Dance for the Teachers Soul

This week we focused on integrating social studies! 🅼🅾🆅🅴 🅸🅵... This exercise began by having the class stand in a circle, the teacher than began to read out a selection of statements that could impact the students or not. When a statement is read aloud that applies to a student, they are then supposed to take a step backwards, throughout the statements, you would notice that the students would eventually keep moving back and your circle would be obsolete. The teacher can scaffold this exercise by then asking students to introduce a dance movement to the questions that they have to move to, this would be a great way for the students to tie in dance to their emotions.This is a great way to introduce your students to diversity as it shows how some students and their families may have faced challenges while others have not.  Some of the questions the teacher can ask are: Have you ever moved Have you been in a country where you don’t speak the language   ...

This week we focused on applying math to dance! 🅶🅴🆃🆃🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅾 🅺🅽🅾🆆 🅼🅰🆃🅷 We began the day by doing a follow the leader exercise where we were asked to create a number with our body. This was a fun and interactive activity for students to get their brains thinking and their bodies moving. We all challenged ourselves by trying to create different numbers and body movements than our peers which turned into a lot of fun! 🅵🅾🅻🅻🅾🆆 🆃🅷🅴 🅻🅴🅰🅳🅴🆁 Follow the leader is a strategy where students follow the movements, actions and possibly the sounds of a leader. Through a dance presentation that we observed, this strategy was used when a peer called out a movement on their grid on the floor. Students were instructed to move along the grid following the leader by moving forward, backwards or in a sideways direction. 🅲🆁🅴🅰🆃🅸🆅🅸🆃🆈 🆃🅷🅴🅾🆁🆈 Bernsteins theory of creativity discusses 13 thinking tools, which can be used to assist st...

Week two focused on teaching science through dance elements and ensuring that students were able to assess ways in which plants have an impact on society and the environment, and ways in which human activity has an impact on plants and plant habitats. 🆈🅴🆂 🅻🅴🆃'🆂 Students are asked to share a texture of something in the environment and create a dance like the image or artifact they think of. For example, sticky like a maple tree, windy like leaves, fuzzy like a caterpillar. You can use this across curricula. Once all of the student have chosen a texture, they were instructed to dance like that object. Once all of the students dance, the floor was opened for discussion and we talked about how each movement was different and how it would allow students to connect their bodies to nature. 🅱🅴🅴🆂 The book Bees by Kari-Lynn Winters was introduced to the class. As a group we learned the bee life cycle, how they collect pollen and the entire pol...

The first week of Dance, we were introduced to Kari-Lynn Winters who was our professor for the semester. I was very happy to have Kari-Lynn as our professor as I had the pleasure of working with her the year previous. I was very anxious to learn about dance but was put at ease knowing that the professor was someone that I knew I could trust and rely on to teach me in a safe and judgement free environment. 🆂🆈🅻🅻🅰🅱🅻🅴 🅲🅻🅰🅿 🆆🅰🆁🅼 🆄🅿 We began the day by starting with a warm up. We did a syllable clap warmup and each student was in a circle around the room and we were asked to clap out the syllables of our name. Then we were asked to think of a movement to use to again make out our name, but without clapping. We went around the circle several times, using the the clapping method and we copied each persons name. Then lastly, we went around but only clapped without speaking. This is a great strategy for ELL students as it allows them to copy their peers, lis...

🆃🅷🅴 🅸🅼🅿🅾🆁🆃🅰🅽🅲🅴 🅾🅵 🆃🅷🅴 🅰🆁🆃🆂 🅸🅽 🆃🅷🅴 🅲🆄🆁🆁🅸🅲🆄🅻🆄🅼 "Since arts experiences offer other modes and ways of experiencing and learning, children will have opportunities to think and feel as they explore, problem solve, express, interpret, and evaluate the process and the results. To watch a child completely engaged in an arts experience is to recognize that the brain is on, driven by the aesthetic and emotional imperative to make meaning, to say something, to represent what matters". The Arts Go to School, David Booth and Masayuki Hachiya, eds.  This year, I was lucky enough to partake in a Drama and Dance course that has taught me a variety of strategies, elements, lessons and methods to teaching these arts. I am grateful to have had this experience as I have learned skills that will benefit me in the classroom in the future.  I have created this blog to share the techniques and information I have learned throughout the 5 weeks...