(3/8/13-3/22/13) Continuing the Magic with Helios...

The last three lessons have been all pretty similar. We've been trying to put together our Helios dance for the final day that we have together. We invited their first grade buddies to come on that day and see a performance of their dance. We've finished the dance, now we are just trying to clean it for next week. It's been really fun to watch the students as they've worked together on this dance. I had them get into 4 groups one day and they all created a little bit of the dance on their own. That was really fun to see their brains run wild with this challenge. They all loved this part. That's something I've been really happy to see with this group is that they all are so excited to create their own movement and play around. I gave them a prompt from the story to help them in this process. Each group picked one thing in the story that happened as Phaoteon rode the chariot across the sky (ex: "The snake stirred, the bear awoke, the flames spread, the scorpions curled it's tail"). From these little phrases, they created 2 8 counts of their own movement in a group. We then added their finished pieces to the dance. This was probably my favorite part to see unfold. I wish I would have given them more opportunities to create. Or at least given them the opportunity to create a longer sequence. That's something I will remember for next time when I teach this age group. They enjoy creating. They enjoy creating more than improvisation though. When they are given a prompt of something to create, they take it away! These last three weeks have been really fun with my 6th graders. It's fun to see the magic unfold.