Performing Arts Focus

This is a very exciting term in Performing Arts, as we not only have our Artist in Residence program happening, but our Performing Arts room has been transformed into a Performing Art Studio! Over the holidays the carpet and walls were refreshed and now the studio looks like a theatre. There are still cabinets to be installed and some small storage solutions to be fitted, but we are really looking forward to creating wonderful music, drama and dance in our new space!

Foundation Students

We begin the term by looking at the sections of the orchestra and exploring how the different groups of instruments create sound. We will be using lots of different instruments and listening and moving to a range of contemporary and classical orchestral music. Through this learning, we will also be exploring the concepts of canon, repetition, rhythm, tempo and dynamics.

Year 1 & 2 Students

Students will begin the term by revisiting our understanding of pitch and how we can hear, notate and perform it. We will use tuned percussion and keyboards to perform from conventional notation and graphic scores. As the term continues, we will start looking at the science of how instruments make sounds and begin to design and create our own class orchestra!

Year 3 & 4 Students

We kicked off our Artist-In-Residence Program with a special work by Julia Davis from Dream Puppets. Julia has performed with Dream Puppets internationally. In 2005 she launched her puppet production of Macbeth which she has toured to over a hundred secondary schools in Victoria and Adelaide. We feel very privileged to have Julia with us and teach us the fine art of puppet making.

The theme for our concert is Wings and children have spent their first week back in school designing wings and picking their materials for their wings. It is a very student-led show, so we are excited to see how our performance is going to grow organically through their leadership and creativity. Julia gave us an insight into materials used and how we can elevate ordinary materials into objects of beauty and give them life. One person’s trash is certainly a budding puppeteer’s treasure!

What can you do to support this creative process? Some questions to ask during dinner time or before bed:

What kind of wings have you been designing in class?
Tell me more about the materials Julia showed you last Friday.
Shall we look around the house to find some materials you could bring this Friday?

Action: Bring some materials which you can find at home or during walks which could be used for puppetry. Some favourite items at the moment are interfacing, wire, stockings, bubble wrap of various colours, pool noodles. The possibilities are endless!

Year 5 & 6 Students

Our year level concert is scheduled for 30 November. This is a bit of a switch up from tradition – usually our senior concert is in May. As such, the children have been badgering me with “WHEN CAN WE START OUR PRODUCTION!”. This week, the students have been told that we will indeed start preparing for our production… however, it is not the way they are expecting!

We are going to use and explore Performing Arts to teach citizenship and values, which will help our children cope with the rigours and discipline of preparing a concert. We also hope that these values harnessed would help them to lead a balanced life. We aim to nurture the whole performer by helping them to have a ‘well-trained heart’, a ‘well-trained ear’, a ‘well-trained mind’, and a ‘well-trained hand’.

We started last week by learning an activity hoping to nurture a ‘well-trained hand’ and a ‘well-trained heart’. We learnt about the art of Japanese Mochi making by learning a song ‘Omochio Tsukimasho’. (See the videos below).Through this chant we revised keeping a steady beat and reading rhythms. Most importantly we learnt the importance of trusting our peers to do their part, focusing on doing one’s part well by learning and concentrating on one’s technique. Take a look at some of our children attempting the chant. It was also heart-warming to hear everyone’s experiences with mochi and even to watch a video of a parent making mochi traditionally.

Choir, Concert Band, Brass & the Year 6 Band

Before launching into all the exciting events that are coming up for our ensemble groups this term, we need to acknowledge our phenomenal singers and musicians who performed at the Fair. It was a gloomy start to the day, but the performances of our choir, orchestra and Year 6 band put a huge smile on everyone’s faces. We always say that performances are the highlight of our job and what a highlight it was! Thank you to Rosie and Serena who supported our ensembles in preparing and performing.

Year 6 Band

We have such a wealth of musical talent in our Year 6 students that we have decided to create a band! We will be rehearsing on Monday lunchtimes and the students will be choosing the repertoire and leading the rehearsals themselves. They are all such intuitive and collaborative musicians, we can’t wait for you to hear what they can do!

Choir

The choir hit the ground running with their opening performance at the Fair. Not only will we be expanding our repertoire this term, we plan to collaborate with Thornbury High School’s choir and do some combined workshops and hopefully local performances.

Concert Band

After reflecting on our repertoire from 2022, this term we hope to get some more sectional improvisation happening. We are also hoping to build in some more solos.

Brass

Our fabulous brass teacher Sean will be back this term, fortnightly on Thursdays. As the term continues, some more spaces will be made available for students in Year 4 to join this incredible program. So listen out in Performing Arts lessons for more information later in the term.

Concert Overview for 2023

Term 3

Year 3 & 4 concert: Wednesday 19 July, at Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar school
Year 1 & 2 concert: Thursday 31 August, at Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar school

Term 4

Year 5 & 6 concert: Thursday 30 November, at Kew High School
Ensemble festive concert: Date TBC