October 30, 2014

This was my first time teaching both of Mrs. Rigby's kindergarten classes and we had a blast! Their curriculum this week focused on syllables and on rhyming.  Combining the curriculum into a dance lesson was actually fairly easy and integrated really well.

Introduction

The first thing I did when introduced to each of the classes was to introduce myself and to explain some rules in order to make sure that everything ran smoothly. This kids were visibly excited to see me and get the opportunity to dance! The three rules that I consider most important for a dance class are:

1. No touching--objects, desks, walls or other classmates
2. "We dance with our bodies, not with our mouths" --no talking
3. Have fun and be creative 

The students were overall fairly responsive to these rules and it helped keep everyone in a good mood and safe!

Also, while teaching each class I had a magic word. The magic word was a signal for the students to quietly find their own space in the room where no one else was. The first time I used the word "popcorn." After talking to my mentor, who observed the first class, she suggested I explain what "self-space" was for the students because some seemed to struggle with the meaning. For the next class, I demonstrated what finding my own space looked like and changed the magic word to "bubble" so they could have a visual image in their minds of what their space looked like.

Warm Up

After finding their own space we did a quick stretching warm up to a rhyme that helped focus the students and get them ready to move. We did this several times and I allowed them to say it with me while we stretched.

Activity #1

The first activity I did was using pictures of animals that had different numbers of syllables in their names. Using those words, such as "kangaroo," I used simple but rhythmic movements the students could perform while I said those words to get an understanding of how many syllables were in the name. This helped them to not only hear the syllables verbally but gain a kinesthetic understanding.

Activity #2

For this activity I found a poem that had a wonderful amount of dancing words. The poem was all about the different qualities of a shadow so while I read the poem out loud--and danced along side them to demonstrate--the class explored different words such as grow, jump, slow, in and out.

Conclusion

I felt my first experience with the classes went really well. The kids were eager for me to return and seemed to grasp the concepts well. I also appreciated getting to watch Mrs. Rigby's calm demeanor with the class.  She allowed the students a lot of independence without micro-managing every detail but also expected them to act responsibly and gently reminded students if they forgot.

Arts Bridge- Lesson 1: Rhymes and Syllables

  

November 6, 2014

For my second experience with Mrs. Rigby's class we talked about opposites in our dance lesson, which is part of the Kindergarten curriculum.

Warm Up

For our warm up we practiced moving both slowly and quickly to the beat of the drum, to get everyone ready to dance. We also moved up high and low as well as sharp and smooth, exploring the opposite ways of moving.

Activity #1

These three activities were taken from or adapted from a book written by Anne Green Gilbert. (For more information look in the attached lesson plan below for details.) For the first activity I had the students pretend that half of the room was Slowland--where they danced slowly and the other half was Fastland, where they could dance quickly. Students experienced crossing over to the opposite lands and dancing in opposite ways. For the second Kindergarten class of the day that we taught, Mrs. Rigby taught this section of class and did a fantastic job! She seemed so natural in explaining it and encouraging the students to move in different ways. Also, for the second class we were able to put a line of tape on the floor to split the room in half for the students, which helped them to understand the different sides.

Activity #2

For this part of the lesson we explored the opposites of moving versus being still. Half of the class made shapes while the other class darted in and out, moving around their still peers.

Activity #3

This was probably my favorite part of the class. When I played the music, students were allowed to dance around however they want (which was pretty amusing when I put the song on Everything Is Awesome) but when I stopped the music I counted to three and they had to find a partner. Then I would count to five and by the time I got to five one of the students had to make a high shape and the other had to make an opposite low shape. Later on in the lesson, I played with this and did things like have them look at their partner's shape and switch places duplicating the shape their partner had just made.

Conclusion

This was a fantastic lesson to explore opposites with the students!! The kids seemed to have a great time and it made learning so much fun! Mrs. Rigby did a great job teaching for her part of the lesson and I hope she will consider teaching opposites through dance with her students in the future!

Arts Bridge- Lesson 2: Opposites

November 11, 2014

Thanksgiving (11/20/14)

This was probably the most challenging lesson for me to plan. When Mrs. Rigby asked me to do a dance lesson plan based around Thanksgiving I was unsure of where to begin or how to incorporate dance into the subject.

Warm Up:

After looking around online, I found an idea for a warm up that worked well. Instead of using the words for If You Are Happy And You Know It, I used the same song but then replaced the word “happy” with “thankful.” This fun little shift in words let me use that same phrase but then add in dancing phrases such as, “If you are happy and you know it dance down low.”

Activity #1:

For most of the lesson, after the warm up, I used a book I had found about Thanksgiving. Before I taught the lesson, I read through it and found some of the dancing words within it—words like “strong,” “gather,” “waves.” As I read through the book I pointed out these words and asked the students how they could implement those words in their bodies. They came up with some great ideas!

Conclusion:

I had no idea how to make a dance lesson about Thanksgiving but it worked and was beneficial and fun for the students!  

December 4, 2014

The next lesson I taught was about 2D and 3D shapes. This was a fantastic subject to teach through dance and we had a lot of fun! For my lesson I went to the store and brought some props.

Warm Up:

To warm up our bodies and get us thinking about shapes I had students use different body parts to create shapes as I guided them with suggestions. We did thinks like, “Draw a circle in the air with your finger. Trace a square with your knee...etc.” I also asked for ideas for different body parts, which included making a triangle with our stomachs and interesting ideas like that!”

Activity #1:

At the store, I found foam shapes that were flat and cut out—rectangles and circles. I showed the students these different shapes and pointed out how the rectangle had angles while the circle did not. I then asked them if they could show me shapes with their bodies that had lots of angles, then I asked them to show me smooth shapes. I spread out circles and rectangles around the classroom floor. I then split the class into groups for this activity, so they would have more space. When I played the music my group that was dancing went dancing around the circles and rectangles. Then, when I stopped the music, I would say either “rectangle” or “circle” and the students would find one of those on the ground and make a shape standing on it—either with lots of angles if I said “rectangle” or without angles if I said “circle.”

Activity #2:

For this activity I showed my students some of the 3D shapes I brought-- a cube, a cone, a cylinder and a sphere. While going over the different items I showed them examples of how those different objects could move and we danced them out.

Conclusion:

To end, we went over what the 2D shapes were like—circles and rectangles, versus what the 3D looked like—spheres and cubes. The students seemed to have a better grasp on the difference between these two and to have a fun time dancing!  

December 12, 2014

Final Lesson (12/12/14)

For my final lesson with the class I wanted to tie in subjects we had learned about in the past lessons.

Warm Up:

In our warm up today we used the very same warm up that I did in my first lesson-- One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. I reminded students that we had done it in the first lesson because we were learning about rhymes.

Activity #1:

For this activity I had a foam snowflake I showed the class. I pointed out how the holes in the snowflake were like little windows and showed the students how we could have windows of space with our bodies (negative space). I broke up the class into two groups. The first group made shapes that had lots of windows in them. The second group danced as the music was playing and when I stopped it they found a friend who was making a shape and looked through the windows their classmates had made.

Another way I used the snowflakes was by asking different types of ways that snowflakes could move that were similar to dance: they can float fast or slow, they can freeze, they can travel different places or settle somewhere. They are also unique, just like every students is unique!

Activity #2:

Snowman Poem:

I found a little poem online that had a picture of a snowman. We pointed out the different shapes in the snowman before I read the poem aloud and we found the dancing words. Students were quite creative!

Conclusion:

I had such a wonderful time teaching Mrs. Rigby's class. I hope they learned a lot from it! I know that they had fun and I did as well! It was a wonderful experience and I miss them!