Sing with Us the Christmas Story.
This year we move our concert location to the basketball court and with the unexpected weather, that proved to have been a very wise move! Of course the move was not based on rain but on a number of factors, an important one being the acoustics which are wonderful there. This meant the children could be heard clearly, by all, without too many microphones which is always better with younger students.
The children had been practicing long and hard for the first part of the concert that found them all on the stage presenting the Christmas Story to us in song, verse and mime. The students had themselves requested we told the Christmas story this year, they talked about how many other festivals and celebrations had been part of our Celebrations of Learning, Assemblies and also in their homerooms in the first semester and how they wanted this one too.
So now with that in mind Ms. Praveeta and Mr. Kushal set about working with our students to “Sing the Christmas Story’ , not an easy feat, as the songs and carols were not written specifically for children’s voice and were very technically demanding. However, our committed learners took it all in their stride and worked hard to bring the amazing concert to you.
We also wanted to let the children have agency by selecting one or two songs, percussion pieces or dances that would showcase their learning from their Music classes since August. The students choose their pieces and again, with the guidance of Ms. Praveeta and Mr. Kushal, set about learning even more musical number to present to their parents and siblings.
As we all know the quality of the performance was wonderful, we also know that a lot of “back-stage” work into this event, not least with homeroom teachers playing the music in class and having the students practice as they worked!
We had a number of students sing solos or play the recorder in pairs/small groups, again to a very high standard. The French and German department also did their part by preparing some of our student to sing in both languages to showcase some of their Language Acquisition skills.
The student not only worked hard on the performance they also worked on the decorations too that were to be found on the basketball court and in the courtyard area, Ms Charmaine was the guiding force in this area.
So our concert sadly came to an end, we had all had a wonderful time, students, teachers and the audience alike there were happy smiling faces all round. BUT wait there was one more treat in store, we move into our lovely courtyard to share in some light refreshments and socialize with our family and friends, a lovely end to a wonderful afternoon.
The PYP TEAM