Arcola School hosted their annual Christmas Concert on Monday, Dec. 15, at both 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., both to a packed gymnasium.
Not only did the pre-Kindergarten to grade sixes perform, but special performances by the grade sevens were held during the afternoon performance as part of their curriculum regarding theatre.
The very cute Pre-K’s performed a call and response song, “Down by the Station,” with a dance. Although technical difficulties struck during the afternoon performance, the music began to skip, they continued to sing along eventually giggling at the misfortune.
The Kindergarten’s performed two short songs including “ABC Christmas” and “5 Little Cookies.” The latter bringing much laughter as the kids “chomped” loudly at the part where the reindeer ate the cookies.
They were followed by the grade one class who performed the Christmas Macarena. The kids sang along to the music, but had even more fun dancing to the tune.
Santa, played by Mr. Tetarenko, joined the grade two class onstage as they recited the poem, “Santa and Me.”
The Jingle Bells Dance was next up on the list with the grade threes performing a choreographed dance.
“Must be Santa,” was then performed by the grade four class accompanied by their teacher on the guitar. They had also fashioned props and pictures to use throughout the performance, which added a little bit extra to the performance.
The grades five and six class then sang the holiday song, “Nuttin’ for Christmas.” This was again met with laughter as the youth sang about getting coal from Santa for Christmas.
Usually the concert is finished with the Pre-K to grade sixes performing, but this year grades seven and eight performed three short plays for completion of a theatre project in English Language Arts.
The first play was about New Years Resolutions and about keeping them, though it can be difficult to do so.
This was followed by “A Christmas Truce” which had four youth read letters to home as soldiers from World War I. A truce was made on the frontlines for a short time over Christmas between English soldiers and German soldiers; each soldier told a portion of the story in their letter home.
Finally the classes performed “T’was the Night Before Christmas.”
Each of these plays were made up of a few students each, while they were also directed by a student.
