2/1/13 - ENERGY Qualities are the BEST!

I had such a fun day today with my students! I think they really liked the lesson today. We talked about energy qualities today...specifically percussive, sustained, and vibratory movement. The beginning of my lesson came from a fellow dance educator and friend of mine Esther Hopkin. They loved it...so thanks Esther! I had them all sit down in a circle and hold out their hand with their eyes closed. Then I put a chip in their hand and had them put it in their mouth without looking at what the item was. (BTW...this is a great lesson to do, but make sure that no student has allergic reactions to any foods before you give anything out. There were two kids who had allergic reactions to eggs and nuts. Luckily I checked with my teacher beforehand and found out these kids allergies, so I was able to find food items that they could eat.) When they put the chip in their mouth, they had to pay close attention to the texture, shape, quality, etc. of the chip. Next, I put a bite size milky way in their hand followed by them putting that in their mouth as well. Then I put pop rocks in their hand which they put it in their mouth. I did this activity to help them understand the different energy qualities. I chose the chip because it was sudden and sharp like percussive energy, I chose the milky way because it was smooth and ongoing like sustained energy, and I chose the pop rocks because they moved at a rapid pace like vibratory energy. I had them then get up and move in those energy qualities. For percussive I had them get with a partner and they did a poking activity. One partner was the poker and the other partner was the one who was being poked. Each time the person who was being poked was poked, they had to move that body part in a percussive way. Then we switched partners and did it again. Next, I had them pretend that they were moving through mud and everything around them was mud. This was a good visual to help them move in a sustained way. And then next for vibratory, I had them think of a dog when he got his belly scratched and his paw would move really fast. They pretended that they had an itch like that in one part of their body and then the itch moved to another part of their body and then the itch continued to travel through their body. This helped them visualize vibratory movement going through their body. By the time we finished that, our time was up. Time seems to be going a lot faster now, especially since I split the class in two groups. I think one reason why this lesson was so fun was because I really got down and danced with the students this time. It made it more enjoyable for the students to see me, their teacher, dancing. It motivated them and gave them more ideas of how they could move. It was really fun for me too!! I loved it! I think I've haven't been giving the students enough creative opportunities. I keep running out of time!! It's my fault. I would like them to start creating their own dances. Next time, I think we will jump straight into this. We will be implementing their curriculum next time. They've had the exposure to the dance concepts now from the last four lessons, now it's a good time to implement some of their curriculum while still implementing dance concepts. We will be working on Greek myths. I'm really excited! This should be a fun unit. We need to hop on our dance though so they have some good stuff to show at the end of my time with them. They really are a creative bunch!!