Loading...
The Citizen, 1989-12-19, Page 5THE CITIZEN, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1989. PAGE 5. Students prepare to shine as stars of pageants BY LISA BOONSTOPPEL Any person entering a public school at this time of year may encounter a variety of odd-looking children. There will be the paint- spattered ones who have been designing windows and sets. Then, there are the ones dancing and prancing around in a jumbled fashion as they practise their dance routines. Finally, children dressed up in anything from snowflakes to elves can be seen scampering down those school halls. And what celebration brings out all these bizarre creatures? It’s the annual school Christmas concert. Three area schools are planning spectacular shows this season - Waltor Public School, Grey Central School and Hullett Central School. Kids and teachers alike are busy preparing and practising the skits and operettas that reveal the actor’s talents and make their parent’s proud. Here’s a taste of what viewers can expect this year from the school’s Christmas con­ certs. The students at Walton can hardly wait to get their rainbow Christmas underway. As Joan Van- dendool explained, this year’s con­ cert is following the rainbow theme. When people visit Duff’s United Church beside the school on December 1st at one o’clock, they will see a town where there are five groups of colour people. And it Walton s mountain The Grade 3 class of Walton Public School practice their gymnastics for the Rainbow Christmas that will happen Thursday afternoon. Teacher Shirley Lyon acts as assistant. Kids’ concert comments “What do you like about your Christmas concert? I asked various children from grades 2 and 3 at the three public schools this question and here are some of the answers. JENNIFER YOUNG, Grade two, Grey Central Public School. 1 like singing and marching for all the people in the audience but sometimes I’m embarrassed be­ cause I don’t know some people and they keep looking at me. LESLIE BAILIE, Grade three, Grey Central Public School. I like being in it and having fun and my sister likes to watch me. BRONWYN DUNBAR, Grade three, Grey Central Public School. I like being in it but I don’t like wearing green and red. PAMELA ELLIOTT, Grade two, Walton Public School. Theseare the students from the Kindergarten class of Grey Central School. They will be performing dance in the operetta that will happen this Wednesday night, at the school. seems that this little town isn’t as friendly as some of the villages around here for all the different colour people think that just one as pect of Christmas is the best. For example, the green people believe that the trees and the decorations on the trees are the best part of I like to read my story because I’m not scared to go on stage. ABBY DIETZ, Grade three, Walton Public School. I like being in the concert because we get to dress up as other people. THERESA McCLORY, Grade three, Walton Public School. I like to celebrate Jesus’ birth with a concert. KEVIN TREWARTHA, Grade three, Hullett Central School. It’s nice because we get to put things on the tree but I’m having troubles remembering my choral reading. CHRISTINE LAPP, Grade three, Hullett Central School. I like it because we get to learn parts and I’ve already memorized mine. I’m nervous about the people watching me. Christmas. The green people aren’t too friendly with the red people who_ seem to believe that the dancing and singing is the best part of Christmas. And the blue people think that food is the best part of Christmas while the yellow people think that the gifts are the best and the orange people think that the stories are the best. These sort of ideas make for strained relations among the villagers of this town. Nevertheless as the story contin­ ues, the colour people begin to see the error in their ways and realize that all these parts of Christmas are needed altogether to have the very best Christmas. Grey Central school has formu­ lated their Christmas concert around a theme as well. Margaret Whitmore, the director of most of the concert revealed that all the grades from Kindergarten to six will take part in an operetta called ‘The Legend of the Snowman’. The operetta is about a little boy who wasn’t very good. It’s up to the various grades who can be seen as snowmen, elves, and little toys to try to teach this boy a lesson about not being so selfish. By dancing, singing and choral speaking, the grades gradually bring about a chance in the spoiled little boy. Yet it isn’t until the very end that the little boy gets into the spirit of 3 remember one-room Christmas BY LISA BOONSTOPPEL If the ghost of Christmas past could take us back to the one-room schoolhouses that dot the country­ side, he could fill the empty room with laughter, students and a teacher preparing for the Christ­ mas concert. But we don’t need the ghost of Christmas past to bring back the memories, for three local women who once taught in these rural schools remember the work and wonder of a one-room Christ­ mas. “It was a special time,” remem­ bers Jean Ireland who taught from 1948 to 1960 at rural schools in Howick, Grey and Morris town­ ships. “The children would be all dressed up and sometimes the girls had their hair all curled up,” she remembers. Practising for the annual event started in November remembers Mrs. Stuart McNair who taught mostly in Grey Township for about eight years. “The concerts usually took the form of a variety concert”, recalled Shirley Lyon who headed the classes in some of Hullett Township’s and Goderich’s one- Christmas giving and gives a needy friend some of his Christmas toys. But before the operetta begins, the audience will be treated to some holiday carols as the grade 5 and 6 choir sings ‘A Special Night’ and ‘Mary’s Boychild’. Then after the operetta, the grade 7 and 8 choir will delight the audience with five selected musical pieces. The entire concert, which is to be held on December 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the school, incorporates a lot of talent. The choirs display their vocal strengths while the operetta contains a variety of artistic styles. Mrs. Whitmore explained that she designed some additional features to be added to the play so that every grade could take a part in it. “I added some choral speaking, some poetry, and rhymes to be done to a special beat,” she said. Tradition has established this year’s concert at Hullett Central School said Peter Snell, who is one of the organizers of this year’s celebration. Every year at Hullett, the Christmas concert is a variety program where each class does their own thing. “We find that the variety is really interesting,” said Mr. Snell. And this year’s concert is packed with interesting and Christmas oriented plays. First of all the band performs and they will be tuning up room schoolhouses for about 12 years. Although these three women taught at different schools at different times, they all have one thing in common - the trials and tribulations of creating, organizing and directing a concert to include children from age five to fourteen in one single room. “It was very busy,” said Mrs. McNair with a chuckle. “The music teacher helped a lot. She’d pick up the music and practise with them on her day and I’d teach them during the rest of the week. But our school didn’t have a piano and it’s pretty hard to teach children to sing when you can’t sing yourself.” Yet the teachers pulled through as the drills, marches, recitals, choruses, dialogues and plays were carefully memorized and orchestra­ ted during practice. Incorporating the younger and older kids into the concert was a challenge said Mrs. McNair who usually got “the little tots to spell out Christmas with red letters trimmed with tinsel” while the older ones did the drills and the for ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘Good King Wenceslas’ and ‘A Holiday Melody’. The band is comprised of grade 6, 7, and 8 students. Then the junior choir will sing ‘Mary’s Boychild’, ‘Ring Those Bells’ and ‘Colipso Noel’. The Grade one class will take to the stage next to perform a play called ‘The Winter Snow Show’ which displays their vocal talents and sees them dressed up in costume. The Grade two class will act out the traditional nativity scene and the birth of Jesus. ‘The Good Christmas Play’ will be acted out by the combined Grade 3 and 4 class. The Grade 4 class will be performing ‘Santa’s Special Christ­ mas Play’ and the combined grade 6 and 7 class will take to the stage to bring ‘The Happy Christmas Tree’ to life. After all these special Christmas plays, the Grade 8 class will perform a special gymnastics display complete with tumbles and flips. It’s a busy time for these schools preparing for the Christmas School plays as they decorate sets, make up costumes and learn their lines, but for children and parents alike, it will all be worth it on that special night of the Christmas concert. Hullett Ho Ho Hullett students busily decorate the school in preparation for the upcoming Christmas concert on Wednesday evening. play’s dialogues. Mrs. Lyon said having a variety of ages was kind of nice as the younger ones could do the recitals while the older ones concentrated on dialogues. At this point one problem always arose - where to perform the concert. “We had to make our own stage,” said Mrs. Ireland. “We put up wires and draped sheets over top for curtains. One child was the stage manager and his job was to pull the curtain across.” Mrs. McNair said that some­ times the men of the town would come in with a few planks to make sort of a platform and she also relied on her own sheets for dressing room and stage curtains. If there was a hall close by, the concert would inevitably be held there which eliminated a comical situation - fitting grown-up bodies in childrens’ seats. “The parents were just a little big for the seats,” remembers Mrs. McNair with a laugh. One jolly fellow who was at every concert couldn’t ever fit in the seats. That man was Santa Claus Continued on page 7