shape games

Dancing a Book About Birds

March 19, 2016 by Erika 1 Comment

Birds are so fun to dance about! I mean, they’ve been done a few times before (Swan Lake, Firebird, Rockin’ Robin…), but my preschoolers love them, too! The book Birds by Kevin Henkes has great illustrations and a lot of movement evoking words! It’s a great book for dance class. The illustrations are just awesome! Here’s what I do when we read this book in class:

Read the first six pages through “just their shapes”. I love this picture of silhouetted bird shapes.

In my class, we always practice moving for eight counts, then freezing in a shape for eight counts. Sometimes we’ll do freeze dance. We also sometimes play the Body Parts Shape Game. But, what I really want to try sometime is doing backlit shapes with a spotlight and a sheet. I just need to get a powerful light to shine on the back of a dancer, while the dancer is standing behind a hanging sheet. Then you could see their silhouettes and try to make the same shape as them. I think that idea would be so cool! I just need the right equipment…

Read the next page through “or any size in between.”

For this page we do Big Land/Little Land, an idea I got from Anne Green Gilberts’ book Creative Dance for All Ages. I set up cones down the middle of the room (you could also do small mats, dance spots, a tape line, etc.). On one side of the line is “little land”. When you dance on this side of the cones, show me how small you can be, like a tiny hummingbird. How little can you move? If you’d like to cross the cones do a one foot hop (or step of the cat, leap, tuck jump, etc.) to go to the other side. On the other side of the cones is big land! Over here, move as big as you can,like the big pink flamingo! Remember, if you want to cross to the other side, do a one foot hop over the cones!

You could also go through different movements for the different birds (Flamingo: stand on one leg. Hummingbird: small and quick movements. Owl: swoop and dive. Seagull: jump and peck).

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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

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.

Chicken in a Hen House

January 12, 2016 by Erika 1 Comment

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

January 12, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

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!