DECEMBER

       My December lesson plan

whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist,
modern dancer or ballet ....

is based on the Nutcracker story and Tchaikovsky music because many of the kids already know and love it, because I have  a Nutcracker book with great pictures, because the music is varied, and because we dress up in scarves and dance the story which is really fun and great for kids who are wired up waiting for Hanakkuh, or Santa, or winter break.

          
A class of girls can have great fun doing lots of ballet moves and dressing up for Waltz of the Flowers.   But my boys do not seem to feel left out.   They like scarves also,  They like the Mouse King, the Nutcracker, the soldiers, and more.  Personally, I struggle with the fight scene and the death but none of the kids seem to get upset and often enjoy telling me the story of how the Mouse King dies.  
   

 

                                                                                                           
Sometimes I start class in December with the Nutcracker music on as the children enter and let them respond.

They dance.

 They exclaim, "This is the Nutcracker!"

 They tell me about their experiences hearing the story,
 or seeing the ballet or about the Nutcracker they have at home.

And that informs how I will lead them through the story.

Below you can find my outline and specifics.

This year, 2010, I started out a little differently.  On December 1st, I said to my preschoolers, "Today is the first day of......"

and one of the older children exclaimed:   "December!"

 (Most preschools have a daily practice of going over the day and date, so it's nice to reinforce it.)

"December," I continued, "is a fun month.  You know why?"  This year, December 1st was the first night of Hanakkah and some of the kids knew that.  Our conversation continued as  I asked who celebrates Christmas and who celebrates Hanakkah etc.  (You may get some interesting comments in this kind of dialogue, always fun.)

                                          

"A long, long time ago, this time of year " I went on,"People thought the sun was going away because it gets colder and the days get dark earlier and people were sad....but late in December they could see the days were getting longer and the sun was coming back and they were so happy!"  

"December is a really fun month!"  

Then I play Dora the Explorer's version of "If you're happy and you know it."  The children recognize Dora.  They clap, they stomp, they shout Hurray!

That's our warm-up.

Next, I introduce a story (with my own modifications,  from  a wonderful resource:  Movement Stories for Children Ages 3-6 by Helen Landalf and Pamela Gerke, published by Smith and Kraus.

One day some children went to visit their aunt.  This was always fun because the aunt owned a toy store.   The store was on the first floor, and the aunt lived on the second floor.  Well, it was a long trip and after feeding the children dinner  the aunt tucked them into bed.

Show me how you sleep!  (Most children fall to the ground and curl up.  And I pretend to pull a cover over them while saying something like "Oh, I love having my nieces and nephews visit. Or sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.)  You will have the individual who says," I'm not tired!"  which I ignore because more often then not that child will follow along as the story picks up.

But the children were very excited about the toy store and so they woke up and tiptoed slowly down a secret passageway to the toy store.  They were so excited they started to tiptoe faster, and then faster and faster until they found themselves int he middle of the toy store!

Guess what they saw first!  (Sometimes I just tell them and sometimes I lead them to the answer.)  It's a small box, and I get down on my knees--they follow.   And you turn the crank...(that's enough for some kids to know and shout out  "A jack-in-the-box!" )  But if they have never seen one I just keep explaining:  And you turn it and turn it and then out pops a clown!   And here's the first activity emphasizing fast/slow, loud/soft or anything else you think of.  (Actually the first fast/slow activity was the tiptoeing.)

        Jack in the box, Jack in the box             (mime turning the crank)

        So quiet, quiet and still

        Will you jump up quickly?

        "Yes, I will!"                            (we all jump up quickly......and often loudly)

         Repeat

                                                                                                                                                  

         Then:

          Jack in the box, Jack in the box             (mime turning the crank)

           So quiet, quiet and still

          Will you float up slowly?

           Yes, I will                                                     (float up slowly)

       Repeat, especially since most of the kids are still loud and fast.

      Then: 

          Jack in the box, Jack in the box             (mime turning the crank)

             So quiet, quiet and still

          Come up anyway you like, Will you?

          "Yes, I will!" 

When the kids, or you, are done with Jack in the Box, move on to the next toy.

Next, the children played with the dreidels:  Most kids know the song, and love to spin:

         Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel

         I made you out of clay

         And when you're dry and ready,

         Then dreidel we will play.

You can spin fast, slow.  If you have a dreidel to show, the kids will want to play with it.  You can spin it fast, and then when they try often it spins wobbly and tilts to the side and falls.  Guess what, so can we!  Kids love to fall, just remind them not to bump and not to hurt themselves.

Well, the children were exhausted so they each found a BIG stuffed animal and lay down.  (This can be a brief break or extended.)  What kind of animal is your stuffed animal?  You could throw in an Animal Action verse if you want.  You could stare at the ceiling and pretend there is a mobile--that's in the original story but I have found I spend too much time explaining what a mobile is and not much time dancing.

So on we go to the gliders--explain gliders are airplanes with no motor--like a paper airplane--and silent.  Laurie Berkner's "The Airplane Song" fits nicely in here.

Then the children hear footsteps!  Their aunt is coming!  Quickly, hide!  (The kids love to hide and, depending on the class I am in I may leave this part out because the kids get too crazy or hide in places that are not safe--computer wires and stuff.)  I pretend I am walking down the stairs complaining, "What is that racket, did I leave the radio on?"  I look around, see nothing and go back upstairs:  "Everything looks okay, I guess I was dreaming!")

Next, the children  find robots. Great way to introduce a new kind of movement.  Gliders are smooth and follow curvy pathways.   Robots move sharply and angularly. 

This whole activity can be shortened or extended by subtracting or adding toys.  I found this a nice way to end:

Then the children found a music box.  Talk about what that is, often a girl will have jewelry box that plays music and has a little ballerins in it.  So I play ballet music (Nutcracer or Chopin) and we dance.  When the music box is closed the music stops, so does the dancing.  It's like a freeze dance.

I start changing the music around to suit the tastes of each class.  When the music is off I tell the children they can be anything they like, a ballerina, a toy, an animal.  Or I might ask them what their favorite toy is and they can move like that toy.

Uh, oh!  Footsteps again.  The children hurry through the secret passageway, into their beds where the aunt finds them fast asleep......

The end.                                                                    

Outline:

                                                                      Introduction
                                                        Nutcraker music/ free dance

                                                                       Warm-up
                                                         Walk, walk, walk and stop
                                                                   Animal Action

                                                                       Concept                                             
                                                          Storytelling through  Dance

                                                                        Practice
                                                        look, listen, dance, scarves                                                
    
                                                                      Cool down             


 

Description of outlined activities:

 Introduction
Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker music is playing as children enter.  They respond by dancing, or telling me about their Nutcraker experiences.  

Warm-up:

I might warm them up with "Follow Me" to Nutcracker music.  Facing the class, I move in a variety of ways and they copy me.   It could be all ballet if your class is interested in that.  I usually mix up some isolations, some ballet moves, some level changes, some silly movements.  Done slowly so the children can follow easily.  (This is often called mirroring and a good way to introduce movements.  "Follow Me" is the name Marianne Torbert gives the activity.  See: http://www.temple.edu/leonardgordoninstitute/)

Walk, walk, walk and stop (see previous blogs if you are unfamiliar with this)
Animal Action  (see previous blogs if you are unfamiliar with this)  I may do one verse of Animal Action and then start to show my Nutcracker book to the class and ask if they see any animals in the pictures.  They have fun looking and when they get to the page with the Mouse King I start going into the concept.

Concept:   
Sometimes right after the warm-up I seat the children in a circle and ask why people dance.  It is fun and interesting to hear what the kids come up with.  Usually they say it is good for the muscles, is fun, and makes them happy.
 
(HOW AWESOME IS THAT!)

I explain that sometimes people tell a story through dance.  Just like they listen to story books, or draw pictures that tell stories, some people dance a story.   I emphasize that no words are used.   Depending on the maturity and attention span of your kids this can be expanded into trying mime moves to express ideas and listening to songs to see which convey sadness, which convey anger etc.

{The Nutcracker story is set on Christmas Eve and has a Christmas tree in it and if you are working in a Christian atmosphere that's fine.  When I am not I try to be sensitive to others....I do not emphasize the tree and when I read the story and it refers to Christmas Eve I stop to say...."You do not have to celebrate Christmas for this story to be fun....it is about magic!   Some people believe that on Christmas Eve animals can talk and other magic happens as well!)}

Eventually I start the Nutcracker with the children trying to get into the parlor where the adults are having a party.  My book says "The children spilled into the partor."  And we spend some time spilling!  I ask, Have you ever spilled anything?  A surprising number of these kids say: NO ! Then I admit to spilling water, and milk and pretty soon everyone is confessing their spills and then we experiment with spilling ourselves.   Great Fun!

We spill into the parlor and look around at the presents and candies, and dance.  We Party!  Using Nutcracker music.

We often do not get through the whole Nutcracker story in one class but I will briefly describe the actions I do and  you can split it into as many classes as you like.

Opening the presents:  Herr Drosselmeyer brings big boxes, bigger than the children (you could insert a lesson on size here).  The children can be toys and as you open each pretend box they can start moving and you could guess what they are:  a ballerina, a soldier, a teddy bear, a robot?  Then Clara and her brother Fritz break the Nutcracker and the children are sent to bed.  Let the kids show you what positions they sleep in:  on their backs, their sides?  curled up or straight?  (another shape lesson)

The magic:  Clara wants to check on her Nutcracker so she gets out of bed and tiptoes downstairs (children love to tiptoe, so do not rush this part, you could even expand it into a pathways lesson: down the stairs, around the couch, past the sleeping cat, under the table, over the boxes.....)

The clock strikes midnight and suddenly she hears something  You and the children can skitter about as the mice.  Looking at the book again we see the mice get larger and are have swords!  The toys and tree ornaments come alive!  The Nutcracker is alive and leading the toy soldiers in a fight against the Mouse King.  Spend some time with the Marching music in The Nutcracker Suite:  there are alternating themes  I use for mice and then soldier moves.

The Nutcracker is almost defeated when Clara throws her shoe at the Mouse King and down he goes (I usually fall to the floor which gets some laughs).

The magic continues as Clara turns into a princess and the Nutcracker turns into a prince.  And it starts to snow.  I use white scarves (cut up curtains, actually) for snow.  I through them out into the room during the Sugar Plum Fairy music and the kids pick them up and we do a snow dance.



                                  


The prince and princess  travel to the Land of the Sweets where a show is put on for them  with songs and dances from different countries.  Here you can follow the story or just let the kids loose to respond to the music.

  Practice:

 look, listen, dance, scarves,
As I often do when I use a book I start by reviewing the rules: 
    You may LISTEN to the story, you may LOOK at the pictures, you may DANCE the movements and actions.
     But  please do not use your voices, because we have music and I am reading the story--you may DANCE the story.  
I will read some of the story, we will examine some of the pictures, and listen to some of the music.

Then I get the scarves out ( different colors and sizes gathered from curtains, thrift stores, and fabric stores) and the children start dressing up....as the Mouse King, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, as the Nutcracker, as Clara.  Or as Superman, or a princess.  That's fine, too.

And we dance and play.  Imagine and  move.

                                            
Cool down          

I might end a couple different ways.  Since the Nutcracker lesson plan is usually done three times....I can use each of these endings once.  

The prince and princess say good bye and Clara wakes up in her bed with her Nutcracker.

or 

A good bye dance to part of the Waltz of the Flowers  (ballet moves and a bow)

or 

Children on the ground making snow angels  (lying on your back move your arms and legs out and in moving from a straight line shape like an  "I" to a wide shape like and "X")