Session one

Today, the 30 final children came along for their first musical theatre session. Miss Bowkett and Miss McGeary explained that over the next few weeks they would need to work very hard as, at the end of term, they are going to put on a performance of The Lion King.

The session started with a musical warm-up led by Miss McGeary on her keyboard. Some of the children managed to reach some very high notes!

Next, the children were told that the first song they were going to learn was 'The Circle of Life' as this is the song that opens The Lion King. The group watched two versions of this song- the animated and stage version. We had a discussion to compare each.

The children then tried to sing along to the stage version of 'The Circle of Life'.

After that, Miss McGeary taught the children the word to the song. This was very tricky as the start of the song is not even in English! We were particularly impressed with the children who volunteered to sing on their own.

Once we were more familiar with the words to the song, we split into two groups. This is where we learned a very difficult skill -harmonising. Harmonising is where each group has to sing different words but still stay in time with everyone else.

The final part of the session involved us beginning to think about what 'The Circle of Life' would look like when performed in the show. All of the characters are animals so the children practised moving around as an animal whilst still singing the song. 

Miss Bowkett and Miss McGeary would like to say well done to everyone who took part in today's session. The song is not easy but is coming along nicely. Please remember to keep practising at home.

Next week we will spend more time thinking about acting out the show.