Each class comes over to the music room for a one hour lesson each week. With the younger year levels, the focus is on music appreciation and learning to love music. We do a lot of movement activities exploring different levels and different genres of music. Developing a sense of beat and body percussion has been a focus this term as well as learning to play some of the percussion instruments in the music room. Students have enjoyed acting out a piece of music called ‘Syncopated Clock’.

The year 2’s have started to learn the recorder this term. The recorder played on mass requires each student to be part of the team, making a nice whispering sound into their recorders. Hopefully the students who have a recorder at home have been showing you how it is a ‘whispering’ instrument. So far the students have learnt the notes C and A and are developing their improvisation skills with different rhythms.

The year 3 and 4 students have been learning a chant about being Unique. They have explored speech, body percussion, non-melodic instruments and have also played the rhythm on chairs both individually and in groups. One class even took their chopsticks out into the playground to find all the different sounds and play the chant on.

The year 5/6/7 students have been using the names of countries and cultures that are associated with students at UPS this year as a foundation for rhythm. Students have worked in groups to compose rhythms which they have then explored using speech, body percussion and non-melodic instruments.

This year there are 38 students from year 6/7 in the choir. The choir rehearse each Friday with an accompanist from the Festival of Music. They are learning the repertoire for the Festival of Music concert to be held in Term 3. It’s great to have enthusiastic singers who are so focussed and make a beautiful sound.

Susan Marshall