On May 10th we visited Kimberley Park Primary School in Shailer Park, Brisbane. Our drumming workshop was to be part of a 5 week elective program that they called music extension, designed for advanced Primary School instrumental students across various years who mainly play strings. They are working together to form an excellence ensemble and we were brought in to help the students with their team building and to strengthen their listening and rhythmic skills.
Because the ages were quite varying from year 3 to year 6, we tailored the drumming workshop to make it challenging for everyone, but also really fun and engaging. It was a modified version of our school drumming incursions. All of our school sessions are different, as they always vary in numbers and ages for each workshops. Its important that we have 1000 ideas in our pockets for just in case moments! 🙂
We gave everybody an opportunity to help lead the group so they could experience how it feels to not only lead but also be a part of the team creating rhythm.
It really is a listening challenge when the leader has to listen to what another team member is playing and then play the rhythm back as best they can. They did a wonderful job at this!!
The kids were super helpful and helped collect the drums from the van at the beginning of the session. At the end of the session, they helped load the drums back into the vehicle. Another super quick pack up for us!!
Whilst we were unloading and loading the drums, everyone was singing the song from the session. It was just like in Africa, singing whilst we work!
We love sharing rhythms and songs from Africa. Every group of children brings a different story. Thanks for having us Kimberley Park State School!
