the-dancing-year

                                                                                    W  I  N  T  E  R 

 

 

 

 
Follow the standard class plan on previous blogs.  When you get to Animal Action, insert winter animals. 

During Animal Action ask the kids when they are doing elephant:

 

 

 

Do elephants like snow?       (Wait for response...)  No? 

 

They live where it is hot--Africa, India.  

 

 

 

Do cats like snow?  NO! 

 

But there is a snow leopard which is white and lives in snow. 

 

 

 

When the first verse of Animal Action is over ask kids which animals like snow or cold  and then move like those animals:    

            polar bear, arctic wolf, penguin, seals, snow leopard, snowshoe rabbit

I am always amazed how much young children know about  animals.  And what they come up with when you ask for snow animals--and then I am amazed at my ignorance of general science.  One child mentioned a musk ox!  I don't know where they live or if they like snow! 
                             

 

So, according to Wikipedia, musk ox live in Arctic Canada, Greenland, and Alaska.
 I guess they do                 
 like the snow !     

 

 

 

Go on with the second verse of Animal Action and continue brainstorming about winter animals or segway to a new activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                  Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming. 

 

  

 

I use this book in the fall sometimes--it has vibrant fall colors and is about leaves turning color and temperatures dropping. 

 

  

 

Again, you could start with the standard lesson plan and segway into this book at Animal Action, or spend a whole class on the book.

 

 
Go through it slowly emphasizing movement words:

 

     bear crawls into his cave,

 

     snail slithers,

 

     skunk curls up in his den. 

Use small spandex tubes, for kids to crawl into,  or blankets to cover each child/animal as they fall asleep for the winter.

Or use hoops as dens, caves etc. and do a freeze dance.   Let them get in hoops as sleeping animals then turn music on and say: "It's Springtime".  They dance.  Turn off music.  They sleep:  "It's winter time, let's sleep."  You can introduce the word hibernate for sure -- you may even get to migrate and adapt:  


Hibernate: 
Many children know that
 bears fall asleep in their dens during winter     

Time to Sleep tells the story of other animals which hibernate: skunk, ladybug, turtle, woodchuck.



Migrate:  geese fly south when it gets cold here 


Children love to "fly."  Flying in formation could be interesting to older kids, taking turns as leaders.  (Modern dancers use an improvisation like this called "flocking" !)

The youngest have fun honking while they fly. 

                 Normally, I discourage making animal sounds --
                 it distracts the kids from dancing and, when we are playing animal charades
                 it makes it way too easy to guess the animal! 

 

  

 

                During Animal Action I often say: 
               "The song said MOVE like an animal, not TALK like an animal. "
                Also, the music has animal sounds on it.  In general,
                I want the children to be quiet when there is music on. 
                I encourage them to listen and respond to the music.  

 

                                                                                                            

The first verse of  Animal Action ends with duck.  If we have been talking about hibernating animals, I might ask:  "Does a duck like winter?  Do ducks hibernate?"

 

 

 

I describe how some birds do not like the cold and fly away to warmer parts when winter comes.   I gather the children in one corner of the room, calling it the North.  Together we fly to the diagonally opposite corner of the room which I call South.  We return North when it is warmer.   And, we honk.   It's great fun.

We must repeat it a few times!  

I love this feeling of being an animal in a group--and teaching a bit about animal migration to the very young.  (There is a modern dancer who leads workshops on migration and travels through national parks combining dance and animal migration techniques...I cannot find the link or would include it here.)

This work can also prepare young children for the Across the Floor section of a class for older, more experienced dancers!

 

Adapt:  squirrels store up food in the fall to survive the winter.  In the fall I often use a freeze dance format for "gathering nuts by chipmunks or squirrels".   It is an example of an animal adapting.

 

We place hula hoops around the room.

 

  

 

 

       Warning on use of hoops with the very young.... 
       I  really do not expect most 2 years old to resist picking up a hoop on the floor. 
       It is only natural.   It's not that easy for preschoolers to resist. 
       Who am I kidding?  Ten years olds will pick up a  hoop!  
       But with my preschoolers I slowly place one hoop on the floor and say:
      "This is not a hoop.  This is a tree.  Trees are rooted to the ground
       so this tree will stay here.  The hoops stay on the floor. 
        Repeat it with me....the hoops stay on the floor."  I also assure them
        they will have a chance to pick up the hoops later.

I place the hoops around the room and ask each child to be a squirrel and go sit in a tree.     

 

While the music plays children scramble about the room seeking "food."  When the music stops the "squirrels" hurry back to their "nests" to store their food.

 

 

 

I  repeat the activity 2 or 3 times and then, when the music is off ask the kids, "Do you have enough food stored for winter?" 

 

Depending on their response I continue the activity or move on....

 

Usually to a freeze dance where the children may pick up the hoops and dance.  

       No throwing hoops or touching others with the hoops!

If I can, I grab a hoop and dance with them modelling ideas because some groups are really stuck on just hula hooping. They get into more creative  modes as soon as they see a couple of ideas from me
(balance hoop on my head, hold it waist high and dance in it, and on and on.)  Or  I may have a very creative child with a wonderful idea and I mimic him!  They love that! 


Another adaptive behavior:  Horses wear blankets or coats!

 

 

 

  
      
Young children respond  to pictures and I often laminate single pictures and use them in various classes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 I have one of horses wearing blankets, standing in the snow.   

 

 

 

Animal Action has a horse in it.  So you can bring up the topic of Adaptation then.  "Do horses like the snow?"  Usually the kids shout NO,  Then I pull out my picture and they laugh at the horses wearing coats.  I say, "I don't know if they like it, but they do not hibernate, and they do not fly away.  They adapt.  They put on a coat and go outside, just like we do!"

 

 

 

At the end of  Time to Sleep, snow starts to fall.   If you have stayed with the book,  this is a nice way to end. 

 

 

 

Snow can also be  a stand alone  activity without the book.

You can get out white scarves (mine are cut up curtains ) . Throw them in the air around the children.

"It's snowing!"               

 

                                                                                     

 

Kids may dance freestyle with scarves to music  for several minutes.   (Vince Guaraldi music from the Charlie  Brown Christmas special is great for this activity.  It is an instrumental so you do not have to worry about religious content.  Most American kids will recogize it.   Start with the slow and meditative "Christmas Time is Here," then the snow storm gets faster and the wind blows harder and you play "Linus and Lucy" or "Skating".)

 

 

 

You can expand Snow Dance in a variety of ways inspired by books or the kids themselves.   Dance activities like skiing, snow ball fights, snow angels.

 

 

 

Snow angels are a nice way to end.

 

OR

 

If you have an assistant, use a large piece of flowing white fabric as a snowstorm: 

 

  

 

Each adult holds one end of the fabric.  Move it up and down and right and left to create a snowstorm.  The children love moving through it.  Encourage them not to hold the fabric--it needs to flow to feel like a whirling, twirling, snowstorm!

 

                                                                                                  

 

I have a piece of  white fabric that is like parachute material.  With more adults or older kids you can do snow versions of parachute games: 

 

 

 

      - with the fabric on the floor and helpers sitting around the edge holding on, let 2 or 3 little ones sit in

     the  center and then the people on the edge shake and move the parachute and the kids are sitting in the

     middle of a snow storm !

 

 

 

 

       - or with everyone standing, holding the edges, lift the fabric up and down a few times, then come all

     the way down to a sit with the parachute under you -- you are sitting on the edges with it over you

     like an igloo!

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

 

 

 

                                    

 

 

 

 

   

 

  
 

 

 

 

 

We had the snowiest winter of my life this year (Pennsylvania, USA, 2010).  So I did snow dances week after week. 

 

 

 

I asked my elementary school children what they knew about snowflakes.  Wonderful brainstorming ensued as they told me snowflakes are cold and wet and fall from the sky.  One girl started to explain the chemical composition of them!  And one child exclaimed they are symmetrical.  WOW !

 

 

 

One of the laminated pictures I tote about in winter is of snowflakes a scientist created in his lab.  Each snowflake has 6 points but each design is different.  I love to point out that each of us has 2 arms, 2 legs, one head but each of us is different, with a unique dance style.

 

 

 

You can use any of these concepts to create a dance class plan about up and down, pointed shapes, symmetrical shapes,  geometric shapes. 

 

 

 

Here is a snow dance warm-up I adapted from a colleague's idea. It worked well with the kindergartners I teach. 

 

 

 

First, I asked them to make a snow flake shape with their bodies, standing.  Next, I described, and we all tried together, some snow activities:  shoveling a windy path through the snow,  making footprints in deep, deep, snow,  skating, climbing a mountain of snow and skiing down the mountain.

 

 

 

Next, I put on music and shouted out the various movements at random.  The kids responded by doing each move as I mentioned it.  When the music stopped we each did our snowflake shape.

 

 

 

Repeat as desired!

 

 

 

A Snowy Day by Jack Ezra Keats is another fun book you can insert into a regular class.  Or build a class around it:

 

 

 

Start seated in a circle and get ready to go out in the cold:

 

What should we wear?  Get ideas from kids -- mime getting dressed :  warm pants, a wool sweater

 "OH, my sweater from last year is too small,  I'll need to stretch it (good warm up move); boots---so they have zipper?, velcro? buckles? A jacket, with a hood, or a hat, a scarf---mittens, or gloves .

 

 

 

 

 

"Let's go out in the snow!"

You could do walk,walk,walk and stop pretending you are in snow or on ice.

Make Footprints-- this is illustrated in the book with the boy leaving footprints the turn in, then foot prints that turn out (perfect for ballet lesson!) 

 
You can talk about your own footprints, the kids like to look at the bottom of their shoes and see the patterns....they are varied!  Or talk about animal prints you see in the snow in your yard: birds, rabbits, raccoons, deer.   (This can lead into Animal Action as above.)

 

 
Or follow the story using the activities in the book. 
 

 

      These activities can go on and on, or not, depending on kids. Catch the snow (scarf) on different parts of the body:  hand, head, foot.  Throw snowballs.  Jump in snow. 

One of my  classroom is carpeted.  So at one point I have the kids pile up the scarves and they take turns running and leaping over the snow.  This was so much fun for them I decided my classes without carpets needed to do it.  But how?  It would be way too slippery with scarves on a linoleum floor.  One day I had my plastic bags in the back of the car to recycle....you know, white plastic bags and pushed into one bag and tied at the top.  They were great big snow balls.  Now, every winter I use recycled plastic bags as heaps of snow for the kids to jump and leap over. 

 

When it is time to slow th dancers down I return to the story:

In A Snowy Day, the little boy tries to put a snowball in his pocket and then is sad when he cannot find it.  The preschoolers almost always explain to me that it melted.  And sometimes we do a melting dance:

Freeze in a shape.  Like a long skinny icicle with a point!  Melt into the ground.

Or you can settle the kids down by circling up and acting out another tried and true winter ritual:

Hot chocolate and toast:  soles of the feet together.  Inside the circle is hot chocolate mix, how many scoops do we need? 10? OK , reach in with your right hand, 1,2,3,4,5 ...now your left 1,2,3,4,5 (pretend to scoop up chocolate and put it in your machine -- the space your legs create .  Then pour in milk and turn on machine (press nose? or knee?) Make humming noise, or loud chunka chunka machine noises.  Move your body a little, or a  lot!  When machine is done---Ding!  pour out hot chocolate into a cup. MMMM!  Let's make toast!  Stretch legs out straight, flex feet and pretend they are pieces of bread, or bagels, or whatever.  Point to toast them.  Take a walk to the window (hip walk) to check on weather while toast is cooking.  Then:  What's that I smell?  My toast is burning !  Hip walk back to circle, flex feet, toast is done.  Spread it with jam, cream cheese etc. and have toast and hot chocolate.

 

                              
                       Then go on to next activity.  
                         Animals!  Another story? 
                     Or this can be a quiet way to end.

                                                                                                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before I end this entry, though, I have to share one more book for winter dance class!

 

 

 

  THE MITTEN by Jan Brett

 

 

 

It's a classic about a lost mitten and animals crawling inside.   So it's easy to start from an Animal Action verse and talking about animals that like winter and get to the story. 

 

 

 

Or start with the getting dressed for winter and going outside, like the boy in the story.

 

 

 

This snowy winter I would just open to the first picture and ask:  "Does anyone have a yard that looks like this?"

 

 

 

The Mitten is a Ukrainan folktale and the picture shows deep snow, branches weighed down by it, white everywhere!

 

 

 

You can read through pretty quickly and get to the animals.  But over the years I have come to appreciate little details that I did not used to incorporate into my preschool classes.

 

 

 

Nicky wanted mittens white as the snow.  Baba said she would not make him white mittens because he may lose them.

 

 

 

    I ask the children who Baba is (clearly a grandmom)  and we talk about names they have

 

    for their grandmoms.   Always a fun topic.  I ask why she won't make him mittens and always someone comes up

 

    with the fact that snow is white so a white mitten is easy to lose in snow.

 

 

 

Nicky goes out to play in the snow and drops a mitten.

 

 

 

     We look at the pictures of Nicky outside.  The children try to mimic the jumping shape he is making--bent 

      legs, raised arm. 

 

 

 

One by one, animals discover the mitten and get inside.

 

 

 

     There are footprints, including a mole tunnel; and animal moves, like an owl  which swoops down, and more. 

 

 

 

      The rest of the story is about the animals in the mitten and how they get out.  It is fun and easy to act out.  I used

       to  use a large spandex tube as a mitten and actually have the children get inside.  There is a page of the book

      where the animals bump and jostle--interesting verbs.  It can get a little crazy. 

 

 

 

      An easier method is to use a large piece of white fabric prefolded to as small a square as  you can get.  As each

      animal comes along you unfold until the whole cloth is open and over the children and then you can lift it off easily at

       the end of the story.

 

 

 

My company, Moving Studios, once presented The Mitten at The Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia as an audience participation performance.  We incorporated Getting Dressed for Snow (above),  the Snow Dance with scarves (above) Animal Action, and then the fabric mitten.  Lots of kids moving!

 

 

 

 

 

Let it snow !   Let it snow!    Let it snow!                                                    

 

 

 

                                              

 

leaf  shapes                    

 

In the fall when my classes are filled with new students who have not been through the shape lesson plans and activities Moving Studios offers, I like to introduce the concept through a series of Leaf Lessons.

 

I get juiced watching leaves dance down to the ground in the fall. I love to see the variety of colors, sizes and shapes of the leaves.   I often pick up leaves in the middle of the grocery store parking lot or elsewhere because they inspire me.  I may already have a big maple leaf and a small beech leaf but then I see a ginkgo leaf—a fan shape—and I get excited!  Preschoolers are so interested in nature and often are learning lessons in school about leaves so it is a good way to relate to them and to their curriculum while introducing several dance concepts.

 

Over three or more classes I use leaf lessons for at least part of my class.  I enrich the lesson with poems, music, books, hoops, and of course, leaves.

Lesson 1

After a warm-up I will have the children sit in a circle and we’ll talk about what is happening outside.  If there are windows in the classroom we may watch some leaves fall down.  Then in our circle we use our hands as the leaves and I recite this poem written by Brianna Bower (the daughter of a colleague):

 

                 The wind blows up,

                  The wind blows down,

                  The wind blows all around.

                   It shakes the leaves right off the trees

                  And they float gently to the ground.

 

We pretend our hands are the leaves and move them up and down and all around, shake them and then float them to the ground.  With our hands flat on the ground we talk about how when the leaves are on the ground the wind might blow them up into the air again.  Or they lie there and turn brown and curl up at the edges.  Then we repeat the same poem changing the last line to “And drops them on the ground” for a faster falling leaf.

 

Next, we stand up and pretend our whole body is a leaf and try the poem both ways.  We try slow music (Chopin) music and then fast music behind the poem  (Mozart, Squirrel Nut Zippers, We got the Beat).

 

Lesson 2

The second class is when I bring some leaves in and we repeat the first class activity adding shape to the discussion.  We try to make pointy oak leaves with our bodies and heart shaped leaves and skinny leaves and star shaped leaves.  We repeat our dances. 

 

                                                  

 

 

  

Sometimes I add more poems:

 

Brown leaves, brown leaves all around,

            Twirling, swirling to the ground.

See them dancing through the air.

            See them falling everywhere. 

***

            Leaves are drifting slowly down.

            They make a carpet on the ground.

Then, swish!  The wind comes whistling by,

And sends them dancing in the sky!

                     

 

(These poems are from Donna Starkman, my Moving Studios partner, but I am not sure who wrote them)

 

As you can see, these have inspiring movement words in them.  What child does not like to twirl and swirl?
And dance, and fall.

 

After we’ve danced the poems and are ready for a transition I will ask:  “And what happens once the leaves are on the ground?  All over my yard?”  I wait for a response from the kids and they eventually come up with the idea of raking the leaves.

“Yes, I need to rake them up,” I say.                         

 

I will mime raking the children/leaves into a pile (Donna recently added miming a leaf blower!).  Sometimes I pretend to rake the kids to the end of the room.  Then I’ll put out  hoops and we pretend they are piles of leaves.  We jump in and over them.   I pretend to rake the leaves into piles/hoops and get thirsty from all my work and go into my house for some water.  I turn my back on the kids while saying,  “And what do you think the children in the neighborhood do when they see those piles of leaves?”

 

I put on fast music and the kids laugh and start jumping in the hoops.  They love it when I pretend to get mad, chase them out of the yard, reorganize the hoops, and  go back  into the house.

 

(Of all the leaf activities I have done over the years the getting angry and chasing the kids out of the yard is the one that gets requests over and over again from the students!)

 

Lesson 3

A third class (usually over three weeks) is a repetition of the same activities with more leaf examples:  We make ourselves big fat maple leaves and then take the same shape and make it smaller.  We make our star shape and curl in at the edges.  Sometimes we throw actual leaves in the air and watch how they fall down.  We talk about when it’s not terribly windy and many leaves just spin or spiral almost straight down.  Naturally the kids love to hold t he leaves, drop them and catch them again.

 

We repeat our leaf dances one more time and it really is fun to see the children first in their leaf shapes, standing, attached to their trees. Then moving up, down, all around, shaking and drifting, spinning, or falling to the ground. Then rolling, blowing, curling on the ground.  Year after year I find myself enjoying dancing (especially the slow version to Chopin) with the children celebrating nature and movement.

Lots of ways to add to this plan.  Use scarves (especially green, yellow, orange, red and gold) as leaves. 

Many books about leaves can add to the fun.  Someone can be the wind blowing the leaves around the room 

                                                                                    

                                                                                                                                                 

 

                            

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that I've started, with the new year of creative dance, and the blog, I probably should go over some basic rules.

Managing a class of preschoolers dancing is like the proverbial herding of butterflies.

When teaching children or adults I try, like a doctor, to First do no Harm.  So, physical safety is important.

So, first, do not make them hate dance.  Too much structure, too much talking (by the teacher), too much waiting in line could make a child hate dance.  I try to keep lots of kids moving at the same time.

I also try very hard not to injure the spirit of a child.  When the elephant music comes on and the kids are stomping around and using their arms as trunks, except for one child who is fluttering around like a buttlerly it hurts me to hear his/her parent say:  "No, Suzy, not like that.  See Miss Elizabeth?  Dance like an elephant!" 

When I am with preschoolers, I do not correct movememt unless it is unsafe.  Three year olds have an amazing vocabulary of moves and some very idiosyncratic ideas of how the world, including elephants, works.   It is inspiring to me to experience their fresh ideas, unfettered by a world of experience of what is the right or wrong answer.

 

 

  Besides, some elephants DO fly!

I hope I am helping to train dancers, dance audiences, creative spirits, and critical thinkers.

                                                             
                                                                                                           
                                    
As a novice teacher I brought to my preschool class a lesson plan that mirrored traditional dance class structure.  I included a warm-up, across the floor work, and a cool down.  Three year olds do not necessarily need a physical warm-up and cool down but the structure helped me implement my own vision. 

After teaching for many years I realized it is still a good model.  Audiences respond to a beginning, middle and end model--think of the warm-up comic.  Professional conferences often have a keynote speaker, break out sessions, a closing talk.  Think of it as a mental preparation, work session and transition time.

Now, in dance technique class the warm-up usually includes a simple version  of some of the moves the class will be performing in the rest of the class.  Then there is repetition of the moves.  Often there is a playing with the steps, reversing them, trying them in different groupings or facings. .  And of course, the cool down is important for stretching the muscles you have just used.  But it also provides a space for letting the ideas you just worked on sink in and to beginning thinking about what's next.

In the class outlines I provide my version of the tradtitional dance class  structure as follows..

                   Introduction-introducing myself and getting to know children, dealing with issues specific to the day

                   Warm up - focusing on using bodies in space

                   Concept - introduction of an idea through words or movement  Any idea will do: shapes, dogs, level, water

                   Practice - using movements to express and explore the idea in a structured way or freestyle, or both

                   Cool Down - calming, transition to next activity for children

As lovely as that all sounds, there are days I have to throw it out the window.  And, if you visited my classroom  that structure would be invisible....it would look like I was just playing with the kids.  
 
Which is really what I want. 

And you do, too, don't you?

Which of the arrangements of below do you prefer?


                                      


They all have good points, don't they?  The third one is very organized and you can really pick out the differences in the butterlies.   But it reminds me of school where much of the time is spent organizing and waiting in line.  The middle one is interesting, too. Perhaps it is the most realistic view of how butterflies move?  Or the most impressionistic?  The first one is like my class.  We are all different sizes, facing different ways, dancing around without bumping!

Which brings me to safety and rules.

Part of what I like about my job is that I am always going into new schools and programs.  One problem with that is I am not part of the staff and do not know all the rules of each community.   But I have found that keeping my rules simple usually covers the specifics of each site.  During the introduction section of my class I usually say:

   I have very simple rules:  not always simple to do... but definitely simple to remember:
   We don't touch people, we don't touch things

Often the children will start a litany of responses:  

       kids:     Like, we don't kick! 

       me:      Right, that would be touching someone...

       kids:     And we don't bite

       me:      Right, that would be touching someone...

     
After years of keeping it simple I believe the world would be a better place if we could just follow
 a few, simple to remember, if not always to do, rules .  


                                                                                      The Golden Rule would be a great start.