Choir News - 2nd Term

HCA Singing Angels

The 2nd term started with a fun choir workshop at Mrs Hawthorn's home. We had lots of fun jumping off the roof into the pool, bubbling in the jacuzzi and playing musical games before putting in some hard work practising the National Anthem.

Soloist - "Consider Yourself at Home"

On Saturday 21st April we sang at the Kloof Conservancy Open Indigenous Gardens event at Forest View Primary School. The choir sounded fantastic and our version of Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" which we've dedicated to the fight to protect our rhino's was especially moving. First time soloists Ellya Crosby, Nandi Mavume, Mandisa Makhathini and Caitlin Ivins joined Joshua Milne and Abigail Kane in singing their solo's beautifully. Organiser Cecily Salmon had this to say in her thank you letter:

"All the music items were great, but the HCA Choir stands out for me personally for the variety of its repertoire, the quality of the soloists and the irrepressibly joie de vivre of the choir and its leader.  Thank you to the students, their teachers and parents who made it all look so effortless (though I can only imagine the hours of practice required to reach that standard).

The weekend went very well and the music added a very special festive atmosphere to the tea garden.  The feedback has been extremely positive."

Grandparent's Day on 26th April was another highlight for the choir.  Our new choir stands were "christened" with a performance of "In the Mood" that had the audience humming along, "Joyfully Sing" which was met with loud approval, and finally our spectacular version of the National Anthem.  What a pleasure it was to be able to move and dance on our new stands which are much wider.  No more worries about falling off!  Many Grandparents came to congratulate us afterwards on the lovely singing and the high standard of musicianship!  Well done children.  The choir continues to grow in ability, confidence and musicality and I am exceptionally proud of you all!

Soloist - "Memories"

Soloist

Mrs Hawthorn and HCA Choir

Soloist - "Shenandoah"

Art Attack!! First term projects!!

Grade 7 Cubist Style Dogs - Picasso!

The grade 7's looked at the Cubist artist Picasso.  We decided to try to create large scale Picasso style dogs! The children experimented with tones and shades of different areas of colours. The dogs were  done on size A1 paper with fluorescent pastels. Metallic paint was used for the backgrounds. We are so proud of these dogs and excited to see how each individual dog's personality comes alive in these pictures!  Woof!!

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Grade 6's

 St Basil's Cathedral at sunset -

No pencils allowed!!

The Grade 6's looked at the amazing St Basils Cathedral in Russia that was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible. In this project pupils were not allowed to draw in pencil first. This was a very good learning experience for them and they learned that you cannot make "mistakes" in art! Incorrect lines could be made into interesting patterns and designs!   Repetition of patterns and shapes filled the buildings, while the background was painted in watercolours. Crosses and domes sprang to life with gold glitter! Well done Grade 6's!  These were amazing! Thanks to deepspacesparkleblog.com for inspiration on this lesson.

Grade 5

Egyptian Portraits - Watercolour project

The Grade 5's completed these beautiful Egyptian portraits that were used as the decorations in their annual Egyptian Feast in watercolours. Pupils were encouraged to experiment with different shades of colour and blend these colours together to create different effects. I am sure you will agree that these are stunning!

Grade 4

Gigantic Bugs - Bugs alive!!!

The Grade 4's completed these amazing bugs.  Can you believe that this was the first time they were introduced to the concepts of Tone and Blending!

And WOW!!....... Did they apply these skills amazingly, messily and amid heaps of fun, especially whilst finger painting the background with two different tones of metallic paint!

Grade 4
Pirate Ships - Ahoy there, matey!!

This project was an introduction to watercolour painting.The pupils used warm colours to creat a sunset in the background. Shades of browns were used in the boat and blues and greens in the sea!  The result:  Stunning Pirate Ships!!!

A Choirfull term!

HCA Choir Report 1^st Term
By Judith Hawthorn,
Choirmistress extraordinaire,
Curro HCA!

Mrs Hawthorn in fabulicious style!

It has been a very busy, but extremely rewarding 1^st term at choir with performances at our Picnic Proms by both choirs, the FP Choir singing very sweetly at Open Day for our guests and appearances at assemblies to help the children get over their nerves!

The highlight of the term was undoubtedly our Senior’s choir camp at Kearsney, and we continue to reap the rewards of all the hard work done on camp.

The IP Choir were invited to sing at St Agnes Community Market on Saturday 17^th March, and despite many children not being able to be there, the choir sounded fantastic!  I am SO proud of the results of a lot of hard work and commitment from the children.  Well done!  This time last year we did NOT have a 30 minute concert programme, and I have noticed such a huge improvement in the quality of sound, in the confidence of the harmonies and in keeping focused on the conductor.  Also hugely improved are everyone’s faces – singing with expression, smiling, all nervousness out the window, and just enjoyment shining out!  The children’s enthusiasm and sense of ownership of the choir is very apparent as they continue to give input as to how and what to sing, where to put choreography and in evaluating their performances.

Monday 19^th March, both choirs sang at Hillcrest Primary’s Easter Celebration to a packed audience.  We enjoyed listening to all the other participating schools as they shared their music, with special guest, Pierre van der Westhuizen, drawing appreciative and enthusiastic applause from us all.

The FP choir has seen a wonderful surge of boys joining the choir and we have a group of children who are exceptionally committed and are thoroughly enjoying their time singing in the choir.

We look forward to lots of music-making as well as exciting concerts coming up in the 2^nd term, and the highlight will definitely be our participation in the Queensburgh Festival.

My thanks to Mrs Burns, Mrs Hawyes and Ms Du Casse for their help and thank you parents for your support.

Hurtling towards our Speech & Drama Festival: Drama Dept. 2012!

The Drama Department has been very busy in the first part of this year with the Speech and Drama Festival fast approaching. Each intermediate phase class is involved in a group item, which will be performed on 22 March for an adjudicator who is coming from the Speech and Drama Association of South Africa.

Our Grade 4s and 6s are doing Choral Verses.

Grade 4C – The Land of Mites & Maybees by Arden Davidson

Grade 4G – Little Red Riding Hood and The Worlf by Roald Dahl

Grade 4T – The Fox & The Crow by Cynthia Ryder

Grade 6B – It’s Cool Jack, It’s Cool by Brenda Williams

Grade 6H – Macavity – The Mystery Cat by T.S. Eliot

Grade 6T – Sea Shoals Sea Shows on the Sea Bed by Paul Cookson

Each class has worked so hard on their poem to make sure that they sound memorable. We have had fun with different sounds effects made by the children as well as interesting actions to enhance each poem. Now we just hope for some noteworthy results.

Our Grade 5s and 7s are doing Theme Programmes, as an entire Grade. This has posed to be a mammoth task that I am not sure I would undertake again. The main reason being that the group is just too big when all together in the performance area. However, we have worked hard to make sure that the Theme Programmes are full of fun and clever Dramatic skills.

Grade 5 – Dancing with God – This Theme Programme includes a Choral Verse called Dancing with God, a Skit called Jesus Can Dance and a movement piece to the song by Matt Redman called Dancing Generation.

Grade 7 – New York – This Theme Programme includes a Choral Verse called Last Night I Saw the City Breathing, a prose excerpt from the book Cricket in Times Square and a movement piece to the song by Alicia Keys called New York.

Our Drama Team which is made up of 12 Grade 6 and 7 learners is doing a Theme Programme entitled Jack and The Bean Stalk. The group start with a rap called the Beanstalk Rap, followed by a Rhyming play called Jack & The Beans Talk, which includes a song called Cow For Sale. With very few rehearsals thus far, we are hoping to have this Theme Programme looking absolutely fabulous by the festival.

Individual learners are also going to be performing items for the Festival. These items include Poetry Speaking, Show & Tell, Story Telling and Monologues. There is so much talent within these children that I think the adjudicator is going to be in for a treat!

HCA CHOIR CAMP 2012 REPORT - SPECTACULAR SUCCESS!!!!

by Mrs Hawthorn

 On Sunday 19^th February 49 excited children arrived at Kearsney College for our second annual Choir Camp, and what a spectacular success it was!  Huge thanks to Ms Jeanine Du Casse and Mr Senzo Myezi for their roles in it.

Highlights for the children included the excitement of staying in the dorms there, the outstanding meals and swimming in Kearsney’s pool.

We enjoyed a musical workout with Mr Bernard Kruger, conductor of the world renowned Kearsney College Choir.  This is the kind of experience that money just can’t buy!

We played our own version of “Noot vir Noot” and my elder daughter Sarah came and took a dance/choreography session.  When I asked the children if we looked alike the answer was “No, she’s prettier than you”!  Ah, out the mouths of babes!

Keeping it in the family, my younger daughter Amy assisted me with the sectional rehearsals.  Clearly I should have had more children!

In total, we sang for 10 hours, in full voice, giving 100% energy and focus and I was blown away at the children’s resilience and lack of complaints.  The hard work paid off at the concert for the parents on Monday afternoon.  I was so incredibly proud of the children’s performance of the 6 songs we learnt and I think they were too.  It’s hard to explain what an achievement this is in such a short space of time.  We are tackling increasingly difficult music and the children continue to meet the challenge head on.

The Choir Camp is proving to be an essential part of the life of the Choir, providing not only training and bonding time, but a fun, motivating reason to sing in the choir at HCA.  I am thrilled to have the opportunity to go away with the children at the beginning of each year and am grateful for the support of the parents and the school in achieving the goal of developing greatness in every singing child!

Picnic Proms - first quarter 2012!

A brilliant turnout was witnessed at our first Picnic Proms of 2012 held on Saturday 11 Feb.  Even though the year has just begun, it was evident that the Creative Arts Department had lost no time in 'Developing Greatness'! 

The programme kicked off with the reserve marimba band giving a vibrant rendition of 'Sway' and led on to a few young promising vocal soloists, pianists and even a worship band, interspersed with wonderfully entertaining renditions by the Junior and Senior Choirs who seem to have learned much repertoire in a short time.  Way to go, Mrs Hawthorn and Mrs du Casse!

A super musical comedy,  'Cinderella', workshopped and written during the December / January break and produced and directed by Mrs Pereira (assisted by Mrs Schnell and guitar teacher Roxy Oschman) was presented by children who had attended the hugely successful theatre camp run by Mrs Pereira.  What extraordinary talent was witnessed!    The afternoon rounded off with the HCA Marimba Band 2012 performing an energetic arrangement of 'La Bamba' and a current hit, 'Beautiful People'.

A tuckshop was provided by the Marimba Band 2012 who were raising funds for their tour to the International Marimba Festival in August - this was a huge success, and most people left filled to the brim with delicious ice cream from Huberto's after being persuaded to buy these in aid of fundraising....What a sacrifice!! 233 ice creams were sold!!!

A huge thank you to Picnic Proms co-ordinator, Mrs Pereira for her hard work and preparation in providing this opportunity for our young musicians and actors to shine!  Thank you to Mrs Schell for organising the drama team as continuity announcers.  Well done!

Thank you, too, to Mrs Roberts for her help in making everything run smoothly and holding the Creative Arts Department flag high!

The lead actress in the musical produced and
directed by Mrs Schnell & Mrs Pereira

Question:  Has there ever been any other school that has been blessed with children of such diverse creative ability?  There is so much talent here just waiting to be harnessed!  And so many supportive parents....Thank you, Lord, for this recipe for success! 

Of Britto, Rizzi & Pirates!!!

From the Art Room....by Carey:

I decided to begin our school year with studying self portraits in different styles gaining inspiration from different contemporary artists.

The Grade 3's are basing their class work on the theme of Pirates.  In the art room they produced exciting mixed media Pirate Portraits.  Here we discussed the correct positioning and proportion of the features - there was much excitement as the children added gold teeth, earrings, scars, nose rings, braids and even bandanas to their pirates with a designer flair!  The most exciting thing was naming these salty rogues!

The work of well known American 'Pop Artist' James Rizzi, whose paintings are cartoon-like, with bold vibrant, exciting images and colours was studied by the Grade 4 classes.  Self portraits in Rizzi style were produced, showing the big, bright eyes which is a Rizzi trademark.  How the children loved doing this!

Rizzi designed and constructed many buildings, and much of his work shows city scenes with colourful buildings.  We decided to use paint chips and stickers to create a city scene of buildings on the background of our portraits.  Excellent results were obtained to the delight of all!

Grade 5's took Rizzi's work a little further by painting colourful buildings forming the background of their self portraits.  What fun this work was!

 Romero Britto is a neo-pop painter and sculptor.  He combines stereotypical elements of cubism, pop art and graffiti in his work.  The Gr 6 children found his work wonderfully absorbing, and carefully executed beautifully completed self portraits in pastels.

Our Gr 7 classes continued the portrait theme by producing ethnic African Masks. Having seen metalwork projects done by schools in America and Europe, I wanted to try this too.  I encountered many problems in trying to source aluminium for this project.  No one could supply me with the Aluminium sheets which seemed so freely available elsewhere.  It was time to think ' out of the box', and lo and behold, inspiration struck like a lightning bolt (not too much of that happens usually!!!).  I contacted a catering company and asked for lasagne dish lids. The journey in experimentation began - blunt pencils, knitting needles, nintendo styluses, hair clips .....all were used for the embossing.  Permanent markers were added for colour.  The hair extensions were purchased from one of my favourite stores - PEP!  The children loved this project and produced AMAZING results!  Well done, Grade 7's!

What a CREATALICIOUS start to the year!!