The Legend of Skeleton Cove
This week, the Grade 2 students performed their annual play in front of parents, siblings, grandparents, and a range of classmates and members of the wider ISA community. The performers put on an amazing performance, dazzling the audience with their expression, poise, team effort and, of course, their drama skills in bringing their characters and the story to life. An ensemble piece such as this takes an enormous amount of time and effort, but the pay-off for this investment is clear. Their efforts will pay dividends that go beyond academic progress and will enrich their development over time. In addition to developing drama, music and dance skills, the benefits of this type of project include:
- Developing confidence;
- Improving communication skills (speaking, listening, nonverbal communication);
- Working as part of a group;
- Public speaking;
- Building friendships;
- Learning the importance of commitment and dedication
When speaking with the children after their performances, I heard dozens of variations of this comment: “I was really scared thinking about having to perform on stage in front of everyone. I didn’t think I could do it! But, now that we did it, I just want to keep performing it again and again! Can we keep performing it after Tuesday?!” The play, in the end, was so much more than a play for these children. It will resonate through their childhood as a poignant reminder of what they can achieve when they push through their self-doubt.
Mark Wood, who is well-known to the ISA community for his amazing work, wrote, directed and produced The Legend of Skeleton Cove. The real treasure of the story isn’t the chest of gold coins that convinced Mr. Greed to see the error of his ways; it is the remarkable magic that Mark brings to his work with the children of ISA. He works with consummate diligence and respect, giving generously of his time since the start of the school year to encourage the students to develop their dramatic skills, and to enjoy the process and journey of being part of a large-scale, ensemble production. Congratulations to Mark, the Grade 2 students, their teachers (Rachael Cheyne & Marcus Pereira, the ISA art teachers (Mandy Goynes & Nicolina Rea), the music teacher (Stacey McMorran), the organiser of the Middle School tech crew (Kent Walter), the parent volunteers who worked on the set, props, costumes and backstage - and all of the others responsible for such a successful show.
Children in Need
Each week during the Monday morning assembly, I spend a few minutes highlighting one of the six central ISA Values: Respect, Excellence, Diversity, Community, Integrity and Service. This week, the highlighted value has been Service. ISA has a strong tradition of encouraging children to embrace a sense of responsibility for supporting others in need, both locally and in the wider world. In the Preschool and Elementary School, different grades take on the leadership for various initiatives. This week, the 4th grade took the lead in organising activities to support Children in Need. These young students have been at the center of planning the entire week, including: organising an awareness-raising presentation and birthday quiz for the assembly; agreeing upon a spirit and fundraising day for Friday; working collaboratively to create and deliver presentations to explain Children in Need to students in each of the grade levels; and designing engaging and developmentally-appropriate mathematics activities that they brought to life for children in every grade level. Through their efforts, the Grade 4 students are helping others, while also developing their own leadership skills, including planning, public speaking and following through on commitments. Well done to the Grade 4 students and their teachers, Mrs. McMahon and Mr. Bertolotto for all they have done to bring the value of Service to life across the school in support of Children in Need. By the end of lunch on Friday, the 4th graders had already counted up to £400 in donations! In the coming weeks, the children in Grade 3 will continue the theme of Service as they organise a food drive for those less fortunate than us in and around Aberdeen.
Upcoming events
In order to keep up to date with announcements and events, please continue to routinely check the Community Hub, which is regularly updated and houses both the Daily Notices and the Events Calendar. Some highlights from the coming week include the final day of the Book Fair (Monday, November 21), a celebration of Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 24) and the Teacher In-service Day (Friday, November 25 - a non-student day).
Morio Kajiwara
Preschool & Elementary School Principal
Comments
Post a Comment