Sea Shanties

The Spring term began very positively on Friday 5^th January with a creative arts day.

All the children worked in their house groups to plan, prepare and perform a sea shanty. It was lovely to see how individual each performance was.

All houses sang their sea shanties very well. Some houses did very elaborate actions, some houses made costumes or hats, some houses made or used props.

It was good to see the children perform so confidently. They clearly enjoyed their moment on the stage performing their house sea shanty.

This creative arts day linked to this year’s theme of ‘coastal’. The children from Years 2 to 6 had learned some sea shanties as part of their music curriculum in the autumn term.

Some Year 6 children have written in more detail about the day.  Please see below.

On Friday 5th January 2024, which was the first day back at school after the holidays, the school decided to split up into their house groups, which is Robins (red), Finches (orange), Wagtails (yellow), Woodpeckers (green) and Owls (blue), to do a sea shanty or a sea poem.

We spent a lot of time rehearsing: some of the morning and most of the afternoon. They were rather special since most of the house groups made/got costumes and did actions.

Owl (blue) did Bring back my Bonnie to Me. They did some spectacular and unique actions. During the rehearsal, the Reception children imagined and created fishes to match with the theme.

Wagtails (yellow) did, ‘When I Was 1, I Sucked My Thumb’. They designed their own pirate hats and also did some actions. One of them included jumping and moving about. The pirate hats were made with models on paper. They customised it with pencils and crayons and then cut it out and put strips of black paper to tie it to their heads.

Woodpeckers (green) did ‘Molly Malone’ with Mrs Wallace (the music teacher). They used old costumes and they even had a wheelbarrow for the person who was playing Molly Malone. They also had lots of different acting parts and a young violinist (Shivani, year 6) played a solo part. It was certainly spectacular.

Finch (orange) did ‘Blow the Man Down’, which was a poem. They did not have any actions or costumes but it was still good. What some people liked about Finch’s performance was that the children were split into groups that made the whole look very eye-catching on the stage.

Robins (red) did John Kanaka, and they used cups to make music. They also had some clapping actions. They always stayed on beat and it sounded fantastic. Most of them split up into partners and they did a hand clap and the rest used cups to make music.

Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly and it was a good experience to boost our stage confidence and all the teachers were really proud of their house groups for taking part in the performance.

Written by Alice Lewis and Krisha Mondal, Year 6.