News from Performing Arts
Incursion
Last week, our Grade 1 and 3 students enjoyed an incursion with Greg centred around electronic instruments. Greg is our librarian but also has a passion with these instruments that includes him making his own instruments. He was able to share these with our students to listen, explore and create their own sounds, beats and patterns. The students worked in pairs or small groups as they rotated around the class to a variety of instruments.
It was fantastic to see the students grow in confidence throughout the session regarding giving something different a go and understanding that there was no right or wrong way to play each instrument. Watching their faces express their response to different sounds and volumes including lots of laughter was wonderful to see but it was great seeing each group work together and share ideas on how to play their instruments!
Thank you, Greg, for sharing these with our students.
Prep
In Prep children have been demonstrating their creativity and imagination in their Performing Arts classes. They have been exploring emotions and honing their skills in using their face, voice, and body to express different emotions. They have also been having fun with the story of Little Red Riding Hood, acting out the different characters and working towards a small scene performance in class. Through this, they are developing their skills in characterisation and storytelling.
Grade 1
Our Grade 1 children have worked well this year in revising their skills on instruments from the Percussion family. This has been complimented with students learning about music notation and to start understanding how these different notes (such as Ta, Ti-ti and Rest notes) are used by musicians when playing along to existing songs but also creating their own short beats and patterns. It has been great to hear them sound out and clap their own short songs or follow along to songs using body percussion and a range of instruments. We will continue to develop their knowledge of music notation, including how notes are written on the Staff for students to read music using some different instruments.
Grade 2
In Grade 2, children have been exploring scripts and showing different characters using their expressive skills. We have been focusing on Coco Chanel and David Attenborough from the stories "Little People, Big Dreams." They have learned how to embody the personalities of their characters and changed their voice and the way they moved to fully act like their characters. Students are currently rehearsing their scripts and getting ready to perform to their peers next term.
Grade 3
This term our Grade 3 children have furthered their knowledge and understanding of music notation, including using the Staff, to play some more complex songs, beats or patterns but also have more opportunities to create their own compositions using a range of different instruments. It has been great to see the students work well together when using these instruments, share their own compositions and also combine them to play an extended song. We will continue to develop their understanding of music notation to enable them to play some more complex songs using some different instruments throughout Term 2.
Grade 4
This term in Grade 4 we have been enjoying learning about some of the Key Elements of Drama. Children have been experimenting with using different parts of their body to be expressive. This includes their voice, movement/gait, facial expressions, gestures and stillness and silence. They have also written their own short script (using the key element of drama, Situation - who, what, where, when and why), worked in a variety of teams and, performed and reflected on their peers performances. The highlight has been playing games that helps them experiment with all the different ways of being expressive such as ‘Wink Murder’, ‘Master Master, Who am I?’ and the all-time favourite ‘Grandma’s Treasure’, where they have to get “Grandma’s” favourite treasure - THE TRIBBLE! Next term the Grade 4 will be delving into characters more as well as putting on a show.
Grade 5
Term 1 Drama has been very busy for Grade 5. Children have been focusing on enhancing their improvisation performances through using the 5 expressive skills (voice, facial expression, movement/gait, gesture and stillness and silence). They have been introduced to the improvisation technique of a Tableaux - where you create an expressive, still moment in time using body and facial expressions only. As they realised quite quickly, it sounds easy at first but a deliberate choice of one's body movement is needed to set the scene! They have particularly enjoyed learning the new game of ‘Master Master, Who Am I?’ which requires them to manipulate their voices to sound like someone else. Next term in Grade 5 children will be enhancing their understanding of puppetry by making their own puppet and creating a performance.
Grade 6
In their final year at PPS Grade 6 children have been refining their expressive skills through a focus on their body and voice as expressive elements. They have learnt that they are able to use their bodies in interesting ways such as silly walks and using their body to tell a story through a Tableaux (motionless figures representing a scene). They have also been experimenting with using their voice more expressively and changing it’s; Pitch, Tone, Pace/Rate, Quality and Volume during a performance. Another key focus this term has been looking at 2 other key elements of drama - Role Play and Characters. Where this week they will perform a common fairy tale through well-developed characters and tableaux only! Next term Grade 6 will be continuing to work on different elements to enhance their performances like the art of mime and using props.
Grade 6 Band
After completing the audition process, our Grade 6 Band for 2025 has been finalized. We have a fantastic group of students who are enthusiastic about the year ahead. We have started working on our first song and look forward to rehearsing it more next term and adding another song in preparation for the upcoming ‘School of Rock’ day later in Term 2.