Since humankind began, the Arts has been a vessel for storytelling and the expression of emotion and connection within our communities.  We have been inquiring into the Arts this term, discovering how ideas, cultures and narratives are expressed through dance, drama, music, visual arts and media arts. Throughout this unit we have been entertained, our thoughts have been challenged, and the workings of artist’s magic unveiled.  They boys have developed their arts knowledge and understanding through a growing comprehension of the distinct and related languages of the art forms symbols, techniques, processed and skills.

Year 3 applied their growing understanding of the Arts by developing a whole class play on the theme of compassion.  In creating the play, the boys were required to express ideas and emotions through narrative, music, costuming, animation, lighting, set and acting.  This was the boys’ play, I stayed out of it as much as possible, and they grabbed the freedom and opportunity enthusiastically.

The Design Thinking methodology guided our creative process:

SPARK An idea you want to express

• The play must express the theme of compassion

DISCOVER Finding out, asking questions, looking at examples for inspiration

• Read the book ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes
• Watched the film ‘Lilo and Stitch’
• Developed storyboards
• Examined snippets of Monsters Inc
• Participated in the The Art of Storytelling workshop through the Kahn Academy’s Pixar in a Box
• Created small group plays around the idea of compassion using picture prompts from the book ‘The Lost Thing’ by Shaun Tan

IMAGINE Generating ideas

• A six-piece storyboard was created to guide the storyline of the play.  An aspect of each small group’s play was incorporated in the storyline.

EXPLORE Experimenting and learning from mistakes in order to create original solutions.

The boys choose the role and responsibility they felt comfortable and interested in exploring:

• Creating music
• Set design and making
• Costume design and making
• Acting and script writing
• Animation
• Directing and filming
• Video editing

SOLVE A final solution for others to experience.

Video link to our final performance. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1YlX70FY1CMNFNkWV9Ra202RlE

The boys did a wonderful job in creating a play that was thoroughly enjoyed by their loving audience.  We were extremely fortunate to the have the guiding hand of Ximeng Chan (Granmother to Marcus and Aiden Chan, and Felix Lee), throughout the process. Mrs Chan was our source of inspiration, our spark, who suggested the idea that the boys could create a play.  Thank you Mrs Chan for exciting the boys’ imagination and encouraging them to explore their creative and expressive potential.

Carol Peterson – Year 3 Teacher