creative movement

Under the Sea

January 28, 2016 by Erika 1 Comment

I love to dance under the sea! The animal movements are so different and unique. Here’s a creative movement class based on under the sea animals!

I usually start with a warm-up and across the floor section. Usually I’ll include a movement rhyme as well. Then it’s time for our theme of the day: Under the Sea! (This could also be part of a larger unit in conjunction with The Rainbow Fish lesson plan).

Place pictures of under the sea animals throughout the room (Printable here).

Everyone loves a clown fish, thanks to Finding Nemo! Clown fish have a special adaptation to where they live. Clown fish can swim among the tentacles of a sea anemone without getting hurt. Other fish are poisoned by the sea anemone. This helps to keep clown fish safe from predators. This square on the floor is our sea anemone. All of you are clown fish and I am a much bigger fish. Only clown fish can go inside of the square. When the music starts, begin swimming (or galloping, bourre walks, turning, kick walks, skips, saute arabesque, etc.) around the square. If the music stops, run to the inside of the square where you are safe from the bigger fish!

Watch out for the scary shark! Sharks are in this song: Late Last Night. Dance the Late Last Night (details in this post) song and dance together.

OR, Play an adapted version of sharks and minnows. When I turn on the music, freeze in a balancing shape (or on one leg, in 1st position, etc.). I am the shark, I’ll dance around all the balancing shapes. When the music stops, the shark will figure out you are not statues, you’re fish! Run and touch the chair/wall/mirror/etc. before I tag you and eat you for lunch! Take turns being the shark and dancing through the frozen shapes!

For younger students: sea horses swim. How do horses on land move? They gallop! Let’s go galloping!

For older students: Sea horses can camouflage or blend in to adapt to its environment. Pick four students to be “sea horses.” The rest of the class will be the coral reef. While the sea horses close their eyes, demonstrate a frozen, balancing shape for the rest of the class. They will copy that shape and freeze. When I say go, sea horses turn around and run over to your classmates. You must copy their shape so that you blend in to your environment. If you don’t blend in before I, the predator, tag you, then you have to be a predator with me.

Turtles on land are pretty slow, but sea turtles are fast! Try walking (skipping, galloping, kicking, etc.) as slow as you can. Can you walk faster? Super speed?

OR, Do slowland and fastland. Set up a line down the middle of your classroom. On one side of the line move as slowly as you can. Kick slowly, balance slowly, roll slowly, etc. To cross the line, do a pas de chat (or leap, glissade, skip, or any other step you’re working on). On the other side of the line is fastland. Move as quickly as you can. Can you jump super speed? Roll and crawl quickly? Change sides whenever you’d like, as many times as you’d like! (This idea is from Anne Greene Gilbert’s Creative Dance for All Ages).

A sail fish loves to jump up out of the water and “fly” before diving back down. Let’s go “flying” over these cones/mats/spots. Practice leaping, star jumps, tuck jumps, etc. as you fly all around the room.

A puffer fish can blow up like a balloon when it tries to scare away other fish. Let’s play The Balloon Game!

An octopus has eight legs! How many legs do you have? Everyone grab a ribbon to give you an extra leg to dance with. Try drawing a circle with your ribbon. Can your ribbon fly behind you when you run? Can you toss and catch? Can you spin with your ribbon?

Jelly fish will sting you if you get too close! Let’s practice our saute arabesques (or whatever step you are working on), but when the music stops, freeze, so the jelly fish (the teacher) can swim by without stinging you!

Dolphins jump up out of the water and dive back in. Let’s practice dive rolls over a mat.

OR, instead of dive rolls, you can jump up tall, then dive down to touch the floor with your hands.

I hope you have fun with this under the sea lesson!!!

Also, grab these coloring pages for a quiet time activity at home or school.

And if you missed the link earlier, visual aid printables are here!

Snowmen at Night!

January 26, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

Snowmen at Nightby Caralyn Buehner is just plain fun! I read it to students aged 2-10 and they all love it. It rhymes, it sparks imagination, and it gives children a little bit of a fairy tale to believe in. Read on to see what I do in class with this book! (For a version of this lesson plan geared towards ages 6-12, click here).

What do you know about winter weather? It’s COLD! I want to see you all shiver. Shiver your right arm. Can you shiver just your left foot? Shiver your whole body. Can you shiver very very fast? low? heavy? light? etc.

Read aloud the book Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner.

Stop at first page (before title page). What is the little boy doing? Rolling up a HUGE snowball to make a snowman. I bet that snow ball is very heavy. What can you roll? Head, eyes, shoulders, feet, entire body, etc. Show me some heavy rolling.
“They gather in a circle…”: Gather in a circle and go through your normal stretching routine. Pike stretch, butterfly stretch, etc.
“…for his turn in the snowman races”: I want to have a snowman race! Everybody go stick to the wall! (Or line up on a line, etc.) Let’s do our animal races. Pick a card and do that animal’s movement all the way to me! Give me a high five, and go back to the line! (For detailed instructions, visit this post).
“skating tricks on ice”: All of the snowmen are doing their own “trick” on the ice. What is your favorite trick to do? Can you jump and spin in the air? Can you kick really high? Can you do a cartwheel? Think of your best trick. Practice it 5 times while the music is on. Then, show your trick to a partner.
“world’s best snowball fight!” During a blizzard, it looks to me like the clouds are having a snowball fight! Everyone take a scarf (2 foot long piece of tulle), and freeze on a blue square (dance spot, in your place, etc.). When I turn on the music, can you make a blizzard with your scarves? Wave it this way and that way! Turn it in a circle. Spin the scarf around you. Toss and catch the scarf. Shake it. Run and let it fly behind you!
“snowmen’s biggest thrill!”: Roll or slide down a wedge mat if you have one. Or, you can roll on your belly across a few exercise balls. Or, go sliding on your bellies across the floor.
“getting sleepy…so one by one they go”: Everybody lay down and go to sleep. It’s time for the shoe dance! (Details for The shoe dance, aka Last Last Night, are here!)
Finish the story. Look at the final page of the book. What are those snowmen doing? They’re swinging on a bar! If you have a swingable bar, go swinging under the bars.

I hope you have fun with this book! Let me know how it goes in the comments below.

The Gingerbread Man

January 22, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

I love to eat gingerbread cookies! Not just during the holidays, either. 🙂 My family has a cherished recipe for pepparkakar (Swedish gingerbread) that is to die for! However…that’s not what this post is about. Sorry.

I also love the story The Gingerbread Man! It is simple and fun, with a surprise twist at the end! Here’s a great, classic version that I like:

For this class, we will first warm-up, do some across the floor exercises or a movement rhyme, then settle in for a quick read of The Gingerbread Man.

After reading…

The gingerbread man was really fast! How fast can you move? How fast can you spin? Can you kick quickly? Skip quickly? How fast can you jump?

Who in the story was slow? Was the horse slow? The cow? How slow can you move? Can you roll slowly? Can you reach slowly?

Set up a line of cones down the middle of the room. On one side, there is fast land. On this side of the cones everyone must move as quickly as possible. They may cross over the cones at any time, but they must do a specified step (one foot hop, pas de chat, tuck jump, etc.) to go over. Once they cross the cones into the other side of the room, they are in slow land. Everything in slow land happens in slow motion! Turn on music and explore both sides of the room several times!

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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.

The Balloon Game

January 22, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

Most of the dance games I play with students really have a great purpose. They teach a dance concept in a way that it will be remembered! This one…well…it’s definitely a crowd pleaser! 😉 Here are the rules:

The teacher holds a balloon (NOT inflated), pointing out that it is pretty small with no air in it. Can you make a tiny shape with your body like this tiny balloon? Everyone, including the teacher, crouches low to the ground. I’m going to blow air into this balloon. What will happen to it? That’s right, it will get bigger. When this balloon gets bigger, can you grow bigger, too? As you blow the balloon up, gradually grow bigger and bigger until you are standing as tall as you can with arms and legs outstretched. What’s going to happen when I let go of this balloon? It’s going to go crazy! When I let go of this balloon, show me your craziest, spinning, jumping, flying dance moves! Then, let go of the balloon and go crazy!

It really would be an awesomely educational game if the kids actually did the crazy flying dance moves. Instead, they always just chase the balloon around the room. Oh well…we still LOVE this game! It’s fun and definitely brings morale up in class. And, hey, maybe your students will play it “right”!

Let me know how it goes in the comments below!