Music @ Taylors Lakes Primary School

Thanks to Mike Jackson’s “Uke’n Play Ukulele For Kids”, a program designed for young children to learn to play ukulele, the students at Taylors Lakes Primary School learn to play 3 simple chords on the ukelele in no time at all!

 3 different coloured dots placed on the neck of the ukelele help teach the students where to place their fingers to play different chords. It’s an instant method that really works! 

This semester the music program at Taylors Lakes P.S has been packed full of exciting topics and experiences. The children have been completing a range of activities to continue to develop their musical skills. They have explored instruments in an orchestra, recognising their similarities and differences and how they are grouped into instrumental families.  The children have also studied the Music Timeline learning about the development of the orchestra, famous composers and listened to the musical changes that occurred throughout the various eras from 1600’s to now. They have been expanding their knowledge of tempo, rhythmic and dynamic changes in music by participating in activities involving movement, dance, singing and instrumental playing.  Ukuleles and Boomwackers have been incorporated into the program and mixed in with musical theory exercises to improve vocal technique, musical memory and inner hearing.

Several Instrumental Programs have been put together following on from last year.  The groups are seen as Enrichment Programs that are provided by our music department to further develop and extend students. The groups are made up with a new line-up of students, and therefore the sound and ideas are also new and different.

The Expo night was held at our school during Education Week 20th May and was the first opportunity for both the Grade 3/4 Choir and Middle Years Percussion Ensemble to perform. Both groups put on a fantastic concert and were enjoyed by all. We look forward to many more performances throughout the year. Will keep you updated as they come along. 

The Music Department at Taylors Lakes P.S has a few exciting performances coming up!

HIGHPOINT SHOPPING CENTRE in VIC is once again holding the ‘Windows On The West’ event for schools in the Western Region of Victoria to showcase their wonderful talents.  Our school has been invited to take part in this event and will be performing Centre Stage on Wednesday 22nd October, 2008 at 1:30pm. The groups selected to perform are the Grade 3/4 Choir and the Grade 5/6 Samba Percussion Ensemble.

MUSIC. COUNT US IN
PROMOTING THE VALUE OF MUSIC EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS.
Taylors Lakes Primary School has registered to be part of an exciting event that will unite both primary and secondary schools Australia wide – through song. The students will be taught ‘Sing’ co-written by John Foreman and four VCE students. Our school including the Choir and Xylophone Ensemble will perform ‘Sing’ on Thursday 23rd October at 11: 30am. All schools taking part in this event will be performing the same song on the same day and time. We will be joining a nationwide network of people making music count in our schools.  All friends and family are welcome to come along and see the children make history!  Check out www.musiccountusin.org.au for more information.

Photograph diffused in Photoshop for security purposes.

The last few weeks have been very exciting in the Music classroom.  The Grade 4, 5, and 6’s have been completing Powerpoint presentations on musical instruments of their choice.  They have produced such wonderful projects on a wide range of instruments.  We have also had Naomi a student teacher studying to be a Primary Music Teacher spend time in the classroom observing and conducting lessons. 

The Prep, 1 & 2 Xylophone Ensemble performed in front of the whole school at the End Of Term 3 Assembly.  They performed two songs written by Jon Madin, ‘The Tram Song’ & ‘The Marimba March’.  They were fantasic!     

A few new images have been added from www.clipart.com along with a page for each of the school’s music ensembles, Prep/1/2 Xylophone Ensemble, Gr 3/4 Choir and Gr 5/6 Percussion Ensemble. The page design and layout has been experimented with until the right one was found. The final choice was Mandigo Theme by Tom. This was chosen because it is highly customizable and displays random colour and image changes. This creates an element of surprise when re-visiting the blog.

Welcome to our brand new Music Blog! Already we have had an exciting year in music.  Some of the highlights have been Westside Arts Performance at Hamer Hall, The School Expo Night and Making Music. Being Well celebration (www.makingmusicbeingwell.org.au).