Programme Blurb

Dance for Disney
Oroua Downs School Production 2008

We have been focussing on Inquiry learning this year as part of our ICT PD cluster.
This term we tried something quite unique, something quite scary, but something we knew that our wonderful children could handle.
We investigated components that it takes to “make an entertaining show”, children followed the inquiry process to discover this information. We had a fantastic whole school presentation afternoon, which showcased the excellent effort that everyone had put in.
We then broke into house group and selected the character groups that we wanted to be, organised our costumes, created our dances, decided who was going to have the speaking roles, what props we needed, the backdrops, designed the programme, the advertising, the tickets, found a stage manager, had MC auditions, organised out ICT crew, gathered our stage hands, a huge effort from each and everyone of our dedicated students.
Tonights show is owned by your children, they created it, practised in, and are going to put on an amazing performance for you. We know you will enjoy it!
I totally take my hat off to all of the cast in this production and the wonderful staff for their commitment and support throughout the process.
Zee


What is it all about you may ask…
This production is about learning how to accept each other for who you are and working together towards a common goal.
It is about people being who they want to be and developing the courage to be confident and assertive.
You will giggle, you may be shocked, hopefully you wont cry but we know you will be entertained.
Please celebrate your childrens success with us, and allow for any hiccups we may experiences, sit back and enjoy.
We thank you for you support throughout this process.

Narrators and the midget

We had auditions for the narrators, this is an extra role on top of their house character. It was great to see so many juniors come to the auditions, they were really supportive of eachother and very excitied to have this special role.

It was planned that narrators would pre record their speech, but as it turned out, they wanted to 'do it live' on the night.

Each narrator was given their part and time to practise was their responsibilty.

A great effort was made, it was a chance to showcase their confidence and oral language skills.

We had one last special role to fill, that of the midget. This character is noticed on stage throughout the production, but does not say anything until the last scene, this midget pulls the whole message of the production together.

Props, ICT and stage manager

being in the spotlight is not everyones favourite past time, so some children were given the chance to work behind the scenes. This took the pressure off those that didn't want to be up on stage, it also gave leadership opportunities for the stage manager and a chance to showcase skills for the ICT crew.

This group of children ran the sound system worked all equipment needed, organised the props and made sure things were going to right on the night.

Dances and music

Children worked in their house groups to create their dance and find their music.

We practised at various times for a week and then had a shared dancing session in the sunshine. This was amazing and nearly brought tears to the teachers eyes. An amazing collection of moves, every single child in the school was involved and proud of what they did as well as others efforts. The playground was alive with cheering and children trying to copy dance moves. Parents came down and were amazed by the childrens efforts.
The screams of delight echoed through the corridors - this is really going to work!

One child says "this is so awesome, we get to have our own music, it makes it so much more fun for us and not boring like other times"

Sharing our discoveries

Oops - has been a while since I have updated this so here we go........

After a very intensive few weeks researching 'what it takes to put on a good show' the students had a shairng day in our library.
This was a fantastic afternoon of celebrations! It was impressive to see the children using ICTs with confidence to share what they had learnt. Nothing was the same, even though we had group studying the same aspect, their reporting were different - this was most noticed by the students, the were making comparisons of their information to groups that had the same.
Children took great pride in their presentations and this also created another boost of momentum for the second half of the inquiry.

This is a movie made by a junior class that shows their inquiry learning.
This really impressed me with the dedication to develop ICT skills from a less confident teacher - hats off to you!

The children have really owned this unit, there is much excitement, a real change for them to hold the power and for the expectations to be there for them to achieve success. For me, this unit has provided the opportunity for the children to really showcase their skills, it is something that in previous year they haven't been able to do - the production was too big for the children to take on. A real credit to the staff - for throwing caution to the wind and creating a truly meaningful learning experiences for the children.

From here, Miss Z presented the script to the school, this created even more excitement and children went back to house group to vote on the roles they wanted.

Children then had 3 days to get their costume organised for the show and to be shared at a parade at a special assembly.

We had geeks, jock, bogans, emos, pretty girls and ganstas.

The story line for the production was a mixed between high school musical and grease, with the happy ending that we all wish for, in the end, differences are celebrated and unity is found in the playground.

The children made a fantastic effort and really showed their character through their costumes. This created even more ownership and determination to do a great job.