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What can a 3 year old do?

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I think one of the biggest challenges when teaching very young children is figuring out where to start!  Should you start with body parts?  Pathways?  Size?  Levels?  First Position?  Maybe just freeze dance…

I can’t say I have the perfect answer to this.  Some of my classes just need to learn how to take direction.  Others want to learn all the steps and need to be encouraged into some creativity.  Some of my 3-year olds can balance on one leg.  Some can barely balance on two. 🙂  I have had some students simply sit and watch for 35 minutes of a 45 minute class.  Every. Single. Week.

“Are you ready to dance, Bridget?” “Nope.”  “Okay!  Maybe soon!”

So, as I’m sure you all know, every student is different.  Setting that aside, here is my cheat sheet for dance skills by age group! Click to view the whole sheet, or scroll down for an overview. what can a 3 year old do [Read more…]

The Dice Game

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Chance Dance

The dice game is one of my favorite games.  It is one of those tricks up my sleeve that I pull out if class is just seeming to drag along.  It’s for one of those days when I’m trying so hard to drill a new technique or teach a new skill, but my students just aren’t interested.  It’s also a great tool in and of itself to inspire choreography and help students put together their own dances!  The dice game is just a simple variation of Merce Cunningham’s chance dance.  Here are the rules:

 

  1. Give each child a piece of paper and a writing utensil.  Each child will roll a dice five times, and write down the sequence of numbers rolled.  This number sequence is their “secret code”.  Don’t share your secret code with anyone else!  Then, they will reference the chance dance list (see below).
  2. The students will create a dance sequence that includes the steps listed on the chance dance list in the order they rolled.  For example, if I rolled: 2 4 5 5 3, I would create a dance where I did (using the ballet chance dance list): Grand Battements, Leap, Chasse, Chasse, Turn.
  3. Encourage students to do multiples of a step (i.e. 3 chasses or 5 turns), to do variations on a step, and to include arm placements.  Require a beginning and ending frozen shape.

 

Ballet Chance Dance List

1 – Balance

2 – Grand Battement (Kick)

3 – Turn

4 – Leap

5 – Chasse

6 – Pas de Chat (Step of the Cat)

 

Jazz Chance Dance List

1 – Leap

2 – Chaine Turn

3 – Roll

4 – Jump Full Turn

5 – Upside Down

6 – Shape or Balance

 

Modern Chance Dance List

1 – Roll

2 – Swing

3 – Breath Movement

4 – Balance or Suspend

5 – Contraction

6 – Explode

 

Extending the Activity:  Have groups of 2-5 students perform their dances for everyone to view.  See if you or the students can guess what their secret code was!

 

Check out the Secret Agent variation on the dice game!

 

 

Chicken in a Hen House

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Chicken in a Hen House Dance game

Okay, so this post has absolutely nothing to do with real chickens.  And I don’t know why the game is named Chicken in a Hen House.  But, these are the directions to Chicken in a Hen House, a fun and fast-paced game introduced to me by my college professor, Kori Wakamatsu.  I’ve played it with great success with ages 7-30.  I haven’t tried it with anyone older, but I think it’d work. 😉  Obviously, if the students are pretty young, don’t use the weight bearing shapes or modify as needed.

Divide the students in to partnerships where they are roughly the same size, then teach them the following partner, weight-bearing shapes:

Chicken in a Hen House:  Partner A goes down to the ground on hands and knees.  Partner B crouches on Partner A’s back, placing their knees over the hips and hands over the shoulder blades.

Bridge over Water: Partner A lays down, face up.  Partner B makes a bridge over Partner A by doing downward facing dog.

Fire Fighter: Partner A picks up Partner B in a cradle carry (Best for older students).  OR Partner A pretends to pick up Partner B while Partner B leaves one foot on the ground.

Piggy Back: Partner A picks up Partner B just like a piggy back ride.  OR Partner A crouches down low and Partner B places hands on Partner A’s shoulders without Partner A actually lifting them

Teepee: Partners A and B face each other, lift their hands above their heads and lean in so that their palms press against each other, creating a triangle, or teepee, shape with the ground.

Tug of War: Partners A and B face each other and grasp hands, leaning away from each other and pulling.

Sailor: Partner A kneels on the ground with one knee down and one knee propped up to the side.  Partner B sits on Partner A’s knee.  Partner A salutes.

Chain: Both partners cross their arms and kneel with one knee down, facing each other.  They then hold each other’s hands.

Airplane: Partner A stands with arms out to each side like airplane wings and back leg up in arabesque.  Partner B holds Partner A’s leg up.

All the partner A’s make a circle.  All the partner B’s make a circle around the partner A’s circle.  Turn on the music.  As the music is playing, partners A and B walk in their separate, concentric circles in opposite directions (all A’s walk clockwise, all B’s walk counter-clockwise).  When the music stops, the instructor calls out one of the above listed shapes.  Each partnership must find each other and make the shape as quickly as possible.  The last partnership to do so is out.  If a partnership falls out of their shape, they could also be called out, depending on how quickly they get back into the shape.

Sometimes we play for “outs”.  Sometimes, we just play for fun!

Also, often I instruct the students to each make their own partner shape, and we’ll add some in to make the game harder!

The Pilobolus Alphabet

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If you tried out The Name Game and liked it, here’s another fun activity using the alphabet.

The Human Alphabet is a book by Pilobolus.  It is so engaging for children, especially elementary school ages!  They love to guess what shapes the dances are making and try to figure out how they did that!  After we read through the book together as a class.  I’ll say, “By the time I count to 5, be standing elbow to elbow in groups of three (or four or five, depending on numbers)”.  Once they have quickly divided themselves, they pick two letters.  They must all come together to make each letter with their whole bodies, just like Pilobolus does in the book.  Then, they will create a shape for each letter they picked.  For example, if my group picked L and T, we would first figure out how to make L and T as a group with our bodies.  Then, we’d pick an object that starts with L, perhaps ladder, and create it with our bodies in a frozen shape.  Then, for T, we might make a turtle or trampoline.

If we have time, we’ll then share our favorite letter and shape with the class and see if anyone can guess what shapes we made.  It’s a fun and easy way to get students to really get creative with shaping.

And…if you liked this activity, check out another partner shape activity: Chicken in a Hen House!