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
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
We also sing the song in another way:
First, lay a blanket out flat on the ground.
The Mitten’s on the ground.
The mitten’s on the ground.
Hi-ho, it’s cold outside!
The mitten’s on the ground.
Macie climbs on in.
Macie climbs on in.
Hi-ho, it’s cold outside!
Macie climbs on in.
Repeat verse with each child’s name as they climb under the blanket.
Then…
Miss Erika climbs in.
Miss Erika climbs in.
Hi-ho, it’s cold outside!
Miss Erika climbs in.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah-CHOO!
When I “sneeze” we throw the blanket off and jump up and EXPLODE the mitten. 🙂
And for our last mitten activity, we do little land and big land. 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, just like the mitten before all of the animals climbed in. 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, just like the mitten before it popped! Remember, if you want to cross to the other side, do a one foot hop over the cones!
I hope you enjoy it! And stay warm out there. 🙂
Leave a Reply