is open to all interested students in Year 1 – 6.

Week 5 – 9      Wednesdays                  Lunchtime rehearsals                         

Marimba Band Timetable – Term 1

Rock Band Timetable – Term 1

Warm Regards,

Faye Ferry (Performing Arts)

Visual Arts

Wominjenka everyone to the Art Room for 2024. We have a big year ahead, with an Art Show being planned for Term 4.

Settling in well to routines of the Art Room the Preps have already created artwork to display outside their classrooms. It was lovely to see their reactions when they saw their work displayed for the first time and watching them share their work with their mums, dads and important people after school. Thanks Christophe, for making sure all the pieces were attached nicely to the back of the seating areas under the trees. 

Since then, the Preps have been working on mark making with pastels and creating lots of different lines with fat markers. It is always fun watching them experiment and having a go, wanting to do just one or lots and lots and lots. Great jobs, Preps!

In the first two week, the rest of the school was busy making art in the lead up to the Lunar New Year. There were patty pan dragons, paper plate lion dancers and a very long dragon, that is hanging in the Art Room, and a big dragon that is outside the Lovely Ladies in the office. If you visit the office, you can’t miss it.

Moving celebration, students went on to discuss, illustrate and add key words to their idea of what it means to inspire. Of course, whatever skills you need to aspire in 

Art can be transferred to all areas of life. I have included some pictures of the work done by some of the Grade Ones and Twos as they can inspire us all with their words of wisdom.

Now, the kids are all busy either, revisiting lines and beginning to create front covers for their art books or, while the weather is hot doing some papier-mache on baubles in readiness for work to be completed later in the year for our Art Show.

All in all, it has been a busy start.

Until next time, have fun, be happy and keep creating art!

Jo Jo (Visual Art)

Physical Education

Fortnightly Curriculum Focus in Physical Education

Prep: Welcome to PE at Willy Primary and learning about keeping safe and spatial awareness.

Year 1 & 2: Exploring personal space, general space and identifying boundaries.

Year 3 & 4: Combine the elements of effort, space, time, objects and people when performing movement sequences through athletics.

Year 5/6: Participate in physical activities designed to enhance fitness, and discuss the impact of regular participation on health and wellbeing through athletics.

Sport

On Monday, February 19th, the Willy Primary swim team went and competed against other schools from the Williamstown District. The efforts of every single swimmer that represented Williamstown Primary were incredible. Every student gave their absolute all and made the school extremely proud. In a fantastic overall result, Williamstown Primary finished equal first overall which was an amazing performance! Congratulations to each and every student who participated on the day and a big congratulations and good luck to all of those swimmers who have made it through to the Division Swimming finals on Wednesday March 6th.

Warm Regards,

Paddy Gallivan (Physical Education)

LOTE (French)

OH, OH, OH, OH, OHHHH… TOUT ESSAYER!!!

The motto in the French room at the moment is ‘Tout Essayer’ – ‘Try Everything’. Discovering, refreshing and building upon skills such as being resilient and risk takers by allowing ourselves to make mistakes in understanding that those are essential for learning and growth, all year levels are continuing to sing wholeheartedly to ‘On A Tous Le Feeling’ (French version of Trolls’ ‘Can’t Stop This Feeling’ for Years 1 & 2) and ‘Tout Essayer’ (French version of Zootopia’s ‘Try Everything’ for Years 3 to 6).

Singing is an essential part of the French classes with language comprehension at its core –  any language becomes fruitless without meaning. Coming together in class by singing in French truly uplifts the mood powerfully while bringing joy, happiness and harmony to all. Now, that’s a thumbs up recipe for open-mindedness and learning without boundaries.

Years 1 & 2

Students have practised breaking down a short chorus into sound groups through a repetitive process to transfer across to a rhythmic pattern. They practised their handwriting and letter formations by applying themselves to relevant sounds. Year 1s worked on half of the chorus while Year 2s completed it all. 

Moving forward…:

Year 1s will start addressing the topic ‘MOI’ (me) with a role-play about themselves involving practising the language with various partners.

Year 2s will begin work on ‘MOI Et Mon Corps’ (me and my body) to discover the vocabulary and create their own labelled self-representation in French.

Years 3 to 6

We have analysed the language as a group, observing repetitions of words and sentence structures. The deeply inspiring message of never giving up and ALWAYS putting our best forward no matter what while learning from our falls to get right back up has resonated across the year levels loud and clear. Year 3s have worked on the first half of this chorus while 4s to 6s have tackled the whole lot. Once again, we have worked on the written aspect of the song with all students creating their own song lyrics page as they continued working on their auditory and verbal skills. Students also conducted their own reading practice groups to work on their pronunciation.

Listening, speaking, reading and writing… that is how we approach language learning at WPS … And WE LOVE IT!

Moving forward…

Year 3s will dive into ‘MOI Et Ma Famille’ (me and my family) by discovering an authentic self-presentation video and re-using sentence structures to create their own written and verbal presentations to present to their own respective classes.

Year 4s will work on ‘MOI Et Ma Classe’ (me and my classroom) to learn to identify their classroom environment with ease and incorporate it into sentence structures.

Year 5/6s will learn about ‘MOI Et Mon Ecole’ (me and my school) and their school environment to know how to find their bearings in French around WPS and create their own French labelled map.

A great wave of opportunity is coming the Year 5/6’s way as I put a shout out this week for volunteers to create a French Club Committee with the mighty task of beginning to organise our whole school Bastille Day celebration. Save the date:

WPS BASTILLE DAY CELEBRATION

Thursday 18th July 2024

(4 days after the actual National Day and the week before the beginning of the Paris Olympics!!)

Madame CRICRI 😊