Performing Arts

Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2022, and welcome your input:

Penelope Lang (Performing Arts) penelope.lang@education.vic.gov.au 

Wominjeka!

"It's the most wonderful time of the year"

I love the excitement that builds towards the end of Term 4. There's so much to do and so much to look forward to. 

I have loved helping the Year 6 teachers and students prepare for their upcoming graduation, celebrating our talented instrumental students and rehearsing Christmas songs with our junior and senior choirs. Fun overload!

Christmas Choir - Wednesday 14th December

Our junior singers (Foundation and Year 1s) will be heading next door at 10.45am to Dandenong Ranges Kindy to sing a few songs to their little learners. 

Our senior singers (Years 2-6) will be walking into Upwey Town Centre at 12.00pm with me, Miss Bowles and Mr Kitch to entertain the locals. We will position ourselves near the community reserve. Fingers crossed for some nice weather.

Please make sure you have given consent on Compass as soon as possible. 

All singers are encouraged to wear Christmas colours, tinsel, Reindeer ears, Santa hats etc....the more the merrier.

Both choirs will also be singing at our end of year assembly on Monday 19th at 2.45pm.

State School's Spectacular 2023!!!

I have just received the exciting news that we have been offered a place in the 2023 VSSS - DANCE and CHOIR.

We will be looking for 16 dancers and 20 singers. Details of participation costs will be sent home at the beginning of Term 1 next year and expressions of interest will be due in by week 2. 

Don't forget to tune in to Channel 7 on Saturday 17th at 7.00pm to watch the 2022 VSSS with special behind the scenes highlights.

Instrumental Concert

Our end of year instrumental concert was held a few weeks ago and we had over 30 talented and brave performers entertain our supportive audience. You should all be very proud of yourselves. A BIG thank you to Jordan and our outstanding team of music teachers. My room was buzzing the next day with students who had been inspired by watching their friends perform. If you would like your child to start learning an instrument in 2023 please contact Jordan (details below) to arrange your free trial lesson.  

We have had three more weeks of learning and laughter.

Foundation:

The Foundation students have been continuing to play a variety of percussion instruments, both on their own and in unison. They have been undertaking some performance assessment tasks and enjoyed our body percussion warm up to 'We Will Rock you'. We sang 'The Musical Instruments' song and it has been great to see  how they have improved their ability to name instruments by sight and/or sound. They watched 'George meets the Orchestra' and learnt about the different instrument families and the role of the conductor. We have also enjoyed singing some fun Christmas songs together.

Year 1/2:

The Year 1 students continued to reflect on and refine their four bar rhythmic compositions. They worked in groups of 3 or 4 and selected one person's composition to perform. It was great to watch them compromise, negotiate, and collaborate. They used a variety of instruments and rehearsed together before performing for the class. It was fantastic to watch some groups incorporate the repeat sign into their performance. Lots of budding musicians in the making. We have enjoyed a few rounds of Rhythm Bingo and have made some time for our dance game Rock Star. The Year 2 students have continued to warm up at the beginning of each lesson by moving to a body percussion song. These have included, "Jingle Bell Rock" and 'We Will Rock You'. They have continued to develop more 'ukulele' language such as 'finger, fret, string, strum, pluck' and finished writing and performing their own version of, 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' using the C Chord. 

Year 3/4:

The Year 3/4 students have been undertaking some ukulele assessment tasks for end of year reporting. They have been learning how to read chord tab charts which will enable them to expand their chord repertoire which, in turn, will allow them to play a wider variety of songs. They have now learnt the C, C7, F, A, Am and G chords and we are working on progressing through those chords smoothly when playing songs. This takes a lot of practice (30 min every day). I have reminded some students about the magic word 'Yet'.....I can't do it Yet! Don't give up! We played 'Best Day of my Life' and 'Riptide' together.

Year 5/6:

We have had a fun couple of weeks continuing to learn new skills on the ukulele. The students have continued to expand their chord repertoire and have spent some time working on moving from one chord to another without stopping. This takes a lot of practice.  They have learnt how to read chord tab charts and have experimented with different strumming patterns. These have included up/down, down/down/down/up/down and the pluck strum. It was great to watch them work together to showcase their new strumming techniques for the rest of the class. We also played 'Best Day of my Life' and 'Riptide' together.

Thank you for your wonderful support throughout 2022 and for making yet another 'school production year' one to remember. I can't wait to explore and create in 2023.

I wish you all a very safe, happy, healthy and joyful Summer break. I can't wait to hear about all of your adventures when we meet again.

 Penelope x