Foundation Performing Arts—with Marjie Tkatchenko
What fun we are having in Performing Arts this term!
We are using the Resilience Program, Bounce Back! as a platform for our Performing Arts. We are looking at the acronym of BOUNCE and creating melodies and actions for each letter’s message. For example, B….Bad times don’t last, things always get better!
We are also learning rhymes and songs, as well as dramatising stories associated with the themes of Courage and Looking on the Bright Side.
Grades 1-6 Performing Arts—with Clare Tali & Elise Winterflood
The Grade 1/2 students are very excitedly preparing for the Alice in Wonderland concert which will be held on Thursday 13 October (second week of term four) at the Darebin Arts Centre. We are holding both a matinee and an evening performance, so please reserve the date! The children are learning songs and practising choreography and have begun to think about stage props and costumes. As the date draws closer, we will provide further information regarding costumes, tickets and timing.
The Grade 3/4 students were incredibly successful as Munchkins and Jitterbugs in Thornbury High School’s Wizard of Oz production. Performing in such a professional production is very exciting and challenging and weeks of preparation went into rehearsing for the show. We are all very proud of how well it went; weren’t those costumes fantastic! We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the staff and family members who helped make this concert a success.
For the rest of the term in music grade 3/4 classes will study various time signatures, dancing, composing and listening to different time signatures. They will also do some drama, sing songs and play instruments.
Using major and minor chords from the C major scale as a starting point, in groups or individually, the Grade 5 students have been composing their own short pieces. We studied the Axis of Awesome Four Chord Song and some students have chosen to include this classic progression in their piece. Some students are writing lyrics about what is going on in their lives, others are making instrumental pieces. These incredibly creative songs and pieces are of a very high standard, and range from being poignant, wistful, beautiful and sad, to entertaining ditties with comical rhymes. The grade 5 students will perform for their peers and will receive a recording of their work. A couple of enterprising students even created costumes to match their sushi-related song!
The Grade 6 classes have been exploring music from cultures other than our own. We have studied a gospel song Ngarra Burra Ferra (Yorta Yorta, Australia), we played the percussion instrument the cajon and learned of its cross-cultural origins (Afro-Peruvian), we studied Django Reinhardt and Edith Piaf (France) and the ukulele (Hawaii).
In the coming weeks we will continue to refine our ensemble performance skills in preparation for graduation through continued inter-cultural music study plus rhythm and performance activities.