The Magic of 3: do re mi....a b c

                                                                        




The magic of three in  preschool dance is this:  Repeat lessons three times. 

It is not a hard and fast rule, but a good guideline.  Young children like repetition and learn from it.  It also gives us time to explore a theme more thoroughly. 

So, lesson one was an introductory class with an ocean theme.  Most of the kids I teach (on the East Coast of the Unithed States) have visited the ocean over the summer and so are very familiar with ocean animals, waves, and beach activities.  These are rich sources for movement...water movement, animal movement, and human movement.

When I first introduce the theme we may discuss oceans, or fish for while and then dance.  The next time I may introduce a theme-related story, like The Rainbow Fish; or props, like scarves, to add to the fun and expand our ideas and movements. 

If  you read lesson 1 you may be able to just scan the ideas below and go off on your own tangents.  If you did not see lesson 1 or need more review I have repeated details below under Description.  You can also scroll down to "expanded ideas" for new additions to the ocean lesson plan.   

                                                                   

Lesson 2:
Outline:

                                             Introduction

                                               Warm-up
                                             O McDonald
                                     Walk, walk, walk and stop
                                              Freeze Dance

                                                Practice
                                         Circle/Clap names
                                            Animal dances
                                            Ocean animals

                                                Concept:  
              Ocean, review last lesson dances, and add a new element
    
                                              Cool Down
                                             
                                               



Description:

Introduction:

Do you remember what we need to dance?  Yes, our bodies, and what else?    Space to move them  in .  So let's spread out and make sure we have room to use our whole bodies without touching anyone else.


Warm-up:

For the youngest preschoolers repeat O McDonald the same way encouraging thinking of body parts and moving them in isolation (see below).  For older preschoolers O McDonald can be repeated going faster or adding in the accumulation idea from the original  " The head moves here, the head moves there, the head moves everywhere, the arm moves here, the arm moves there, the arm moves everywhere"  Second verse: head, arm, leg,  Third verse: head, arm, leg, fingers....etc.

O McDonald had a  ,,,,,,,      BODY  !          
E I E I O
and on that body she had a head              E I  E  I  O
and the head moves here and the head moves there
the head moves everywhere
O McDonald had a        BODY  !
E I E I O

While singing I move my head and may slip in directions like "you can move your head up and down"   Some kids will model  you, some will stare at  you some will dance all around the room.  

Next verse: 

O McDonald had a body...E I E I O
and on that body she had a ...(wait for a child to supply suggestion), .. or continue: HAND             E I  E  I  O
and the hand moves here and the hand moves there
the hand moves everywhere
O McDonald had a        BODY  !
E I E I O

and so on till you get through the whole body or till the kids are losing interest.  They will mention eyes, ears, tongue....all good....they may mention unmentionables...I do not react...use your own judgement. 

Walk, walk, walk and stop

a recorded song I have (but you can do it yourself with a drum) goes like this:

Well, you walk and you walk and you walk and stop.
And you walk, and  you walk and you walk and stop.
You walk and you walk and you walk and stop.
And you walk and you walk and you walk and stop.

Now, gallop, gallop, gallop and stop
Gallop, Gallop, gallop and stop

you get the idea.  substitute any movememt: jump, skate, tiptoe, march. 

(I have this song on my ipod which I downloaded from a CD that my husband made from a cassette which my partner made from an album which we cannot locate and do not remember what it was called or who it was by.....so I cannot give anyone credit but I have used this song over and over with many, many ages and there are some kid songs out there that are similar.) 

Freeze Dance

There are many prerecorded freeze dances but you can use any music and freeze it yourself.  When the music is on you dance when the music is off you freeze.

Practice:
Circle and clap names:
                                                                                   
Sit and put your feet in the center. legs long so you've made a circle.  Then take turns.
Each child may clap his or her name then get up and do a movement around the circle returning to his seat so the next child may have a turn.

This is one way to get to know names.  It is also a chance for individuals to shine and express themselves and for you to assess abilities (to yourself).  At least one child will probably introduce and animal move like dog or cat which leads you to..........

Animal Action

a famous song in the preschool world that will lead you through a series of animals moves.
Or sing it yourself:  

C'mon everybody, come down to the zoo
We're gonna do a dance like the animals do
Animal action is so much fun
Animal action, move like  an...........elephant

everyone moves like an elephant

Next verse

C'mon everybody, come down to the zoo
We're gonna do a dance like the animals do
Animal action is so much fun
Animal action, move like  an...........horse

Use a book, or music cue, or lead into the concept with a final verse about fish.

Concept:
In the middle of Animal Action  you might ask, while moving like an elephant, "Does an elephant live in the ocean?"  Kids will say "NO!"  laughing.  You repeat this as often as you like with variations.  While moving like a cat--"Does a cat live in the ocean?"  Kids:  "No!"  Remember to keep an open ming....elephants and cats may not live in the ocean but there are elephant seals and catfish.  You can introduce those idea sor just reinforce ithem f a child mentions" them.  There are very few wrong answers when dancing with preschoolers, except concerning safety and respect.

Continue as desired. 

Some expanded activities:

The guessing game: Have children sit on the edge of the dancing space.  Have them each think of an ocean animal and one at a time they can show their animal moves to the group  --  like charades.   The "audience" guesses the animal.  I  limit them to three guesses otherwise it goes on and on and takes forever for everyone to have a turn.  I encourage them to do the movement, not the sound of the animal.  And, to  empower them,  I let the person who just finished the movement pick the next child to have a turn.  This eliminates who was right or wrong, or first to answer. It also takes the instructor out of the equation and gives the power to the children.  (If they are lingering or lording that power over the others I'll say: "Be quick, or else I'll pick") 
          
                      


Scarves:  purple and blue scarves can be handed out to each child and we create an ocean.  Be waves, whirlpools, choppy water, calm water.  Each child can do his own ocean dance.  Or some could sit on the side of the room pretending they are on the beach.  The others can pull away from them, make a big wave in the deep ocean and then rush towards the beach getting smaller and smaller and tickle the toes of the people on the beach.  Then switch groups.  After using the water scarves, you may want to add in colored scarves and let kids be fish, seaweed, coral, in the ocean. 

                                  
                                                                                    

Literature: The obvious choice is  The Rainbow Fish,by Marcus Pfister.   I have done whole classes based on the story.  But you can do it quickly like this:  While kids are using scarves, I slowly gather one of each color, stick them in my waistband and then start telling the Rainbow Fish story and we act it out.   Another good story is " Life in the Bass Lane " found in Movement Stories for Young Children.  Here's a link to it:  http://www.autismwebsite.com/movement/Movement. 
Finally, poems!  I sometimes throw in this short ditty from an Eric Carle book attributed to African Pygmy:

                                        I throw myself to the left.
                                        I turn myself to the right.
                                        I am the fish
                                        Who glides in the water, who glides,
                                        Who twists himself, who leaps,
                                        Everything lives, everyting dances, everything sings.

 It's got everything--movement, animal, concept of right and left, and a life affirming message!

                                                                                                                             
 

And recently, one of the preschools  had this poem posted on its wall, which I immediately stole:

Sea Animals
by
Meish Goldish

What do you see in the sea?
Animals moving free!
Snails and whales
using their tails.
Seals and eels
Searching for meals.
Catfish, flatfish
Chasing fat fish.
Bass and Wrasse
swimming in mass.
Hagfish, hogfish
Trailing dogfish,.
What do you see in the sea?
Animals moving free!



Cool Down:

to quieter music, could still be ocean theme, be a starfish, on the bottom of the ocean and stretch your arms and legs and breath

But, if you have been getting into kinds of fish, which the kids often do: especially using the poem above; and if, you want to get into small/big concepts next lesson, maybe you want to use the puffer fish cool down.

Sit in a circle with feet in the center, touching.   You are one small puffer fish.  As you get scared you blow up, expand the circle, make it bigger and bigger and then as you calm down you become small again.



                                                                                 

---

 Three general tips:

 Use positive reinforcement 
  "Excellent listening Jimmy, you stopped right when the music stopped! "  Which will 
  encourage Susie, who didn't stop, to try next time, instead of "Susie, you did not
  freeze!"                                                                  

 Quit while you're ahead
  Right about when you are congratulating yourself on how well an acitivity is going is when it is
  about to fall apart.     Move on!

If at first you don't succeed, try again.
On the other hand, just because an activity did not work one day does not mean
 you should never use it.  Another day, another group of kids, a different introduction to it may work beautifully.