Dance Camp

Dancing at the Beach – a Summer Dance Camp Day

June 21, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

My students and I love to “head to the beach” during dance class! So, I put together a summer dance day for ages 2-6. The class is 2 hours long, and it is jam packed! Here’s what we do (insert bathroom breaks, snack breaks, and water breaks when needed)!

First, we do our Under the Sea dance class (find the details here).

Next we make these awesome glitter starfish!

Cut out enough orange stars for everyone. Let each student color their stars. Then have them put glue on their stars. Sprinkle glitter all over the star and then tap it off. The glitter will stick where the glue is. Then, have them dip cheerios in glue and add them to the top. Finally, glue the star onto a blue piece of paper. We like to hang our artwork on the walls while they dry!

While the starfish are drying, we’ll practice our movement rhyme (find out about movement rhymes here) that we will perform for parents at the end. Here are the words:

Run, run, run, JUMP! Turn around.

Reach up high, then dive right down!

Wiggle like an octopus. Dolphin dive.

Hide like a clownfish. Reach up high.

Swim down low where it’s very dark.

Run, run, leap! Away from that shark!

Spin and spin. Do a seahorse prance.

Now show me an ocean dance!

*When in doubt, mime the words. And for the last line, grab a blue ribbon and let the dancers dance in their own way.

Next, we do a beach-themed stretch. First, hold hands make a circle. Sit down and “glue” the bottoms of your feet together (to sit in butterfly position). Flap your butterfly wings all the way to the beach. Then land (stop flapping). Scoop up lots of sand into a pile in front of your feet. Pantomime creating a sandcastle. Reach all around you to find the perfect sea shells to decorate your sand castle. Then, stand up and JUMP to smash your sandcastle.

Sit back down and review tuck and pick positions. Then, make a “sand”wich. Sit in pike position and spread “sand” all over your legs. Then put imaginary seaweed in your hair and shells all over your chest and stomach. Smash your sandwich together (reach for your toes). The teacher can go around and “eat up” all the delicious sandwiches while they stretch.

Then, clap your arms together above your head and make a sandwich knife. Chop your sandwich in half (between the legs), and move into straddle position. Eat up each half of your sandwich (stretching sideways toward each legs). Then, scoop up the crumbs left in the middle and throw them back into the ocean.

Finally, lay down and make a sand angel. Roll over and do seal stretch (cobra).

Then we take a quick break for bathrooms and snack time. And students can color these coloring pages if they want!

Now, it’s time for The Goldfish Song (details here)!

Then, we practice our movement rhyme for parents again. And, depending on time, we might read this book:

Or this book: (Check out the lesson plan for The Rainbow Fish here)

Or this book:

Then, we’ll practice our dance for parents one more time! And, while we wait for them to arrive to watch our “show”, we do this last craft (which I welcome parent assistance with)!

For the Ocean Bottle Craft you need:

a small water bottle (1/2 full of water)

clear vegetable or mineral oil

blue food coloring

glitter or confetti

small shells or toys that float

stickers to decorate with

funnel

First, put one drop of blue food coloring in the 1/2 full water bottle. Then, add glitter, confetti, shells, or toys. Next, fill to the top with oil. Glue the lid on the inside and around the outside with hot glue to keep the lid on permanently! Then decorate the outside with ocean stickers. The kids can help with each step of this, as long as no bottles get knocked over!!! And they are fun to turn and watch the waves inside your bottle as the fish toys and glitter float on top of the water but under the oil!

Last thing to do is PERFORM for the parents. Show off that movement rhyme and ribbon dance! And, then, invite them to come back for more summertime fun or fall classes.

The Best Props for Dance Class

February 24, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

I LOVE a good prop! They can really make or break a dance class. A good prop will add to the dancing and help dancers to explore and create. They’re also inexpensive and fairly indestructable. These are the props that I carry around in my big dance bag, and rarely leave home without (except the hula hoops…I keep those at work)!

Non-slip mats (or Dance Spots)

Any kind of mat that will not slip when stepped on will do the trick here. I use these grippy cabinet and drawer liners because they are so cheap and easy to replace if needed. I just grab a 12″x 12 ft roll and cut into 12 squares. We use these mats for leaping over, dividing the room in half, “islands” to escape from the “evil eel”, puddles to jump over, puddles to splash in, and more!

Hula Hoops

I have a conglomeration of hula hoops that have just kind of ended up in the dance equipment closet. They are our “lily pads” when we dance the story of Thumbelina. We use them to practice jump turn arounds. We leap from one to the next with only one foot inside each hoop. We do monkey jumps around them in gymnastics. We straddle stretch beside a hoop and try to reach to the other side. And, of course, sometimes we use them to hula hoop. (If you don’t have a bunch lying around already, you can get a matching set here).

Tulle Ribbons

Grab a roll of 6 inch tulle. I usually get mine at Wal-Mart for about $3. Or you can order it here. Cut it into sections about 3 feet long. Give a ribbon to each child and go dancing! We especially like to toss and catch with these ribbons because they fall so slowly. We talk about floating in the air a lot with these. We also practice spinning, leaping, and jumping with our ribbons. We make rainbows over our heads. Sometimes, I’ll turn on windy music and these become our “wind scarves”. We’ll run around the room making a tornado with them, then get sucked up into the tornado and spin as quickly as we can. Possibilities are endless here.

Small Scarves

We use scarves almost exactly like tulle ribbons. They do look better than the tulle for a performance though. And they don’t stick to your clothes when static-y like tulle does. You can grab those here.

Big Scarves

I got my big scarves here. I actually thought they were small scarves when I ordered them, but these babies are 54″ square! That’s pretty big for any child! So, we don’t dance with these often. But, they are the very BEST for being ghosts at Halloween! And, we will use them to sit on at story time on occassion.

Fuzzy Dice

My favorite activity for fuzzy dice is The Dice Game. I got my fuzzy dice at Wal-Mart for $3 a pair and just cut off the strings. However, you can get a much better deal ordering them off

of Amazon, here. We also use fuzzy dice like balls, tossing and catching, rolling, balancing on our heads, balancing on our feet, and deciding the number of times to do an activity or step. Kids get so excited about fuzzy dice, that I believe the investment to get a dozen fuzzy dice (instead of regular small and hard dice) is worth it!

POCKET DICE!!!

I know, overuse of the exclamation point there, but, seriously. I have wanted these for so, so, so long! And I’ve finally found them at a price I can afford. Or at least, hope to afford one day. 🙂 Have you ever wanted the fun of fuzzy dice, but the flexibility of word strips? Enter the pocket die. Pocket dice have a clear pocket that you can put any word or picture you want inside. So, instead of printing out and hanging the visual aids for animal conditioning, Under the Sea, or Superheroes!, you could print them 2 sheets to a page, cut them out, and put

them in a dice to roll. I’d buy a lot less masking tape that way. You could also put word strips for class segments (warm-up, across the floor, stretching, etc.) or creativity prompts (jungle dance, underwater swimming, super secret agent, etc.). So, I’m a little excited about these, if you didn’t notice. If you are too, you can order them here. 🙂

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Superheroes!

January 22, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

Superheroes conditioning is a favorite with my preschool classes. Especially preschool boys gymnastics! I will usually do a superhero day during dance camp. For this activity, you will need pictures of all your favorite superheroes (list below). I have my own set of pictures that I found on the internet, but I don’t have the rights to those pictures…so you’ll have to go find your own. And let’s face it, this superhero is way cuter than any comic book hero. 🙂

We will usually do super hero conditioning in gymnastics class right after our cardio warm-up. Everyone lines up on the red line and someone who is paying attention/listening/not jumping on equipment (or pulling someone’s hair) gets to pick a superhero picture. Each activity and accompanying super hero is listed below! (Bonus pic for cuteness!)

Obviously, some of these activities are better suited to dance, and some are better suited for gymnastics. Pick your favorites and the ones you have the right equipment for!

Superman: Do leaps over small objects/cones as if flying.

AND/OR

Superman: Jump off of a large gymnastics mat as if flying, or practice rebounding off of a springboard or trampoline.

Captain America: He has to dodge bullets and weapons to use his shield. Dive rolls, forward rolls, log rolls.

Hulk: When he gets angry, he smashes! Make a large stack of gymnastics mats/yoga blocks and allow every student to “Hulk Smash” the tower as part of a circuit of activities.

Thor: He winds up his hammer by swinging it in circles as quickly as he can before throwing it. Practice chaine turns or 3-step turns. Then, create your own turn.

Iron Man: He has many amazing weapons and tools. Using his suit, he can see what’s behind him. Practice backwards runs, walks, hops, jumps, and rolls.

Hawk Eye: He has to shoot his arrows quickly and accurately. When he finds a target he has to turn and freeze to aim quickly. Practice half turns (turn and freeze) on the balance beam.

Black Widow: She is a spy. Spies have to be careful and avoid obstacles like laser beams or tree branches. Create an obstacle course out of chairs and ribbon or crepe paper. Line up the chairs to make a tunnel. Then, criss-cross the tunnel with ribbon or crepe paper by winding it around chair legs, backs, slats, etc. Students must make it through the tunnel without touching the obstacles, or else the bad guys will know that they are there!

Spider Man: He uses his webs to swing from building to building. Swing on the monkey bars or gymnastics bars. Practice skills including under-swings and chin-up pullovers.

Mr. Fantastic: He is super stretchy. Go through your regular series of stretches.

Green Lantern: Green Lantern uses his power ring to do anything that he can think of. His power ring lets him make the things that he imagines come true. He can choose the super power he needs to use for each situation. Now it’s your turn to create a super power! What would your super power be if you were a super hero? Create a dance move or frozen shape to show us what your super power is!

Black Canary: She uses her canary cry to defeat villains. It is very loud. When I turn the music on loudly, kick (or skip, hop, jump, wiggle, turn, punch, leap, crawl, roll, etc.) throughout the room. When the loud music stops, freeze!

Wonder Woman: She uses her lasso of truth to fight villains. Each of you may have a lasso (ribbon). Dance with your lasso floating behind you. Spin it around your head. Arc it over your head or under your leg. Toss and Catch.

Batman: He is very good at martial arts like Karate or Tae Kwon Do. He punches and kicks to fight villains. Show me your best kicks across the floor. Repeat with jumping kicks, backward kicks, turning kicks, etc. Each of you create a new way to kick.

Robin: He is an acrobat. He grew up in the circus learning all kinds of tricks to do on the bars. Let’s learn a skill on the bar. Practice skin the cat, back hip-circle, or other appropriate bar skill.

The Flash: He is incredibly fast! So fast that you cannot even see him run by! Let’s have a race! Everyone glue your back to the wall! When I say go, show me your fastest one leg hops all the way to me. Give me a high five, then hop back to the wall. Repeat with backwards runs, two foot jumps, bear walks, crab walks, inch worms, army crawls, forward rolls, etc.

Secret Agents

January 21, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

Some dear friends in college taught me this variation on The Dice Game. It’s a great way to involve boys and unwilling dance participants!

Play the dice game (read the details here) as usual. But, use this list:

1 – Dive and roll (over and under laser beams)

2 – Two quick looks (see what’s coming around the corner and behind you)

3 – Crawl (through air ducts)

4 – Kick (karate style)

5 – Fast feet (avoiding bullets)

6 – Spin (turn around yourself to check for the enemy)

Go through each of the numbers’ movements as if the dancers are in “spy school” and learning how to outwit the enemy. Once they have each number’s movement down, give them paper and dice, and allow them to create their own secret code. Have dancers perform for the group and see if you can guess their secret codes!

The Body Parts Shape Game

January 18, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

The Body Parts Shape Game is one of my students most well beloved games. I use it for students of all ages. It’s easy to make harder or easier for different age groups. Clearly, my preschoolers won’t be doing this…

But hey, a couple of my high schoolers might be able to pull off a one-handed balancing shape! 🙂 So, without further ado, the Body Parts Shape Game:

Pick a body part paper out of the bag (printable here) and make a frozen shape with only the listed body parts touching the ground. For example, if the paper says 1 head and 2 feet, make a shape with two feet and your head touching the ground, nothing else. If the paper says, 1 foot and 2 hands, make a frozen shape with only 1 foot and 2 hands touching the ground. You may not use your bottom, back, or other foot for balance.

Try to make a shape that is different from everyone else in the room. Hold your shape until I say relax! Give compliments to students whose shapes are truly unique and interesting.

It’s an easy and fun game! Print out my list here: Body Part Shapes