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!!

1/25/13 - A Continuation of SPACE

We continued our lesson on space today. We talked about body shapings (straight, bent, curved and twisted shapes). I showed them some pictures to help them get the idea of what these different shaped looked like. For a straight shape, I showed a stick bug, A bent shape I showed a geometrical piece of art, Curved I showed a beach ball, and twisted I showed a screw. I think that was helpful to have them understand the idea. But what was most helpful was when I taught them an actual sequence that used these body shapings. I found that they responded really well to learning a sequence that I taught them. They really enjoyed it and had fun learning an actual dance that I taught them. I think I'll continue teaching them new sequences, but also keeping that in balance with create activities. After I taught them the sequence, I had them get with a partner and they made a symmetrical, Asymmetrical, and Positive and Negative Shape with them. They had one set of 8 counts to get from one shape design to the next. This was their creative activity. I've hardly used activities where they've had to create some kind of movement and structure it into a dance. All the activities have mostly been improvisational. And you know what, they really REALLY liked it! It was so fun to see how proud they were to display their shapes that they made. I had them perform their whole dance for the class and they performed them loud and proud. Why have I been holding out on having them create dances?! I know it was always my intent to do this, but I think because my lessons went too long or I was trying to get a feel for how willing and abled these kids were with dance, I didn't really implement this as much. But they loved creating a finished project!!! It was fun to see how much they took to it. This is the joys of creativity!!!

January 18, 2013...SPACE

Today we talked about Space. The Lesson went as follows... Warm up: We did a mirroring activity. I turned on the music and let the mirroring being. I stood in the front of the room while the students tried to follow exactly what I was doing. They began to see that there were new interesting ways that they could move their body as they tried to mimic my movement. Recap From last time: I reminded them what we talked about last time (locomotor steps: Walk, run, hop, jump, skip AND moving many different kinds of body parts). Then I introduced them to the concept of SPACE, which was what we were going to be talking about. *I made sure that I established at this time a quiet cue which was when I smacked my drum that I brought 3 times. When I did this, all students were supposed to freeze in a shape. Explore Spacial Directions: I explained to them the different directions that they could go (forward, backward, sideways,up, down, vertical, horizontal, and diagonal) and then we played a magic string game. In the movement game, they were to pretend that I had a magic string and every time I called out a body part and a direction, they had to pretend that I was pulling them by that magic string by that body part. Locomotor Add on: I then did some across the floor work with them. I taught them three new locomotor steps (slide, gallop, and leap). The leaping was a little more difficult for those who had never danced before, but to those who had dance before, they loved the leaps. By the time that I did all that, we didn't have enough time to finish the rest of my lesson. I think I might have spent a little too much time on some activities. I split the group in half too so they could have more room to move, so that took double the time for the activities to happen since they had to both do the movement. Next lesson, I'll carry over my lesson and finish it. That's the good things about this program...you get to come back to the class and continue what you talked about last time. I think the lesson went well. They are ready to do some creative activities. I wished I could have gotten to that portion by the end of my lesson, but I didn't have enough time. Next time we will create a dance. My 6th graders are really great though! They are fun to work with and understand what I'm trying to teach them. They have fun with the activities, which I'm happy about. Marianne (Mrs. Lunt) told me today that yesterday she was taking the class to lunch and while in line for lunch she mentioned to the boys that it was going to be dance day the next day and one of the boys says, "Yessss, that was so much fun last time!" I'm really happy about that because I wasn't quite sure how the boys were going to take dance. But apparently they've enjoyed it thus far :)