The Senior Kindergarten students in our English mainstream classes created and performed their own musical which integrated the arts (music, drama and visual art) and life in our Outdoor Discovery Centre on Tuesday, 15 March. This performance was intentionally connected to what our SK students were learning about in class through their Unit of Inquiry focused on “How We Organise Ourselves.” 

The students had the idea to create, plan and perform a show based on their love for outdoor learning and call it ‘Life in the Outdoor Discovery Centre’ (ODC). Each class discussed what made the ODC special for them and from these ideas the performance was born.

The musical featured classroom activities, the mud kitchen, turtle pond, the big hill with logs, the musical wall and the overall learning that takes place in this beautiful outdoor learning space.

In our CIS Kindergarten programme, students are provided with opportunities to have input into their own learning so that the teachers can make connections to student interests and talents. For this show, the students took the initiative when it came to planning. They choose areas that they were passionate about and took ownership of the performance. At the beginning, the students went to the ODC and explored the spaces. They asked questions such as, “What do we do here?”, “What do I like to do here?”, and “What makes this space a fun place to learn?”. After answering these questions, students were able to express their ideas as to what they wanted to share with their audience.

Each class then developed a script to highlight all the things they love to do in their chosen area. The students in SK1 decided that the mud kitchen was their favourite space. They acted out their own favourite part of the mud kitchen. They are passionate about dance and wanted to incorporate this into their part of the performance so they researched different types of dances and discussed how they could move in the mud. Naturally, the students decided that they wanted to create a mud dance to show these movements. An idea was sparked to use body percussion as the music for their dance. This active collaboration and cooperation is just one example of the authentic and engaging learning that takes place in our SK classrooms.

Kindergarten life for our students at CIS is filled with learning engagements that shape their young minds. Intentionally integrating specialist classes, such as Music, Drama and Art creates a richer learning experience for the students. Once the idea for ‘Life in the ODC’ was born, planning for this show developed through homeroom and specialist classes working together to incorporate acting, singing, dancing, group percussion, set design and student art pieces. The finished product was an amazing musical performance in front of a cheerful parent audience, that resulted in a lot of learning and pride for our remarkable CIS Kindergarten students.