Despite the temps being frigid outside, the students have been keeping plenty warm and active in the gym engaging in various games and activities. 

The kindergartners continue to work on moving safely around one another and remaining in control during physical activity. One recent activity that helped hone these skills was “Line Tag” where students are tasked with evading taggers while navigating around the gym jogging only on the marked lines on the floor. Watching the students’ faces light up as they do their best to avoid taggers while remaining in control on the lines was awesome to see. 

Lower elementary students have been working on improving their sportsmanship and communication. A recent highlight was “Wolves Den,” which asks students to sneak around behind the back of one of their classmates (the wolf), and then freeze when the wolf turns around. If the wolf says they saw one of their classmates moving, that student goes back to the start and tries again. Witnessing the students change their strategy after having to restart was wonderful to watch. 

Upper elementary students came together to tackle “Mission Impossible.” Students were given a bucket of items to use while making their way from one end of the gym to the other without touching the floor. They were required to use all of the equipment in the bucket while ensuring everyone made it across. Seeing the class work together to find creative ways to use the equipment while adopting a no-student-left-behind mentality made the activity a highlight. 

Similarly, middle school students were recently challenged by a team building activity titled “Hoop It Up.” The activity asks students to work in pairs to lift hula hoops off of the gym floor and back to their home base. Students are only permitted to lift and transport the hula hoops using the two jump ropes each team is given. Teamwork is required to wedge the jump ropes under the hoops and balance them as pairs walk back to their home base. It was inspiring to watch the class cheer one another on as they carefully balanced the hula hoops.

It has been another wonderful few weeks of singing, dancing, acting, and music-making in the performing arts room!

At the primary level, students continue to develop their musical ears through pitch-matching activities and games. Students are really enjoying the circle game, Charlie Over the Ocean! This is a call-and-response song and game which allows the students to work on their pitch-matching skills. Students also really enjoy using their imaginations to create circle stories as a class. Another drama game that the students have been really enjoying is Statue! Using only our bodies and our facial expressions, students create statues when different emotions are called out. The primary students are great little actors! Using our sweet beats song, students also create a measure of music in 4/4 time using quarter notes and eighth notes. Primary students are also very excited about all of the new music and dances we have been learning in class!

Lower Elementary students have been focusing on their rhythm skills! Students are sight-reading many different rhythm exercises using quarter notes, quarter rests, and eighth notes. Students also continue to develop their musical ear using Solfe. The Lower Elementary students are super excited about a new project that we have begun as well! We will be doing a mini-musical in the spring! All of the students have been starting to work on their characters, songs, and lines from an adaptation of the Aristocat. This project is super exciting since students are learning all of the aspects of putting together a show, such as choreography, blocking, character work, voice work, and much more!

In Upper Elementary, students had their final performance of the Reader’s Theater project! I could not be more proud of each and every one of the students for their hard work! We used this Reader’s Theater project to work on character building and proper vocal technique when speaking in a performance. Students also created their own costumes! Upper Elementary students have been working hard on their vocal skills. They are focusing on breath support and vowel placement as we are working on a lot of new repertoire in class. Students are also super excited to begin working on our spring musical, Finding Nemo Junior, which they will be performing with the Middle School.

Middle School students had an extremely busy few weeks! I was so impressed with the quality of work the middle school students put into their play! They did an absolutely fabulous job writing the script, creating characters, creating props and sets, and putting a whole show together in two weeks! Working on acting skills with the Middle School was amazing! The students used all of the techniques we have been learning in our drama portion of performing arts to develop their characters and bring this show to life! Students in Middle School have also been learning new repertoires, working on their vocal strength through proper vocal technique, and developing their musicianship through site reading and listening activities. Each student also had the opportunity to audition for the Middle School play Finding Nemo Junior! All of the students are super excited about this new project!