Our school hosted a special curriculum day on Saturday last week. The theme was Carnival and our students had a fantastic day learning about this special festival, listening to music, doing crafts and learning dances. At the end of the day, students were heard declaring it to be "the most funnest day ever in my life!", "the best school day ever!" and "today (was) so much fun!".
Our school hosted a special curriculum day on Saturday last week. The theme was Carnival and our students had a fantastic day learning about this special festival, listening to music, doing crafts and learning dances. At the end of the day, students were heard declaring it to be "the most funnest day ever in my life!", "the best school day ever!" and "today (was) so much fun!"
Each of our three school areas remained in their bubbles and enjoyed specially-prepared activities. Read on to find out what they got up to.
Early Years read Along the Tapajos by Fernando Vilela and made up actions to go with the story. They thought about rainstorms in the rainforest and used their bodies and percussion instruments to create their own storms. They looked at pictures from Carnival and read stories about it. The children talked about how colorful everything is and made masks to wear for our own performances. The children also made instruments for their performance. The 2s made tambourines, Nursery made shakers and Reception made drums!
On Curriculum Day, Lower School focused on the Brazilian folk tale: 'How the Brazilian Beetles Got Their Gorgeous Coats' by Elsie Spicer Eells. They used oil pastels to decorate beetle's beautiful coat to resemble those in the magical story. They also decorated masks with feathers and sequins. Year 1 and 3 performed music on percussion instruments, inspired by the rainforest. Year 2 learned and performed some samba steps and Year 4 performed a play based on the story. They also played the drums and learnt a song that they then performed like superstars! It was so wonderful to see everyone flexing their creative muscles and enjoying the day.
In Upper School they used a Brazilian story. "How Night Came From the Sea" as a starting point for their work on Curriculum day. In drama they acted through the story and broke it into scenes, they incorporated music to reflect the mood of each scene using Brazilian Samba patterns as a starting point. Then they built the performance, developing characters through costume and movement to tell the story. They also developed a background based on details from the story.
Please watch the video to see the performances in all their glory!
Nord Anglia International School, New York
