Performing Arts Focus

We have had the most magical start to the year in the Performing Arts department. Our choir and orchestra have had their first rehearsals, our Brass program is back in action and all our fabulous FPS performers have been creating wonderful things in their Performing Arts lessons.

Foundation Students

Our Foundation students have jumped into Performing Arts with both feet! It’s been wonderful getting to know our newest performers and having fun making music, exploring drama, and doing some sweet dance moves. In our first few lessons together, our Foundation students have focussed on learning together in the Performing Arts room. We have learnt some new songs, used percussion instruments to play call and response patterns, and played drama games together. We usually finish the lesson with a big dance game – the favourite at the moment is Bob, Statue, Salute!

Year 1/2 Students

Students started the year by showing me everything they know about Zones of Regulation through to listening activities, and drama and dance games. Students listened to four pieces of music and had to decide whether that piece made them feel red, yellow, blue, or green. They really know their stuff!

We have also been exploring elements of music, beginning with tempo and dynamics. Our students have used a range of percussion instruments to show how to play soft and loud, fast and slow. We have also explored tempo and dynamics in dance and drama activities – what an incredibly talented group of performers!

Year 3/4 Students

This term we are focusing on music. Having forayed into rhythm last year, this year our focus is on melody, harmony, and musical notation. We will be exploring Solfege to train our aural skills in deciphering high and low notes. This in turn will lead to learning about conventional forms of notation and also other ways we can notate music in 2022. We will also be transferring these theoretical skills to playing the ukulele. We have mastered the C chord, just three more chords to learn before we can form a Year 3/4 ukulele ensemble!

Year 5/6 Students

We are gearing up for our Year 5/6 musical… Space Pirates! We are really hoping that this year our musical will be shown live on stage in June. We have been gearing up for this by exploring sea shanties and writing our own lyrics to a sea shanty, now we just have to make it cosmically otherworldly!

We will be preparing for auditions for concert roles in class and learning about stagecraft as we embark on this journey. As with every FPS concert, we always endeavour to make it our own. Students will contribute to the soundtrack, choreography and writing aspects of the performance. We will be calling out for parent volunteers too – talented grown-ups, watch this space.

Choir

Our wonderful choir has grown again this year, with so many joyful voices joining the group to make beautiful harmonious music together. We have already begun work on our first performance piece and have been developing our choral skills by warming up in harmonies.

Orchestra/Concert Band

With so many talented musicians in our Fairfield community, we have decided to open up our orchestra to guitar and bass players this year and rebrand as the Fairfield Primary School Concert Band. We have already hit the ground running, working on Ode to Joy and The Addams Family. We can’t wait to share some songs with you later in the year.

Brass

Our wonderful Brass teacher Sean Nihil (from Thornbury High School) is returning to FPS this year to continue to enrich our Performing Arts department. Lessons will be taking place fortnightly on Tuesday afternoons. The dates are on the compass calendar and are attached below. Those students involved will need to remember their instruments.

Tuesday 22 February
Tuesday 8 March
Tuesday 22 March
Tuesday 5 April

~ Keri Spence & Olivia Li, Performing Arts Teachers