A class story by MS CROSS’ 1/2 CLASS
This year has been an uncertain one, but what we are certain of is how much we have enjoyed learning through music. Throughout the year we have had the opportunity to have Kristie Fudge (the Department’s Music Education Strategy Officer, supporting and upskilling teachers in music) come into our classroom and open our minds to the wonders of learning through music. This was not just a new concept for the students, but also for their teacher! We were lucky to have Kristie come into our classroom once a week. This gave us the opportunity to practice our skills throughout the week and demonstrate our learning when we saw her next.
We began by learning our Play is the Way posters with a strong focus on treating others the way we would like to be treated. This was complemented by our Fill-a-Bucket song which involved using boomwhackers, timing and teamwork. From this, music began becoming a daily routine and embedded in a variety of lessons. We use chopsticks and cups to count the sounds in words, to keep the beat in our song of the week or find a repeating pattern in a song.
Here is a video of one of our first lessons with Kristie learning Fill-a-Bucket:
The students have been so engaged with their learning through music, here is what some students have to say:
“I have enjoyed the music that Ms. Fudge was teaching us.” —Peter
“I enjoyed filling the bucket with Ms. Fudge” —Sophia
“I really liked when we learnt Fireman’s BBQ!” —Chase
“Ms. Fudge is a really good music teacher!” —Noah
This term for science we have looked at ‘sound’ as a new learning concept. We have been learning that we hear sound through our ears and that sound travels through the air as a soundwave. We have also learnt that high sounds and low sounds vibrate through the air differently. Did you know that you can feel sound? Touch your throat and hum, this is the vibration of sound coming from your voicebox.
To finish our topic I set the students a challenge of designing and creating a sound effect instrument that represented a sound from the book ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ written by Michael Rosen. They needed to consider whether the sound was a high or low pitch, how they were going to produce the sound (eg. blow, scrape, hit or shake) and the volume it would need. We created, practiced and recorded our instruments along with the book. See our storytelling below.
Here are some more student comments about their learning throughout this topic:
“I liked making the instrument, mine was the ‘splashy sploshy river’.” —Ethan
“Mine was the swishy swashy grass” —Oliver
“Ms. Fudge came in and showed us how to feel vibrations from a symbol.” —Mackenzie
