Taupaki Music: September 2016

All Danced Out

Room 6 have been amazing dancers and singers all term! They finished Music for the term singing about te manu in beautiful voices with great actions as usual.

Tui classes have learnt the parts of the ukulele and how to read a tab. They have chosen the way they like best to strum and have been practising simple strumming patterns that use ta, ti-ti, and za rhythms. They have learnt to play the chords C and F. They can play and sing Bow Wow Wow and Rain Rain Go Away on each chord. Then we played On Top of Old Spaghetti with half of the class playing the C parts and the other half playing the F parts. They were amazing at remembering when to come in, at keeping the strumming going evenly, and SINGING! We do some ukulele gymnastics to keep our fingers nimble for playing - racing through some combination of rest position, ukulele salute, Z chord, C chord, and F chord without getting tricked. Rest position is how we hold the ukulele when we are not playing...here is Room 12 relaxing in the rest position before playing the next song.

Everyday Movements Become Dance

Piwakawaka classes have been improvising dances from a series of images which show everyday movements. They have been concentrating on keeping to the beat while discovering different ways to represent the movements. Room 2 have been amazing at doing this; they use lots of energy and co-ordination.

Elbow Cross and Stomp and Swing

Jazz Hands and Hug a Giant Marching Machine

Raise the Roof Wobbly Knees and Flick Kicks

Twist

Room 1

This week the Kahu dancers (previous post) had some competition from Room 1 who learnt the Animals on the Plains of Africa dance very fast. They danced with energy and were great at remembering the representation of each animal and part of the story.

Quickly ready to dance every time

Kahu Barn Dancers

Room 10 and 11 students who were not on the ski trip joined together for a western flavoured afternoon with some country ukulele tunes (using the chords C and F and some extended to include G) and barn dance style movement. They were a little hesitant at first but soon they were stomping their way around the circle in PERFECT time.

Good Afternoon Room 3

Room 3 continue to pitch match with their singing greeting; as a group they are especially good at this and sing with a beautiful tone.

Their hand signals help them to remember their pitches...here they are showing stages of the descending so mi re do they were singing.

Room 5's Folk Dance

Room 5 have been combining a series of moves and working to stay together as a group by completing each move after a set count. They were amazing at remembering whether they were part of group 1 or group 2 and moving accordingly and got back to their starting positions quickly and correctly every time. Threading the needle was tricky but they worked together to figure it out.

Looking for Animals on the Plains of Africa

One of the dance styles we have been inspired by has been African circle dance. We observe the strong beat as well as representing different rhythms in our movements. Room 4 were great at telling the story of looking for animals on the plains of Africa and used energy to depict our search and each of the animals we found.

Ready to begin