The 2012 Ensemble has been working very hard all term to learn their first piece – Get Ready For This. We took the opportunity to perform it when we had a visit to the school by NZ band Six60. We welcomed them to school with a fantastic performance and I think they were impressed Hopefully there will be more posts to come about the rest of their visit – we just need to clear it with their managers. It was a wonderful afternoon, sharing questions and answers about being in a band, writing songs and performing, and topped off with a jam of ‘Don’t Forget Your Roots’. What a great experience. Thanks to Six60 and their manager for taking time out of a busy tour to visit us and well done everyone in the Senior Team – you made me very proud.

The 2012 Rock Band had their first performance today at assembly. They sounded FAB!!! I think we’re still New Zealand’s largest rock band with the whole Senior Team taking part.

St Clair Strummers @ The Fair on PhotoPeach

Last week was Living & Giving Week for the year 5 children. While the year 6s were having an AWESOME time at camp, the year 5s spent the week making wonderful craft items for the school fair. We decided it would be an added bonus to perform some music at the fair and, of course, ukulele songs were the obvious choice. Some of the children have only been learning ukulele for a few weeks but we have already mastered the chords of C, F, G7 and Aminor. So we worked hard (and played hard) to prepare three songs: Pakeke Mai, Rock’n'Roll Medley and Proud Mary. Fair Day dawned bright and sunny (as EVER!!) and the crowds were large. Our ukulele performance was excellent, the dance moves were great fun and we had a fantastic crowd to support us. Well done kids – you did a GREAT job polishing up those items in a very busy week. Thanks to Miss Avery and Miss Stewart for all your hard work in a VERY enjoyable week

Welcome to the Music Room Blog for 2012. The Senior Team’s musical year got off to a great start with World Ukulele Day on Feb 2nd.

Go to
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZBruG2HvbU&feature=digest_sun
to hear the organiser of World Ukulele Day talk about the day … including a mention for our school!!

Activities for the day included:
~ Year 6 children teaching Year 5 children how to play some basic ukulele chords,
~ Skype link-ups with schools in Dunedin, Hamilton and California. Our children performed Utaina with ukuleles for our new friends and shared questions and answers about each other,
~ a Skype interview with Christchurch songwriter James Beck whose ukulele song on youtube went ‘viral’ and brought a smile to thousands of faces in Christchurch after a difficult 2011 and ongoing earthquakes in 2012. Go to
youtube.com/watch?v=TUlxisytUvs&feature=related
to see his song. We shared some new dance moves with James so will have to look out for them in future videos!!
~ a Skype Interview with Ukulele Mike himself in Seattle, USA. Mike was delighted to hear our children sing and play and answered lots of questions about World Ukulele Day.

Music and ICT certainly combined to make a great start to the year, sharing fun, meeting experts and making new friends around the globe. Thanks to all the children, teachers and musicians who took part.

If you have an ukulele at home and want to learn some songs, go to Ukulele Mike’s youtube channel at www.youtube.com/user/MusicTeacher2010/videos
for hundreds of song tutorials. He is an ukulele legend!!!

Thanks also to Kevin Fogarty in Auckland
www.ukenz.com
for permission to use his song Ukulele Heaven in our video blog of World Ukulele Day.

Keep checking this blog for more singing and playing from the children at St Clair Primary School. We look forward to another awesome musical year.

Wow, what a night at the PAC. Children in the Senior Team shared musical items that they had been preparing over the year and put on a stunning show for parents and friends. The grand finale was a medley by our Year 6 Leavers. Thanks kids for all your hard work in the last 6 years. It’s been wonderful sharing your musical journey and I hope to hear great things from you in the future.

The Middle Team have amazed me this term with their ensemble playing skills. Each class focussed on a different piece of music from the Recorder Zone 2 book and everyone learnt the 2 recorder parts and the 2 or 3 tuned percussion parts. Then children chose their favourite part to play and we put it all together. We joined together in a special team assembly to share the finished pieces. Well done everyone, you sound AWESOME.

The Junior team worked hard in Term 3 to prepare marimba and percussion items for a parent concert. They did a top job. They are experts at finding the notes, bouncing their beaters, hitting the bars in the middle and alternating the beaters.

St Clair Kapa Haka 2011 from Ali Caldwell on Vimeo.

What an amazing day! After weeks and weeks of rehearsal we bussed 180 tamariki to the Edgar Centre to participate in this years Polyfest. Our items: Utaina, Purea Nei and Tenei Te Ruru.
The performance was superb, ka mau te wehi i nga tamariki! Enormous thanks to the many whanau members who made the stunning costumes a reality on the day and to all who came in to help get the children ready.
Thanks too to the wonderful Polyfest Organising Committee for this amazing opportunity every year.

Middles Music Assembly 2011 from Ali Caldwell on Vimeo.

Term 2 finished with a Music Assembly by the Middle Team to share our marimba skills with parents. Great job Middles. You played brilliantly. I’m very proud of you all.

Seniors sing Love, Love, Love from Ali Caldwell on Vimeo.

The Seniors have been singing Love, Love, Love all term so it was the obvious choice for our NZ Music Month Assembly item. Great ukulele playing R7 (with solo by Lucas!).