creative movement

The Mitten

January 22, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

Our recent cold weather reminded me of a dance lesson I did during summer camp last year. It’s actually way more appropriate for winter though! This lesson is inspired by the folk story The Mitten. The version I love is by Jan Brett. However, there are lots of other versions that will work just as well!

First, we sit down on a nice soft red blanket, just like the mitten, and we read the story. Then, we talk about how first the mitten was little and we make a little tiny shape. Then we grow bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger until we’re so big, we EXPLODE! Sometimes we play The Balloon Game, too! 🙂

Then we sing a song. I got this printable over at fellow blogger First Grade Wow.

We do a dance with the song, too! It’s pretty fun! 🙂 We do the following movements while singing along to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell“:

“Hi-Ho! It’s cold outside”: echappe (jump to 2nd and 1st positions), shiver and shake

mole: digging movements

rabbit: hop and jump around the room

hedgehog: wiggle your head back and forth

owl: arms out wide and spin around

badger: mime climbing a ladder

fox: gallop around the room

bear: bear walks (walk on hands and feet) around the room

mouse: crawl down low

[Read more…]

Dancing a Book About Lines: The Straight Line Wonder

January 18, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

This is one of those books I just discovered while perusing the children’s section of the library (a frequent activity of mine, much to my husband’s dismay). It is so cute and fun. Great for the preschool/kindergarten crowd! It’s all about a straight line who just gets tired of being straight all the time. He decides to go twirling and looping and zig-zagging. His friends are embarrassed, but then he becomes “The Straight Line Wonder!” Here’s my lesson plan!

The Straight Line Wonder (15 minutes)

Read The Straight Line Wonder
by Mem Fox

“best of friends” Look at their bodies. Their bodies are very straight, like sticks. Can you make your body as straight as a stick? What’s another way to be straight as a stick? (lay down, stand tall, arms held vertically, etc.)
“jump in humps” Can you make a shape with humps like the straight line did? Show me how you can jump in humps!
“twirling in whirls” Show me your chaine turns. Now show me your favorite kind of turns.
“point his joints” MIRRORING – practice isolations with each joint. Facing the students, have students copy movements you do that are “pointy”. Move just your head, then just your elbows, knees, hips, ankles, etc.
“creep in heaps” Practice monkey jumps around a hula hoop by placing two hands inside a hula hoop that is laying on the floor. Jump your feet around the outside of the hoop, practicing shifting weight from feet to hands.
“spring in rings” Practice jumping and turning in the air. Set up an obstacle course of things for students to jump over. Require different jumps over different items (tuck jump over a block, jump turn around in the circle of cones, one foot hops over the spots, etc.)

Finish the book!

More Activities:

Sculptor and Clay – Divide into partnerships. Partner 1 from each partnership is the sculptor. Partner 2 is the clay. Partner 1 create a shape out of your clay by moving him or her into a shape. Walk around your sculpture and make one change. Do you like it? Do you need to change your sculpture? Then partners 1 and 2 switch roles. (This idea came from the exceptional book: Creative Dance for All Ages by Anne Green Gilbert).

Body parts shape game – Pick a body part paper out of the bag and make a shape with those body parts on the ground. (i.e. if the paper says 1 head and 2 feet, make a shape with two feet and your head touching the ground). For more details, read about it here.

Choreograph and Share (5 minutes)

Make a pointy shape.

Make a round shape.

Make a straight shape.

Don’t forget your shapes! Quiz students to remember each of their three shapes.

Let’s connect your shapes. Everyone show me your pointy shape. Skip to a new place in the room. Freeze in your round shape. Turn to a new place. End in your straight shape. Practice your dance!

Closure (2 minutes)

Share your shape dance with a partner or the class, as time allows.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

January 18, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

Harold and the Purple Crayon (Purple Crayon Books) is one of those beloved classics. You’ve read it, your parents have read it, and maybe your grandparents, too! But even though it’s old, my students still love this one!

After our warm-up, across the floor, movement rhymes, and stretching, we’ll move to the theme of class. Today’s theme is: Harold and the Purple Crayon (Purple Crayon Books)

Read Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. When I get to each of the below sections in the book, we stop and do the activity. Then we come back to the book.

Long straight path: do a dance on a long straight path. (Run, run, jump! Run, run leap!) Sometimes, we’ll also make up our own dance along a masking tape line on the floor.
Turned a corner shortcut: On a tape square made on the floor (about 6 feet on each side), each child will do “run, run, run, jump, turn around, reach up high and touch the ground” on one side. Then, turn the corner to the next side and “kick your feet, clap to the beat, run, run, run, run giant leap”.
Backed away (from dragon): Shake away from the book. Run backwards. Skip backwards. Shake backwards.
From the top of the mountain: Climb up a wedge mat and jump off. Practice straddle jumps and tuck jumps.
Falling in thin air: Collapse. Combination: 4x march, 3x turn, 2x jump, collapse
Landing the balloon: Blow up a balloon and watch it fly down, down, down. Turn on music and do a balloon falling dance. Everyone start up high and gradually move lower and lower.
He got in bed and drew up the covers: Dance to Late Last Night by Joe Scruggs.

Choreograph and Share (5 minutes)

Harold used his crayon to draw his own adventure. Today we’re going to use our squiggles (ribbons) to draw our own adventure. Let’s write the alphabet with our squiggles. Sing the ABCs song with me!

Can you paint a picture with your squiggle? Can you write your name? Or draw a flower? Maybe you can make a dinosaur! How can you dance with your feet while you draw your picture in the air?

Closure (2 minutes)

Share your squiggle dance with a partner, or with the class, as time allows.

Follow the Leader

January 18, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

Follow the Leader by Erica Silverman is the story of two brothers who play follow the leader. They do all kinds of activities and use their imaginations to fly, swim, climb, and more! This book is a whole class in itself. I love to use it for dance or gymnastics birthday parties, and as a fun class towards the beginning of each semester. All you have to do is read the book and it will tell you what to do! The teacher pretends to be the older brother.

Activities follow in this order:

p. 2 Students follow you walking, then hopping, skipping, then stop! (Freeze)

p. 3 Students follow you trotting (galloping), frog jumping, and “leap like a rabbit” over something in the room (a cone, rolled up yoga mat, climb over a gymnastics mat, etc.)

p. 4 Run with wings (arms) outstretched, swoop in a circle, and land (freeze down low).

p. 5 Do handstands if age-appropriate. If not, I sometimes change the words to “Turn upside down, and put your hands on the ground”

p. 6 “Run around in a loop. Somersault backwards. Now hula a hoop!” We follow instructions precisely. 🙂

p. 8 “Close your eyes tight. Arms out! Spin around! Reach for the sky. Drop to the ground.” Keep following instructions. Just make sure you spread out the students before they spin with arms out and eyes closed!!!

p. 9 I usually use a pop-up tunnel. But I have also used folding gymnastics mats to make a tunnel, and we have crawled underneath chair legs for tunnels!

p. 10 Grab some instruments (homemade maracas, dollar store tamborines, wooden spoons and boxes, etc.) and march in a parade. Take turns being the leader.

p. 11-12 Walk across an aerobics step, balance beam, or other stable “ledge”. If unavailable, put a line of masking tape on the ground to tip-toe across.

p. 13 If they are old enough, we’ll play some catch with balls. If I feel like this will be super disruptive, I’ll just skip this page!

p. 14-15 Grab a blue scarf and go “swimming” throughout the room. This is also a good time for The Goldfish Song.

p. 16-17 If you have bars, this is a good time to go swing under the bars. If not, just skip this page.

p. 19 Slide down a wedge mat, slide on your belly across several exercise balls, or push with your hands to slide backwards on your belly on the floor.

p. 22 FREEZE! Don’t move.

p. 26-28 Let students take turns being the leader. If the class is too big for everyone to get a turn, you can divide into partnerships and have each partner take turns leading the other.

Have fun! Did you get other ideas when reading this book???

Hilda Must Be Dancing

January 14, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

Book lesson plans are some of my very favorites. There’s no hanging up visual aids, you get to have a little downtime during class, and the students get really inspired by stories. When I teach using this book, I’ll start with a warm-up and across the floor section. We may do a movement rhyme or some stretching. Then we settle in for the content of class: Hilda Must Be Dancing.

Hippos live in the jungle. What are some things that grow in the jungle?

vines: twist

flowers: grow from compact to expansive

trees: slow growth from low to high

venus fly traps: quickly compress your shape to catch a fly

Read Hilda Must Be Dancing, and as you read, do the movements as listed:

Read the first 2 pages: Can you twist and turn like Hilda? Twist one body part. Twist another. Turn your head. Turn your whole body. Show me all the twisting and turning ways you can move!

2. Read the next 4 pages: Make loud, thumpity bump noises with your feet. Can you make thumpity bump noises with other body parts?

When movements are loud, they are usually big. Show me big movements that look loud, but are actually silent (big, dynamic, etc.).

Next, the ground shook. Explore shaking different body parts.

Stomp and shake game: One person stomps and if it’s a big stomp then the rest of the class shakes big. If it’s a little stomp, do tiny shakes. Switch out who gets to stomp and who shakes.

3. Read the next page: The bananas fell from their peels. Explore collapsing like the bananas. First, practice with your hand, then stand, spread out, and collapse your whole body.

Next, move ooey, gooey (sustained, smooth, etc.) on the floor, back to the book.

4. Read the next four pages: Monkeys were hanging and swinging. Try swing your arm back and forth. Can you swing your whole body? What other body parts can you hang and swing like the monkeys? Collapse, ooey gooey back to clump.

5. Read the next six pages: How would a hippo skip? Skip to a place in the room.

6. Finish the book: How can you dance like Hilda does in the water? Can you move smoothly and quietly? Show me how graceful and smooth you can make your movement.

Finally, create a dance as a class with your favorite movements from the book. For example, start in the middle and move all ooey gooey, then hippo skip to a new spot. Shake your favorite body part and move big but silent back to the clump.

Get creative, and have fun!