Cultural Trips and Missions Anzac Day

Folklore Night 2013 – 5/6W
Folklore Night was an exciting, enjoyable and somewhat “embarrassing”
night of skits, plays, monologues and songs. This interesting night was held
on Wednesday 10 April 2013, and it was overflowing with facts and much
fun. The class had learnt about the gold rush and also about Australia’s
folklore period, so it was only natural that their amazing teacher, Mr
McCowen, organized a fun Folklore/Gold Night for the students to share
their learning experiences.
Leading up to Folklore-Gold Night were many things, that were mainly
stressful, adventurous, fun and a lot of hard work. During the lead up Mr.
McCowen had one idea that soon changed to many. My personal view
of the week leading up to the night is that it was fun but stressful. One
of the most pressured times was when rehearsing the Eureka Stockade
battle. In this time we had many rehearsals trying to bring it together.
Soon we got it and it all paid off.
We started the Folklore-Gold night with three biographies: A.B Banjo
Patterson, Henry Lawson and Dorothea Mackellar. Year Six students
memorised the whole of ‘The Man From Snowy River’ in stanzas and
performed these, followed by a comedy sketch, ‘The Man From Ironbark’.
Reflecting our study of bushrangers in the Folklore era, Year Five read
the tale by Randolf Stow, ‘Midnite’. Midnite is a comedic short novel of a
slow-witted, yet good-natured bushranger, with his unusual collection of
animal accomplices. The girls of Year Six performed a small excerpt from
his first bushranging attempt after which we were treated with a musical
item, ‘The Wild Colonial Boy’. As the night went on, the audience was
shown the unfair treatments that the diggers were subjected. This led
on to the Eureka Stockade, a battle that lasted only twenty minutes and
where the diggers were defeated two-to-one. Peter Lalor was shot, but
survived and lost his arm in the fight for freedom. Ironically, after the loss
at the battle, they won the legal battle for their rights.
We ended the night with a skit of the trial of Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly (Ned’s
brother), Steve Hart and Joe Burns. They were trialed for stealing from
the bank, miners and businesses in the class scenario, The Gold Game.
The Gold Game is designed for students to learn what it was like and
the troubles in life. Afterwards we ended with a whole class rendition of
Waltzing Matilda. We sang until the first chorus then we all stopped and
forgot the words. We tried a second time and we were successful and
didn’t forget too many words.
5/6W’s Folklore-Gold Night was a roaring success. Although the acts
were not highly polished, this added to the Folklore feel of the night.
Parents, students and teachers alike had a terrific evening which topped
off a term of immense learning and fun.
By Jasmine Gibson, Sienna Taylor, Boaz Moir and Briella Rapley
4 parentnewsletter - Term 1, 2013
Art Gallery of NSW
Excursion
On Thursday 4 April,
class 5/6W visited
the Art Gallery of
NSW. We had an
early start on the
morning of the
excursion and were
greeted by a dark
and gloomy morning.
The girls were in
the minivan, driven
by Mrs Baber and
the boys were in the
school bus, driven by Mr McCowen.
Once inside the Art Gallery the class split up into smaller groups.
A parent or teacher accompanied each group. We wandered
round the Sulman, Archibald and Wynne Prize collections of
2013. The winner of the Wynne Prize was Namatjira by Imants
Tillers.
After having a wander around the Art Gallery, we walked back
to where our buses were parked. Most of us had lunch in a car
park, but some of the girls stayed in the bus to eat their lunch
due to the rain. Half the class were transported back to the Art
Gallery on the bus and then Mr McCowen collected the other
half of the class. We were sorted into groups of about nine to
ten people and then each group had a guided tour of the gallery.
When our tour was over, we then looked at the 19th Century
European and Australian galleries. Some of the artists in the
Australian 19th Century Gallery were members of the
Heidelberg School, including Frederick McCubbin and Charles
Conder. We were instructed to find an artwork in the 19th
Century galleries that inspired us, then to write about it.
This trip was my first visit to the Art Gallery of NSW, and I
thoroughly enjoyed it. I was surprised at the diversity of the
artworks and I would definitely go there again.
By Meg Arnold 5/6W