Westberry Elementary School held a Night of the Arts event on May 11 featuring the Grade 4 classes, the Drama Club and the visual art of every student at the school! The event highlighted creativity, collaboration and personalized learning through the arts.
Early in the year, Melissa Hynd, Westberry Music teacher, started the ball rolling by conducting a survey with the Grade 4 students, asking them what they would like to showcase during the event. Students got to choose from a Boomwhackers rendition of the Star Wars theme, body percussion to the Super Mario Theme, helping the Master of Ceremonies by telling jokes in between acts, solo singing or playing the ukelele to accompany the group song Count on Me by Bruno Mars. In addition, students performed the song A Million Dreams, which they had performed at the Kindersley Music Festival in March. Mrs. Hynd, along with Mr. Sheldon Sarada, Mrs. Angela McPhee, and Mr. Rod Maki orchestrated small group practices to get performance ready! Personalized electronically Blended Learning (PeBL) Mentor time was used to help pull all the pieces together. Students were able to further personalize the performance by adding flairs of their personality through costuming and creative choreography. Isabelle Constantino, a Grade 4 student’s mother, accompanied the students on percussion.
Mrs. Constantino, who is also a music teacher in Kindersley, performed the Super Mario Theme on piano as her daughter’s classmates did choreographed moves and body percussion. Mrs. Constantino gave of her personal time, leaving work over a lunch break and coming in on her days off.
Prior to the afternoon and evening performances, students were invited to perform rehearsed musical selections as prelude performers. There was true community and family engagement as one student was accompanied by his grandfather and one by her private music teacher, Mrs. Helen Barclay. This was a wonderful way to highlight talented Westberry students!
In addition, Westberry's Drama Club was on stage that night as they performed two short plays by Robert Munsch: Stephanie's Ponytail and Pigs. Students in Grade 4 were invited to take part in the extra- curricular drama club held after school and at noon hours beginning after the February break. The young actors, with support from their talented backstage crew, put on hilarious performances for their fellow students and parents.
To round out the Night of the Arts, every student at Westberry submitted a piece of visual art that was on display in the gym. Families were invited to view the art prior to the performance time. Previously during school time, classes took turns viewing and responding to the art pieces.
The Night of the Arts event is a long held Westberry tradition that we welcomed back this year after a three-year hiatus. It proved to be a celebration of success for all through the arts.