News, views and information from the MAS Primary Coordinator.
R-2 students from our school and the Maitland Lutheran School joined together on Thursday March 21 to celebrate this year’s Harmony Day in the MAS Performing Arts Centre.
Harmony Day is managed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and coincides with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It is a day of cultural respect, widely celebrated across schools, childcare centres, community groups, churches, businesses and federal, state and local government agencies.
For 2013, we took the picture book ‘Wombat Stew’ as our theme. In the story a group of diverse Australian animals come together to outsmart a dingo intent on cooking their friend in a ‘Wombat Stew’. The importance of friendship, standing up to bullies and finding alternative strategies to solve problems are all emphasised in this colourful and amusing story.
We started the day with a retelling of the story with the pictures on the giant projection screen where I provided the voices and music for the ‘Wombat Stew’ song. Students were then split into groups corresponding to the animals in the story: Blue-Tongued Lizards, Dingos, Kookaburras, Emus, Koalas, Platypuses, Echidnas and, of course, Wombats.
The groups rotated through activities that encouraged working together, exploration of the story and creativity. We made ‘Wombat Stew’ with chocolate pudding and assorted sweets, played ‘Dingo Games’, made shadow puppets and plays and assembled jigsaw puzzles and solved ‘Who Am I? riddles.
A big thankyou to the year 5/6/7 combined class and the Year 8 class for your help in setting up activities, blowing up balloons and testing the quality of the lollies. Thankyou to the Lutheran School staff and students for your involvement and our apologies for the sudden burst of inclement weather just when you were returning to school! A final thank you to Year 1 teacher Sarah Atkins for all your help in preparing for the day, suggesting the theme and finding the delicious Wombat Stew recipe!
The 'Ghana: Beat My Drum' production visited school on Friday, March 15 with a performance by Ghana musician Jonas.
Jonas introduced a variety of African instruments to the students including the Talking Drum, Djembe, the Marimba (xylophone) and traditional gourd shakers.
Jonas's infectious laugh, wide smile and obvious love - and skill - for his music was a winning combination as students joined him on stage to perform songs, learned Ghana words for 'please' 'thank you' and 'welcome' and danced to drum rhythms and songs.
Jonas is obviously a skilled entertainer but demonstrated he's also a compassionate teacher and more than capable drummer. He's also very generous, with our 45 minute time slot stretching out to more than an hour.
A big thank you to school Performance Tours and to Jonas for bringing the beat of Ghana to our school.
The Year 5/6A class served up a real treat with their poetry-themed assembly on Friday.
Each new section was introduced with a rhyming couplet - well done Mrs Davies!
The class started with Australia-themed poetry readings. The poems ranged over many topics and were funny and well constructed. The students took great pride in their presentation with several quite dramatic readings.
The class has also been reading to the receptions, and we viewed photographs of their work.
In Science, the class has been studying Earthquakes. They shared videos of their seismograph experiments, where earthquake patterns are created by pulling a length of paper across a rocking table while a pen simulates the seismograph pointer.
Mr Tuck then handed out the Merit Cards - there were lots! - and the birthday cards - quite a few!
Well done Mrs Davies and her students for an entertaining and educational assembly.
- R-9 Students
- 1.30-2.15pm, Friday March 15
- MAS Performing Arts Centre
- $4.40
Ghana Beat My Drum incorporates audience participation, singing, dancing and drumming to leave audiences feeling exhilarated and inspired as well as enlightened in the ways and culture of Africa and more particularly, Ghana.
Our two school choirs are up and running and its wonderful to walk through the PAC and hear the children's voices. The Junior Choir is led by Star Derrington and rehearses on Monday afternoons. The students are learning lots of fun and energetic songs! The Festival Choir is led by Deb Schwartz. The students rehearse on Tuesday afternoons and are sounding simply stunning, even after just a few lessons. I look forward to hearing more from both groups as the year goes on.
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