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Check out these interesting ideas to integrate dance and movements in the classroom!

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Try these five easy ways to use dance and movement in your classroom

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Movement and learning in elementary school

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Movement and learning in elementary school

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Why allow dance or movement in the classroom?

This article offers information how dance and movement can help the students better understand the information .

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Integrating physical activity into elementary school lessons in reading, math, and other subjects can boost students' academic learning, while also helping them meet goals for physical education.
Intuitively, many teachers have always known that physical activity plays an important role in student learning. However, educational researchers have only recently begun to take a close look at the effects of integrating gesture, dance, and other kinds of movement into the everyday life of the classroom. Early findings suggest that engaging students in such activities has positive effects on their motivation, engagement, and learning, while also helping them become more physically active overall.

Movement integration is an interdisciplinary method of teaching that provides effective instruction in two subject areas at once, leading students to achieve curricular goals in both academic and physical education (Brophy & Alleman, 1991). Recent studies have found that incorporating movement activities in the elementary classroom shows promise as a way to boost student interest, motivation (Vazou et al., 2012), and learning (Braniff, 2011). It has been found to lead to improvements in content knowledge, skills, and test scores in core subjects such as mathematics and reading fluency (Adams-Blair & Oliver, 2011; Erwin, Fedewa, & Ahn, 2013; Browning et al., 2014). Further, in an era when school time for designated physical activity and physical education has been reduced (Lee et al., 2007), such innovative strategies may be necessary to help children meet the recommendation that they engage in 60 minutes of physical activity every day.
Increasing student interest
Psychologists distinguish between personal and situational interest. Whereas personal interest builds and persists over time (Hidi & Renninger, 2006), situational interest refers to a person's focused attention on stimuli at a particular moment, and it may or may not last beyond the given situation or activity (Hidi, 1990; Hidi & Baird, 1986). Greater levels of both kinds of student interest have been found to promote stronger attention, motivation, and content learning (Hidi & Renninger, 2006). In the classroom, however, situational interest is especially critical, as it permits the kind of sustained attention needed to grasp the knowledge, concepts, and skills at hand (Ainley, Hidi, & Berndorff, 2002).

In a recent research study, we sought to determine whether lessons that incorporated movement were particularly effective at generating students' situational interest. Specifically, we compared the outcomes of movement and nonmovement lessons in 2nd- and 3rd-grade reading and math classes taught by four preservice teachers.

After being trained in the approach, the preservice teachers provided one week of lessons that included movement and one week of lessons that did not. They were also trained to rate students' interest levels, both through direct observation and in retrospect, offered during the video sessions that they recorded following each lesson.

At times, movement was integrated into the teaching of the reading and math classes, at other times it influenced how the students applied the material, and at other times it was incorporated into student assessment. For example, the lessons in both the movement and nonmovement classes began in the same way, with the teacher explaining concepts though direct instruction. However, in some classes, students were asked to use their bodies to illustrate specific concepts, or they were taught a song that included hand motions and gestures and that was designed to help them remember a particular idea. In some classes, during the application portion of the lesson, students were asked to use their bodies to illustrate lines and angles in math, or they were asked to stand up and move into groups that represented linked concepts. And in order to assess students' understanding, teachers asked students to use movements to indicate their answers to questions about the learned content.

Overall, we found that students were significantly more excited by, engaged in, and focused on the lessons that integrated movement than those that did not. Further, both the preservice teachers and their supervising teachers reported that students learned just as much content during the integrated movement lessons as during non-movement lessons.

Engaging students in physical activities has positive effects on their motivation, engagement, and learning.

Five strategies for integrating movement
To promote greater student interest and activity in the classroom, teachers may consider using a variety of strategies to integrate movement into their lessons. Though some strategies may be best for teaching a particular subject, others can be used in a number of courses. The following strategies were used in the research study and were effective in integrating movement and content learning.

STRATEGY #1:
Dancing to learn information

As teachers provide students with new information that must be memorized, one method to help students in retaining this information is to teach them a dance. Many teachers use songs to help students learn new information, so adding movements or dancing to the song provides an additional source of engagement. For example, when teaching students how to skip count, teachers can use the movements and rhythm from the song "Macarena" to help students count "five, 10, 15, 20" to the beat. Other well-known examples include a math dance (Wright, 2010), used to teach angles, and a grammar dance, in which students create and perform routines inspired by the parts of speech (UK: Grammar Dance, n.d.).

STRATEGY #2:
Applying movement to content assessment

When teaching applications of academic content, teachers can require students to associate the content with specific movements. For example, when they practice rounding numbers to the nearest 10, students can use jumping jacks to represent the number 10, hopping on one foot to represent 20, and so on - i.e., when the teacher calls out "18," the students should all start hopping. Or, in English language arts, students can play a jumping game when practicing synonyms and antonyms: When the teacher says "go," pairs of students jump straight up and down three times, then choose to land on either their right or left foot. If both choose to land on the same foot, then they must come up with synonyms for a word that the teacher has put on the board. If they land on opposite feet, then they must come up with antonyms.

STRATEGY #3:
Moving among stations around the room

To get students moving during a lesson, teachers can ask them to collect materials from around the room. Say, for example, that students are working in groups to learn about fractions. The teacher can give each group cards with fractions written on them, asking each member of the group to take their card to another table across the room to see if anybody in that group has a card with an equivalent fraction. If so, they can take it back to their table, checking with their own group to make sure the fractions are equivalent.

Or, for example, when teaching a spelling lesson about diphthongs (vowel combinations such as "-oi" and "-oy"), a teacher can assign students to teams, giving each a list of words that have had diphthongs removed. The teams can then search around the room looking for cards printed with diphthongs that will complete their words. (To get them moving a bit more, the teacher can ask students to move across the room in certain ways, such as by using baby steps or walking on tiptoe.)

STRATEGY #4:
Ordering and organizing

To better understand the order of concepts in math or reading, teachers can have students organize themselves into lines, rows, or other groupings. For example, the teacher can hand out cards printed with a fraction or decimal, asking students to arrange themselves in order from the least to greatest value represented on their cards. Or, in reading class, each student might get a card that has a word or punctuation mark on it; the challenge is for the students to arrange themselves to form a complete sentence. (To add a layer of difficulty, teachers can also ask students to remain silent while doing these activities, using hand motions, eye movements, or even hops and jumps to signal to each other to move backward or forward in line.)

STRATEGY #5:
Representing with actions

Students can also use their bodies to represent key academic terms and ideas, as well as to demonstrate their understanding of those ideas. In math class, for example, the teacher might ask a group of students to lie down on the carpet in the shape of an acute angle or a trapezoid. Or, after reading a book about emotions, students might be asked to stand and act out the new words they've just learned, such as "satisfied," "furious," and "courageous." Younger children, especially, may benefit from using movements to help them grasp the basics of reading and math. During story time, for example, they might be asked to stomp their feet, representing a period, every time the teacher reaches the end of a sentence. Or, when learning to add and subtract, they might be asked to hop forward or backward on a number line.
Closing thoughts
Movement integration is an interdisciplinary method of teaching that incorporates physical activity into academic content areas, strengthening both kinds of learning, while also contributing to students' recommended total of at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity (CDC, 2013). Although teachers may be hesitant at first about integrating movement into classroom lessons, the research described above (and see Braniff, 2011; Martin & Murtagh, 2015) suggests that it is not difficult for teachers to implement such practices, and when they do so, they tend to view these pedagogies more positively.

More important, research suggests that movement activities in the classroom have a positive influence on children's overall physical activity and learning (Adams-Blair & Oliver, 2011; Erwin et al., 2011; Erwin, Fedewa, & Ahn, 2013) as well as boosting their interest levels, which supports greater sustained attention to lessons, allowing them to learn more effectively and commit concepts more easily to long-term memory (Hidi, 1990). In sum, the data provide strong support for the integration of movement lessons in the classroom, and the activities provided here may assist teachers in facilitating movement in their own classrooms.
References
Adams-Blair, H. & Oliver, G. (2011). Daily classroom movement: Physical activity integration into the classroom. International Journal of Health, Wellness, & Society, 1 (3), 147-154.

Ainley, M., Hidi, S., & Berndorff, D. (2002). Interest, learning, and the psychological processes that mediate their relationship. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 1-17.

Braniff, C. (2011). Perceptions of an active classroom: Exploration of movement and collaboration with fourth grade students. Networks: An On-line Journal for Teacher Research, 13 (1).

Brophy, J. & Alleman, J. (1991). A caveat: Curriculum integration isn't always a good idea. Educational Leadership 49 (2), 66.

Browning, C., Edson, A.J., Kimani, P., & Aslan-Tutak, F. (2014). Mathematical content knowledge for teaching elementary mathematics: A focus on geometry and measurement. Mathematics Enthusiast, 11 (2), 333-383.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2013). Comprehensive physical activity programs: A guide for schools. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Erwin, H.E., Beighle, A., Morgan, C.F., & Noland, M. (2011). Effect of a low-cost, teacher-directed classroom intervention on elementary students' physical activity. Journal of School Health, 81 (8), 455-461.

Erwin, H., Fedewa, A., & Ahn, S. (2013). Student academic performance outcomes of a classroom physical activity intervention: A pilot study. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 5 (2), 109-124.

Hidi, S. (1990). Interest and its contribution as a mental resource for learning. Review of Educational Research, 60 (4), 529-552.

Hidi, S. & Baird, W. (1986). Interestingness: A neglected variable in discourse processing. Cognitive Science, 10, 179-194.

Hidi, S. & Renninger, K.A. (2006). The four-phase model of interest development. Educational Psychologist, 41 (2), 111-127.

Lee, S., Burgeson, C., Fulton, J., & Spain, C. (2007). Physical education and physical activity: Results from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2006. The Journal of School Health, 77 (8), 435-463.

Martin, R. & Murtagh, E.M. (2015). Preliminary findings of Active Classrooms: An intervention to increase physical activity levels of primary school children during class time. Teaching and Teacher Education, 52, 113-127.

UK: Grammar Dance. (n.d.). www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-grammar-with-dance

Vazou, S., Gavrilou, P., Mamalaki, E., Papanastasiou, A., & Sioumala, N. (2012). Does integrating physical activity in the elementary school classroom influence academic motivation? International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 10 (4), 251-263.

Wright, B. (2010, May 25). Math dance (obtuse, acute, straight and right). PE Central. www.pecentral.org/lessonideas/

Originally published in April 2017 Phi Delta Kappan 98 (7), 34-37. © 2017 Phi Delta Kappa International. All rights reserved.

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Movement and learning in elementary school - kappanonline.org

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Integrating physical activity into elementary school lessons in reading, math, and other subjects can boost students' academic learning, while also helping them meet goals for physical education. Intuitively, many teachers have always known that physical activity plays an important role in student learning.

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This is a great read and has some awesome lessons in the appendix!

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Dance, according to the National Dance Education Organization:

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Dance, according to the National Dance Education Organization:

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Bodily movement is an adaptive necessity as well as a human birthright. As humans, we move for many reasons. We move for pleasure, communal bonding, ritual, and self-expression. When movement becomes consciously structured and is performed with awareness for its own sake, it becomes dance.
Check out the link below for this definition and for more information about dance and movement.

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Philosophy, Standards for Learning and Teaching Dance - National Dance Education Organization

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The Infusion of the Arts Appears to be Gaining a Stronger Foothold at a Time When Advocates Are Struggling to Ensure Time and Support for Their Disciplines

Photosynthesis may be an unlikely topic to inspire an opera or ballet, but in a 2nd grade classroom here recently, the children were asked to use dance to help them learn about that process.

"Do you think you're ready to use your whole body?" teacher Katie Wright-Sabbatino asked near the start of the lesson, which featured learning objectives in both science and dance.

Small groups of pupils in this class at Fort Garrison Elementary School brainstormed to come up with dance movements to convey elements of photosynthesis, including water, sunlight, carbon dioxide, and chlorophyll. They leaned, they reached, they flowed, sometimes with surprising grace.

The idea of integrating the arts, including dance, into the broader curriculum is not new, but it appears to be gaining a stronger foothold in public schools, proponents say, though national data are not available.

The growth comes as arts education advocates struggle to ensure adequate time and support for the arts in schools-whether music, visual arts, theater, or dance-amid the financial straits facing many districts and other challenges, such as pressure to boost test scores in core subjects like reading and math.

"It's a way of keeping arts in the classroom," said Laura M. Smyth, a senior associate at the Washington-based nonprofit Arts Education Partnership.

Instances of integrating dance, though apparently still quite limited, are scattered across the country, from public schools in Los Angeles and Reno, Nev., to suburban Minneapolis and the Baltimore County, Md., district, which includes Fort Garrison Elementary. And they span the curriculum, from science and math to social studies and English.

The lesson this month at Fort Garrison came out of a small, new program, dubbed Teaching Science with Dance in Mind, that provides professional development and support for several classroom teachers and dance specialists. The program was launched with the help of a $36,000 grant from Hands On Science Outreach, a Maryland-based nonprofit organization that recently closed its doors.

"We're addressing the science curriculum as required by the county and meeting the standards for dance education in a mutual learning experience," said Rima Faber, a longtime dance education expert who secured the private grant and directs the program. "The more we teach through dance integration, the more we realize how dynamically it brings deep and complex learning to children."

But Ms. Faber cautions that the growth of dance integration in schools is a long process.

"The impact of dance integration is gradually gaining recognition," she said, "but it has been a slow climb."

There's long been a concern among arts advocates about whether the disciplines that fall under their umbrella get enough time and attention in schools.

In an April speech, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan echoed the point.

"For decades, arts education has been treated as though it was the novice teacher at school-the last hired and first fired when times get tough," he said.

The issue seems especially pronounced in dance.

"We're the smallest of the four art forms," said Jane Bonbright, the executive director of the National Dance Education Organization, a nonprofit group based in Silver Spring, Md., that promotes education in the art of dance. "We're underfunded, and we are probably the least understood."

The most recent national data on dance education, dating back a decade, suggest that it's far less likely than music and the visual arts to be taught as an art form in schools.

A federal survey of public schools conducted in the 1999-2000 academic year found that dance instruction (not counting what takes place in physical education classes) was offered in only 14 percent of secondary schools, compared with 90 percent for music and 93 percent for visual arts. At the elementary level, dance was offered in 20 percent of public schools, according to the study from the National Center for Education Statistics.

New NCES data on the issue are expected out next year.

Movement for Meaning

Ms. Bonbright points to gains on the policy front for dance, especially the vast growth over the past two decades in the number of states, now 36, that offer a K-12 teaching credential in dance.

Another change, she said, is that dance, first introduced in schools mainly through P.E. programs, appears to be increasingly taught as an art form, which she argues is an important distinction.

"They are both valuable, but they must not be misunderstood one for the other," she said.

On its website, Ms. Bonbright's group says the "art of dance uses movement to create meaning about the human experience. It is far more than exercise or entertainment."

Arts education proponents suggest that studying the arts provides a variety of academic and social benefits to young people and can enhance students' ability to learn other subjects, including the development of skills in reading, language development, and math. It's seen as a powerful way to promote creativity and critical thinking, among other skills.

That said, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has found the overall research base regarding the impact of arts education on student outcomes in other subjects to be "inconclusive."

Research examining the effect specifically of arts integration on student achievement appears to show mixed results as well. For example, a 2007 research overview of studies from 2000 to 2005 suggested that while there are "many advantages" to arts integration, there was a "lack of strong empirical research" to support the notion that it boosts student achievement.

At the same time, the study in the International Handbook of Research in Arts Education, argued that focusing chiefly on standardized-test data is "misguided" and fails to fully capture cognitive gains and other benefits, such as improved student motivation.

The study said that for arts integration to succeed, it requires a strong commitment from classroom teachers and close collaboration with arts specialists, a point made by many dance advocates.

"You really need to have a dance specialist who knows what they're doing," said Ms. Bonbright. Effective integration, she said, should be done with "mutual support of both disciplines."

Ms. Bonbright points to a 2003 study of a program used in the Chicago public schools as a powerful example of integrated dance education's promise. The program, Basic Reading Through Dance, used visual and kinesthetic imagery to develop 1st graders' phonetic abilities, such as physically representing the alphabet symbols for sound combinations.

The study included a control group of pupils who did not participate, and it found "overwhelmingly positive" results for the participants' reading abilities.

'How Learning Should Be'

The lesson earlier this month at Fort Garrison Elementary School certainly appeared to engage pupils. The teachers involved were fired up afterwards.

"Seeing how it all jelled together, you could see the light bulbs going off," said teacher Jodi B. Cohen.

Principal Karen Harris also was enthusiastic. "This is how learning should be," she said. "It should be active, it should be engaging. It should use a variety of modalities. That's how we all learn."

Both new and long-standing examples of dance integration are also evident elsewhere.

In Minnesota, the Perpich Center for Arts Education, a state agency, has long promoted education in and through the arts, including dance. At a public school outside Minneapolis this month, an integrated dance program run by the center helped bring a lesson about the Underground Railroad to life.

"They're beginning to look at the idea of obstacles, how they can be represented metaphorically with the body," said Diane Aldis, the state dance education coordinator at the Perpich Center. "What is an obstacle [to freedom] the slaves might have encountered?"

An arts-integration initiative recently launched in Nevada's 63,000-student Washoe County district contains a dance strand. The Arts Infusion Project is backed by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Arts in Education program.

The goal was to create a "model program" for professional development in which classroom teachers are trained and coached by teaching artists to integrate standards based arts into other academic areas, said Rick Southerland, a visiting dance professor at Goucher College, in Baltimore, who is involved with the Nevada project.

Mr. Southerland said some teachers were a bit leery at first.

"Teachers are so stressed, adding one more thing" can be troubling, he said, "but once they got in there, they were just so excited."

The 672,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District has long offered dance both on its own and integrated across the curriculum as part of a larger arts focus, said Shana L. Habel, who works on dance programs in the district.

But dance recently took a hit as part of budget cuts.

"Last year, we had 60 full-time dance teachers," Ms. Habel said. "This year, we cut back to 43 teachers."

Ms. Habel said she sees integrated dance education as a powerful tool, but said she worries how it's used in some places.

"My concern is that integration doesn't just mean you can use surface connections. That's not true, authentic integration," she said. As an example, she cited "doing the Mexican hat dance ... during Latino heritage month."

"I would like to see the integration with dance become so rich and so deep that administrators ... say, 'Wow, we need that; we see what it's doing,' " Ms. Habel said.

Some dance education advocates confess to having mixed feelings about integrating dance with other subjects, as opposed to simply promoting its study as a discrete discipline.

But Mr. Southerland said that, given the pressures facing schools, flexibility is vital to help dance and other art forms get in the schoolhouse door or keep them there.

"If we want support, we have to get outside our own molds," he said, "talk to other educators, show them, 'This is how the arts help,' and support them."

Published in Print: November 17, 2010, as Schools Integrate Dance Into Lessons

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Schools Integrate Dance Into Core Academics

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Photosynthesis may be an unlikely topic to inspire an opera or ballet, but in a 2nd grade classroom here recently, the children were asked to use dance to help them learn about that process. "Do you think you're ready to use your whole body?"

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All Around This World's classroom and homeschool lessons for kids teach African dances through experience, engagement and FUN.
All of these multimedia lessons are available for purchase through All Around This World's page on TeachersPayTeachers.com or for free for students who take class each week online with Jay.

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Learn African dances with your kids -- All Around This World

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All Around This World's classroom and homeschool lessons for kids teach African dances through experience, engagement and FUN. All of these multimedia lessons are available for purchase through All Around This World's page on TeachersPayTeachers.com or for free for students who take class each week online with Jay. BONUS VIDEOS

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The Chinese New Year, otherwise known as the "Spring Festival", ushers in a period of family celebration and community festivities and lasts for fifteen days. The date changes from year to year and is determined by the lunar calendar. It falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice somewhere between late January and early February. The celebrations last for fifteen days, although in modern times most families celebrate for only five. It is the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar as well as the most joyous. Chinese New Year serves as a celebration of life's renewal, heralding the coming springtime as a time of reunion for family and friends.

There are many preparations in Chinese households leading up to the New Year that serve to clean the slate of the old year. They also promote fortune and prosperity for the family in the coming year. Pre-new year activities include a thorough cleaning of the house-especially doors and window openings-in order to remove the misfortunes of the previous year. Families take other purifying measures, such as purchasing new clothes, paying off old debts, and burning incense. Along with heralding the birth of a new year, everyone celebrates their communal birthday during this time-although they may also celebrate their individual birthdays during the course of the year as well.

New Years' Eve traditions are very extensive with many colorful customs to invite prosperity. Tables are laid with many foods to promote an auspicious beginning to the coming year. These include golden circular fruits such as oranges and foods like dumplings ( jiaozi) that signify hope of wealth and prosperity. Fish ( yu) is served as a symbol of plenty. Sticky rice balls ( yuanxiao) are served in sweet soup as symbol of family togetherness and happiness. Flower centerpieces are also used to decorate the house because they symbolize springtime and burgeoning new life.

Red is the favored color. It signifies happiness and is featured in clothing and wall hangings. Chun lian is a special Chinese couplet of good luck characters written in beautiful calligraphy on red paper and hung on the either side of the front door and sometimes across the top of the threshold as well. It is only placed there during the New Year's festival, and like Christmas decorations it is removed once the holiday is over. The couplet brings an upbeat message of life and hope and better things to come.

The entire family, including children, is encouraged to remain awake though New Year's Eve, playing games and having fun, feasting, and setting off fireworks. In the morning the children greet their parents and receive red envelopes of lucky money. Then the family goes door to door socializing with relatives and neighbors. During this time, transgressions are forgiven and gifts are exchanged. One must refrain from outbursts or speaking angry words, as the tone of the entire New Year is established during this time. The entire festival is marked by a spirit of joy, peace, and goodwill. The festival officially concludes on the 15th day with the lantern festival.

Though most of the New Year festivities are contained in the family home there are also communal celebrations. In many communities across the country there are communal parades which feature animals that are associated with the New Year: the lion: the dragon and the Nian. These creatures-real as well as mythical-have unique powers and characteristics that position them in the forefront of the festivities. The dragon is highly respected as the most powerful of all; the lion is touted as a symbol of joy and good luck; both are highlighted in the dance pantomimes performed in these parades. The Nian is a fearsome character from Chinese mythology with a frightening visage, which to the delight of the crowds, is frightened away by the lion and the splendid noisemaking instruments.

The New Year parade is a regular event in many communities that celebrate Chinese New Year. It often features a dragon dance as well as a lion dance. A New Year Dragon Parade may open the festivities as well as close the celebrations of the fifteen-day-long festival. It is led by the dragon, an animal revered in China for its magnificence and life-generating powers. The tradition of performing a dragon dance is thought to date back to the first century BCE. The dance was originally a ritual performed during a time of drought by groups of men of various ages to bring rain.

In the early 1900s, the Chinese who immigrated to America began to perform dragon and lion dances in New Year parades to bring good blessings and boost the spirit of the community. In California communities as well as across the United States, these dances have been a favorite spectacle in festival parades since the mid-twentieth century.

In the Chinese tradition, the dragon has a place of very high esteem and differs dramatically from those that appear in Western-world stories and sagas. Unlike its Western counterpart, a symbol of evil, a malevolent force to be vanquished and slain, the Chinese dragon is a benevolent creature exemplifying the life force and signifying good fortune.

In Western legends, dragons serve as an archetypal symbol of the underworld where the hero must confront the dark side of his/her nature. Once the hero slays the dragon-or makes peace with it during his/her underworld trials, the initiation is complete.

The Chinese dragons, however, are paid homage as celestial beings with royal bearing. They are invested with powers of regeneration that permeate the natural world and renew the cosmic order. Through their influence, the seasonal cycles of the natural world are maintained from year to year, or restored, if harmony is disturbed. As noted above, dragons are also known to be guardians of water and are invoked when rain is needed to replenish crops and when the flow of rivers needs to be controlled.

The role of the dragon in the traditional New Years parade is to drive away evil spirits that may be lurking abroad, to dispel negative energy left over from the previous year, and to usher in a year filled with good fortune and supreme happiness.. The dragon-figure costume is designed as a very long body of brilliantly-colored cloth in reds, golds, and greens. One person manipulates the head, and the body down to the tail is supported by many dancers who hold it up and control it's gyrations with sticks or handles during the parade procession. It is said that once the dragon's eyes are painted, the creature comes alive! Due the dragon's size, the dancers are required to have a great deal of discipline and physical stamina. It is no surprise that, traditionally, the dancers were all men and highly trained martial artists though now in some parades women may serve as dancers.

Firecrackers are staples of the New Year celebrations. In ancient times, red bamboo was burned for this purpose. Later, gunpowder was used to fill the red bamboo reeds and exploded to create loud sounds. This noise has an important role at New Year because it dispels bad spirits thought to be especially active during liminal (or borderline) periods of time. Because dragons are believed to hibernate in the winter, firecrackers are also used to keep the dragon "awake". Noisy firecrackers are an essential accompaniment to the lion, as well, during the New Year parade, creating his fierce roars that fend off the Nian monster.

Lions in the Chinese tradition bear very little resemblance to actual lions. These large cats are not native to China, and the ancient Chinese did not know what they actually looked like-they only learned about them from travelers' descriptions. Chinese artists used their imaginations to form an image of this creature. In Chinese culture the lion took on mythical proportions and signifies good luck and happiness as well as courage and strength.

In the New Year's parade the Lion dance is performed by two people In this dance, the lion mimics eating auspicious foods like oranges and red envelopes of lucky money, which the children "feed" him during the dance. The lion also may chase a ball or large "pearl" that represents the sun. There is loud music accompanying the pantomime made by musician using drums and gongs. Firecrackers are also set off during his dance. There is sometimes a mock battle of the lion fighting the Nian monster and vanquishing him. Traditionally the lion dance may also be performed to consecrate the opening of a building and at other civic commemorations.

The is a particularly gruesome monster that according to Chinese myth emerges from its hidden lair under the sea or in the mountains during the New Year festival. As the legend goes, the Nian satisfies its ferocious appetite by devouring crops and consuming people. Once upon a time, a village was being attacked by the Nian, and the people did not know what to do. The village shaman-priest instructed them to build their own lion-monster to fend it off. Because the Nian is believed to be afraid of loud noise and terrified by the color red, the villagers made banging sounds with instruments and dishes and wore red clothing to scare him off.

It is interesting to note that the Mandarin Chinese word for "year" is Nian, and a greeting of "xin nian kuai le" (roughly translated as "Happy New Year") is exchanged at this time. So, in essence, the performance of the lion dance and the scaring off the Nian are in effect a ritual representation of the passage of time. This custom finds a parallel in the Western noisemaking made at midnight on New Years Eve, which also signifies "out with the old and in with the new."

Activity 1. Introduction to Chinese New Year: What is a Chinese Dragon?

Introduction to Chinese New Year: What is a Chinese Dragon?

Read aloud from one of the books noted in the Extending the Lesson section which discuss aspects of the Chinese New Year or direct students to link to one of the EDSITEment selected websites featuring Chinese New Year customs. Discuss the pictures as you go along. Explain to the students that they are going to learn more about the Chinese dragon and lion figures, as well as another mythical creature named Nian.

Open a discussion by telling the students that the Chinese (Asian) dragon is very different from the western (European) dragon. Ask for volunteers to describe the western dragon they might have heard about in stories (a nasty creature, who eats humans, breathes fire, and flies with bat-like wings). Now look up descriptions of the Chinese dragon at Chinese Dragon Physical Appearance. Have different students read parts of the description aloud. (Omit the last three paragraphs, which are repeats.) Then access images of dragons at Dragons as Creatures of Power to compare dragons from different cultures including Asia available through the Field Museum of Natural History's Mythic Creatures's exhibit (along with a Resource guide for Educators) available through EDSITEment-reviewed resource ipl2. An optional activity is to make a Venn Diagram comparing the characteristics of the western and the Chinese dragon.

Now go to Chinese Dragon Habitats, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource ipl2. Have different students read the various descriptions aloud. Explain that throughout Chinese history most of the people have been farmers. Ask what is most important to a farmer's crops (sun and rain). Tell the students that in the main farming regions of China there is plenty of sun, but sometimes there is not enough rain. For this reason, farmers prayed to the dragons in hopes of having enough rain for their crops. Now read more about the role of the dragon to the students at Chinese Dragon Magic available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource ipl2.

Hand out the dragon pictures you previously downloaded and copied from Color a Chinese Dragon, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet Public Library, and make sufficient copies for your students. Do the same with the graphics of the parade dragon and other Year of the Dragon Colouring Pages available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource ipl2.

Color a Chinese Dragon and/or other images from Chinese New Year celebrations. Tell them they may color their pictures while you read aloud a folk tale about dragons.

Access "Four Dragons Folk Tales", available through EDSITEment-reviewed resource ipl2, and read it aloud. Ask if there are any questions about the appearance or function of the Chinese dragon before concluding the lesson.

Activity 2. A Monster Named Nian

Remind the students that one of the highlights of the Chinese New Year celebrations is a parade. Read them a story that helps explain some of the traditions associated with the parade. These relate to the Lion Dance where the Lion is called upon to defeat the Nian monster.

Ask if there are any questions about the story. Remind the students that the word "nian" means year as well as the monster. Explain that on the eve of the Chinese New Year everyone is so anxious to get rid of the old year to make way for the new that they open all their doors and windows. Now ask who can tell the meaning of "Guo Nian" (Goo oh Nee ahn, celebrate or welcome the (new) year). Tell the students that Chinese people often eat special rice dumplings known as "nian guo" during the New Year celebrations.

The monster, Nian, was not physically described in the story. Ask for volunteers to describe him as they envision him. Hand out paper and markers to each student. Have them draw their personal impressions of what this monster looked like -- the scarier the better.

Activity 3. Dragons and the New Year Parade

Dragons and the New Year Parade

Depictions of an authentic Dragon dance in a New Year parade can be found at the following sites. You may want to use them to introduce this lesson.

Since the New Year festival traditionally marks the beginning of the planting season in China, a major character is a dragon, bringer of rain and good luck. It is a huge puppet - the fierce-looking mask of bamboo or paper-maché worn by one man, and the long body of brightly colored cloth carried by the many dancers hidden beneath it. Spectators throw firecrackers at the dragon's feet, not only to frighten away evil spirits but also to keep the dragon awake. (Dragons hibernate during the winter.) Show the students the pictures and video clips of parade dragons and review background information. View images of San Jose's Golden Parade Dragon and share video clip of this Golden dragon glittering in the sun as he chases the Pearl in a festival parade from the China Historical and Cultural Project. Comment upon the bright colors and dragon features. Point out that this dragon is carried aloft by professional dancers.

Now access Chinese Dragon Poetry, available through EDSITEment-reviewed resource ipl2. After everyone enjoys the fireworks video (ask the students to explain why there are fireworks at the parade), have someone read aloud the poem at the top of the page. Then scroll down to the box entitled "Oriental Dragon Poetry." Click on "Happy Chinese New Year" and have a student read it aloud. Do the same with "A Great Big Dragon."

Go to San Francisco's Chinatown available through EDSITEment-reviewed resource ipl2. In the box at the bottom click on "The Parade Dragon." This is a highly detailed photograph of a dragon mask. After looking at it and discussing it, click on to the words below the picture ("click here to see this dragon ...") to bring up a Quicktime movie of a dragon parading in San Francisco's Chinatown. (Wait about a minute for the entire video to upload.) Then view it with the students. Make sure everyone hears the firecrackers.

Choose between these activities. 1) Have each student write a short poem about the New Year parade. 2) Have the students color the picture of a parade dragon downloaded from Year of the Dragon Colouring Pages available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource ipl2.

Activity 4. Chinese Lions and Lion Dancers

Explain that the lion did not originally live in China. The local people heard about lions from travelers and tradespeople, and they formed their own ideas of what the creature looked like. This might lead to a discussion about how different people envision a given object described in many different ways. Allude to the variety of images the students produced of the Nian in Activity 2. Access Shi Shi Lion Coloring Page available through EDSITEment-reviewed resource ipl2. In what ways do these creatures look like lions? (Similarities include general body build, tuft of fur at the tip of the tail, a mane, and a fierce expression.) In what ways do they not? (The figures are stylized, with curling hair, human-like noses, and huge eyes.) Now go to authentic Chinese Lion Dance photographs available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Chinese Historical and Cultural Project.

Discuss this picture in the same way as the previous one. Ask the students if they think the lions look scary and mean. (They certainly do!) Explain that actually these lion figures were considered helpful and protective, much like guard dogs. Pairs of lion statues (called "fu lions") are often placed at the entrance to Buddhist temples and other sacred places. Access the following images of a fu lion positioned in front of the Lama Temple in Beijing China serving as guardian. Now go to Lion Dancing, available through EDSITEment-reviewed ipl2. Read through the text with the students. Have them comment on the role of the lion in Chinese celebrations.

Tell the students that the lion often appears in a Chinese New Year parade. Unlike the dragon, a lion consists of only two people, one wearing the head and the other the furry body. Say that the lion appears in the parade not only because it is considered a lucky and benevolent creature but also because of its connections with Nian.

Access additional information through The Kingdom of Lions - The Chinese Lion Dance available through EDSITEment-reviewed resource ipl2). Ask for questions and/or comments.

Now go to Chinese New Year Lion Dance to see a drawing of lion dancers. Then access Lions, available through EDSITEment-reviewed resource ipl2.

Have students examine the mask of a lion used in a lion dance. Explain that the mask is made from strong but light materials, such as paper-mache and bamboo, and fits over a dancer's shoulders. He can move the lion's eyes, mouth and ears with his hands. The lion's body, which is attached to the head, consists of a long piece of cloth. It is often decorated with sequins and mock fur.

Access this page featuring a video clip of an actual lion dance. As the lion dances in the parade, it is often accompanied by three musicians playing a large drum, cymbals, and a gong. The loud noises are intended to chase away any evil spirits. Remind the students of how, in one story, the loud noises scared away Nian.

Ask students to consider how the lion dance is similar to the dragon dance. Then ask for differences. Access this video clip of an actual Dragon Dance.

Tell the students they will make lion masks using paper bags, markers, feathers, and fake fur. When they are done, display them in a prominent place. Students can also make colorful signs with the words "Guo Nian!"

The entire class can work in groups on a large paper dragon. The head is made by painting a large paper bag. The body consists of a long roll of packaging (butcher) paper, which can be decorated with feathers, glitter, and/or markers. When the dragon is complete, have groups of students wear it through the halls of your school, to the accompaniment of drums or cymbals.

Additional Student Reading:

The Runaway Rice Cake by Ying Chang Compestine and Tungwai Chau

Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn, Cornelius Van Wright, and Ying-Hwa Hu

Happy, Happy Chinese New Year! by Demi

Long-Long's New Year: A Story About the Chinese Spring festival by Catherine Gower, He Zhihong

Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin

The Dancing Dragon by Marcia K. Vaughan and Stanley Wong Hoo Foon,

This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong and Yangsook Choi

Additional Teacher Resources:

Chinese New Year Crafts (Fun Holiday Crafts Kids Can Do!) by Karen E. Bledsoe

Celebrating Chinese New Year: An Activity Book by Hingman Chan

Celebrating the Chinese New Year by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith and Lawrence Migdale

Holidays Around the World: Celebrating Chinese New Year: With Fireworks, Dragons and Lanterns by Carolyn Otto

Chinese New Year For Kids by Cindy Roberts

Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes by Nina Simonds, Leslie Swartz

Mooncakes and Hungry Ghosts: Festivals of China by Carol Stepanchuk and Charles Choy Wong

Selected EDSITEment Websites

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Lions, Dragons, and Nian: Animals of the Chinese New Year

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In this lesson, the students study the differences between eastern and western dragons and discover why the eastern dragons are associated with the Chinese New Year. They learn about the dragon dancers and lion dancers in the New Years parade and discover that firecrackers are set off to drive off evil spirits, particularly one called Nian.

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pdf version

This lesson plan was created by Sarah Brown with support from Pamela Lothspeich, an Asian Studies professor at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Padma Rao, a Hindu community member

Grade Level
Middle School Social Studies and Dance

Learning Objectives

Understand the role of dance in Indian culture and history by reading about Bharatanatyam and Bhangra

Discuss how religion impacted Indian society in the past with a specific focus on Bharatanatyam

Analyze the impact of Bhangra in North Carolina

Optional: Create a Bhangra dance

NCSCOS Essential Standards
Dance

6.C.1.1, 6.C.1.2, 7.C.1.1, 7.C.1.2, 8.C.1.1, 8.C.1.2, 6.R.1.1, 6.R.1.2, 7.R.1.2, 8.R.1.2

Optional: 6.CP.1,1, 7.CP.1.2, 8.CP.1.2, 6.DM.1.3, 7.DM.1.3, 8.DM.1.3

Social Studies

6.C.1.1, 6.C.1.2, 7.C.1.1, 7.C.1.2, 8.C.1.2, 8.C.1.3

Mini-Lesson:

1. Introduce today's topic by asking how dance portrays American culture. Dance can depict a society's values. Give examples of hip-hop moves and hip-hop culture.
Hip-hop culture originated in New York among Hispanic and African-American communities during the late 1960s. The style represents the cultures' moves from the streets or clubs.

2. In many communities, religion becomes intertwined with a society's values. Cultural expressions, such as dance, can reveal a religion's impact on the society. Society can revive past religious art forms. In addition, religious art forms can shed positive light on a culture.
Can you think of a cultural expression of America that went out of style, but has become popular again?

Activities:

1. Bharatanatyam is a classical dance in India. Dancers show their devotion to the Hindu gods and goddesses through their movements. Teach the basic tenets of Hinduism. Information down below.

2. Assess how much students know about Hinduism, Indian culture, and Bharatanatyam through questioning.

1. Explain Bharatanatyam has been around as far back as the 17th century, but has been revived in the modern period. Pass out the handouts and have students read quietly to themselves.

2. Have them actively circle words they do not know. After, have students define words among themselves and then with the class. Lead a discussion on the handout. Suggested topics include how does Bharatanatyam reveal the values of the Indian society (give specific examples), how does Hinduism shape Indian society and how is Bharatanatyam similar or different to dance here today.

We caution you to try not to teach the controversy of devadasis. It is very complex, and it is easy to be too quick to judge a culture without understanding the whole picture. I am attaching a handout on the history of Bharatanatyam and controversy of devadasis for teachers' personal knowledge. It is important to know this information to understand why Bharatanatyam has gone through a revival. Please do not hesitate to contact sarbrown@email.unc.edu if you have questions.

1. Next, watch the video of the beginning dance of Bharatanatyam. This dance performs salutations.

1. Ask the students to try and pick out where she bows to the deity.

2. Point out to the students how she beats her feet to the tala with the bells.

3. Ask them to notice how her facial expression changes like an actress.

4. At the end, ask them how she showed her devotion to the Hindu gods and goddesses.

5. Ask them what kind of emotion she was trying to convey, what kind of emotions did they feel about the dance?

2. Introduce the region of Punjab in India. Point to it on a map.

1. The dance Bhangra originated in Punjab. It is a harvest dance. After the dance was created, there was an influx of Sikhs who moved to Punjab. One can teach the basic tenets of Sikhism. Information down below.

2. However, emphasize that Bhangra is not a Sikh-specific dance.

3. Explain how Bhangra has evolved with western culture in North Carolina.
To illustrate this, give the example of how dance music has changed from the hip-hop 90's to techno now. Some Sikhs in North Carolina feel Bhangrahas been a way to diminish racial prejudice against the Indian community.

4. Pass out the article on Bhangra from the News & Observers shown on the Interlochen Public Radio website. Have students read quietly to themselves. After reading the article, lead a discussion on the handout.

5. Suggested topics are:

1. How Bharatanatyam differ from Bhangra?

2. What does the popularity of Bhangra in North Carolina do for Indian culture?

3. How has the Indian culture impacted North Carolina and American society

4. What are other cultural expressions that has helped shift attitudes about a certain society in North Carolina?

6. Emphasize how the fusion between two cultures adds to the cultural richness in North Carolina.

7. Next watch a video of a Bhangra dance from Bhangra Elite from UNC-Chapel Hill. Discuss what they watched.

1. What were their reactions?

2. How did Bhangra incorporate western culture into Indian culture?

Extension

1. Depending on time and space, you can have them follow along to the intro video of Bhangra given below.
LearnBhangraApp is a great YouTube series that shows different steps. You can use the first video of dhamaal only or use two or three of these videos. They are about five minutes each.

2. If you have time, you can have students create their own dance. Ask students to use their own music or Bhangra pop music online. They can put B hangra moves to them for a 30 second dance.
Make sure that music is school-friendly. They can research what moves they want to do. The LearnBhangraApp YouTube series would be a great choice!

Assessment

1. Have students look at Kathak, a north Indian dance. Show students two web sites provided below. Ask them to write a short paragraph comparing and contrasting Kathak to Bharatanatayam.

1. How do Kathak performances show Indian society in their dances?

2. Compare and contrast Kathak's and Bharatanatyam's ties to religion.

2. Have students find a Bhangra YouTube video.

1. Ask them to write a short "article" pretending to be a reporter.

2. Have them write about Indian culture's impact on North Carolina.

3. Ask them to write about Bhangra's impact on prejudice in North Carolina.

Resources
Bharatanatyam Handout News Article on Bhangra in North Carolina Information on Bhangra Information on Hinduism Note: NC schools teach students about the caste system. When you are teaching about Hinduism, please do not focus just on this issue. In the words of one journalist, "any generalizations about it [caste system] need to be regarded with some reservations."Information on Sikhism Map of India Video on Bharatanatyam Video on Bhangra Kathak Source 1 Kathak Source 2
Bharatanatyam Performed- A Typical Recital: Turn to page 45-47 for history of Bharatanatyam and conflict with devadasis
LearnBhangraApp

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pdf version This lesson plan was created by Sarah Brown with support from Pamela Lothspeich, an Asian Studies professor at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Padma Rao, a Hindu community member Grade Level Middle School Social Studies and Dance Learning Objectives Understand the role of dance in Indian culture

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Dance can offer the students better opportunities to understand cultures from over different places around the world. This website offer great lesson plans for elementary to secondary students.

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These websites are all great resources of teaching students about dance and cultures around the world. Some of them are just websites while others are lesson plans for implementing dance in the classroom!!

Dancing Around the World Lesson Plans

I like the lesson plans in this first website because the different lessons focus on a different culture and a dance that is important to that culture. Students are also move around and actually dance while learning about the importance of the particular dance. I also like how each culture and dance is covered in a week, so they really can dig deeper with the material, instead of trying to cover everything all in one sitting.

This lesson plan is geared for upper elementary or middle school students and even though the website states that it is an after school lesson, I think that it could be implemented as a lesson in the classroom. The lesson requires students to work in groups to research and present information on the different types of folk dances around the world. They have to answer questions that help them discover the story of the dance, how it relates to the culture and anything else about the history or culture that the dance expresses.

This lesson plan is developed for the primary grades because students in the primary grades are learning how their body moves and how to express their ideas and emotions through the different movements. This lesson plan is another one that allows the students to move and learn while they are moving. They also learn how to create movements to represent different meanings so that way they can tell a story.

This is a great website because it has a variety of links available. If you are looking for something fun and creative to get your students moving, there are links that teach you how to do different dances or dance moves (e.g. the bunny hop). There are also lesson plans available that teach about dance through different social studies lessons.

This is a fun website because it lists the different dance styles of different countries that were popular during a particular year. The only downside is that it only lists the 2000s instead of several decades.

I was immediately drawn to this website because it provides information, videos, and lessons all geared directly for kids. There are several dance styles listed and students can also select a country to learn about the different dances that are popular in that country.

This is a great website to see pictures not only of different dance styles but of almost any topic from around the world!

Hope you all enjoy the different resources that are available!!

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Teaching Students about Dance around the world

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These websites are all great resources of teaching students about dance and cultures around the world. Some of them are just websites while others are lesson plans for implementing dance in the classroom!! Dancing Around the World Lesson Plans I like the lesson plans in this first website because the different lessons focus on a different culture and a dance that is important to that culture.

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November is National Native American Heritage month. What better way to celebrate it than to sample the culture and explore the history of some groups within the 4.3 million people who identify themselves as Native American in the United States?

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This is a good place to discover more information on dance.

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This is a great book about how a young girl who doesn't feel like she fits the bill uses persistence to realize her dreams.

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Dancing In The Wings book by Debbie Allen

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Buy a cheap copy of Dancing In The Wings book by Debbie Allen. Sassy worries that her too-large feet, too-long legs, and even her big mouth will keep her from her dream of becoming a star ballerina. So for now she's just... Free shipping over $10.

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A teacher makes her classroom available to an unlikely dancer.

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Dance Is for Everyone book. Read 41 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Dancing is for EVERYONE. Even a 450-pound alligator! An alli...

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Several lesson plans for a teacher looking to implement movement in the classroom.

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Dance, Turn, Hop, Learn!: Enriching... book by Connie Bergstein Dow

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Buy a cheap copy of Dance, Turn, Hop, Learn!: Enriching... book by Connie Bergstein Dow. Dance, Turn, Hop, Learn! is a sourcebook for early childhood educators who are interested in adding a movement component to their curriculum. The book includes... Free shipping over $10.

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Poetry about Dance - a great read!

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Feel the Beat book. Read 49 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. An irresistible book of poems about dancing that mimic the rhythms of...

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Go Noodle has great learning videos that incorporate movement. There are also some great brain breaks! Enjoy!

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Dance lesson plan ideas

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Dance units: Elementary levels | WeTeachNYC

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These Dance units are for lower and upper Elementary Level students. Several are aligned with the Common Core and all are aligned with the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance.

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Lesson 1: Intro to Dance Classroom Click here to access Lesson Plan and Instructional Materials for Grade 1_Dance_Lesson_1: 1_Dance_Lesson_1

Overview:

Students will explore and demonstrate qualities of movement: shake, vibrate, sharp, smooth, swing, twist, wiggle, and spin.

Students will demonstrate controlling and balancing the body as they move in various energies while changing speed.

1A. Intro to Dance Classroom: The lesson includes a review of personal space concepts.
Grade 1 Dance Lesson #1: Intro to Dance Classroom 1B. Warm-up Routine: Grade 1 Dance Lesson #1: Warm-up Routine
1C. Warm-up Review of Vocabulary: The lesson review includes the term axial and introduces definitions of time, force, and energy.
Grade 1 Dance Lesson #1: Warm-up Review of Vocabulary
1D. Modeling Discuss Elements of Energy:
Using references to playground equipment, students learn about energy and effort in movement.
Grade 1 Dance Lesson #1: Modeling Discuss Elements of Energy
1E. Guided Practice Axial Force and Effort:
Through axial practice, students explore force and effort using playground equipment references.
Grade 1 Dance Lesson #1: Guided Practice Axial Force and Effort
1F. Modeling Discuss Elements of Energy:
Through locomotor practice of force and effort, students demonstrate the different verbs associated with these concepts.
Grade 1 Dance Lesson #1: Modeling Discuss Elements of Energy
1G. Guided Practice Locomotor Force and Effort: Students practice following the teacher's prompts combining force and effort.
Grade 1 Dance Lesson #1: Guided Practice Locomotor Force and Effort 1H. Guided Practice Freeze Dance and Cool Down: Grade 1 Dance Lesson #1: Guided Practice Freeze Dance and Cool Down Easy Access to All Video Lesson Segments: See playlist for this lesson.

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Lesson 1: Intro to Dance Classroom Click here to access Lesson Plan and Instructional Materials for Grade 1_Dance_Lesson_1: 1_Dance_Lesson_1 Overview: Students will explore and demonstrate qualities of movement: shake, vibrate, sharp, smooth, swing, twist, wiggle, and spin. Students will demonstrate controlling and balancing the body as they move in various energies while changing speed.

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Dance provides the opportunity to try something new and build skills throughout their life.

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Overview

The early grades are an ideal time to introduce children to different styles of dance. At this age, children are eager to explore all the ways their bodies can move and are open to taking risks and following cues. They enjoy moving to music and interacting with their peers on the dance floor.

What's more, students who have positive experiences with dancing at this age are much more likely to seek out these experiences as they get older. It's been shown that dance benefits children (and adults!) physically, socially, and emotionally. Your efforts to get your students dancing now may pay handsome dividends for them later in their lives.

These easy social dances are a great place to start. And in case you need a cheat sheet for leading the dancing, these dances are easily printable!

Circle

Basic Appalachian Circle Dance Music Suggestions
"A Bear With a Fiddle in the Middle of the Woods" by Brent Holmes
"Black-Eyed Daisy" by the Carolina Chocolate Drops

Hora Music Suggestions
"Hora" from The Greek Folk Instruments: Clarinet
"Hava Nagila" (any version)
"Freylekh Jamboree" by the Klezmer Conservatory Band

Scarf Dance Music Suggestions The dance is traditionally done with all dancers singing a call-and-response chant while dancing. Try "A Chant From West Africa" or another song from Call and Response by Ella Jenkins.

Basic Appalachian Circle Dance

Building community and group cohesion, circle dances can be found in many different cultures. You should plan to be the "caller" of this dance. Aim for 8 beats of music per movement (or longer if your students need it).

1. "All join hands and circle to the left."

2. "Halfway back down the same old track." Holding hands, circle back to the right.

3. "Step with your feet and clap the beat." Drop hands and clap to the rhythm while circling.

4. "Come into the center with a whoop and a holler." Grasp hands, walk to the center of the circle with a whoop, then back out.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 in any order you choose.

6. To end the dance, position yourself in the circle of students while they are circling left. Let go of the hand of the student on your left. Lead the line of students (with hands still joined) around the room, out the door, or wherever you would like to take them.

Hora

The hora is a traditional dance that is popular in Israel and Eastern Europe and enjoyed at weddings and other festive celebrations. The dance is done in a circle with joined hands and uses the 4-count "grapevine" step.

Count 1. Moving to the right, lift the left foot and cross it in front of the right foot, shifting weight to the left foot.
Count 2. Move the right foot right to join the left foot.
Count 3. Move the left foot behind the right as weight is shifted to the left foot.
Count 4. The right foot joins the left again.

Repeat numerous times. When your students are comfortable, mix it up:

Stop, raise joined hands, move toward the center of the circle and back out again, and then resume grapevine.

The leader (you first, later a student) drops the hand of the person on the right and leads the line around the room.

Scarf dance

Inspired by a women's dance from Togo, West Africa, this is a simple and fun dance activity for any age. Gather enough unique scarves so that each student will have one. The scarves must be long enough for students to loop around their waist.

1. Standing in a circle, loop scarf loosely around hips and hold it (don't tie!) together in front with the left hand.
2. Turn to the right and use the right hand to loosely hold the scarf of the person in front of you.
3. Step forward with the right foot, leaning slightly forward with the upper body.
4. Bring the left foot to the right, and stand up straight again.
5. Repeat 6 to 8 times.
6. Stop. Remove and pass scarf to the person behind.

Repeat steps 1 through 6 until scarves are back where they started.

Line

Conga Line Music Suggestions

"Hot Hot Hot" by the Island Club Players
"...Conga Line" by Gene Mitchell and the Big Coconut Band

Conga line

The conga line is a dance that originated in Afro-Cuban tradition. An easy and inclusive dance, today it is enjoyed at parties everywhere.

1. Form a line and place hands on the shoulders or waist of the person in front of you (or do the dance without contact).

2. Take 3 steps and kick, like this: step right, step left, step right, kick left.

3. Repeat starting with the opposite foot.

4. Keep going!

Partners

Kentucky Running Set Music Suggestions

Any track from Dancing Bow and Singing Strings by Tracy Schwarz (start with the first tracks, which are slower)

Kentucky running set

As the name implies, this mixer dance originates from the middle Appalachian Mountains. You will be the dance caller; students should find a partner. The dance typically includes a series of two-couple figures as well as movements in a big circle. For simplicity, this version includes just the "birdie in a cage" figure (steps 6-8); be sure to have students practice it before you put the dance to music.

1. "All join hands and circle to the left." With the whole group in a big circle and dancers next to their partner, move leftward 8 beats.

2. "Halfway back down the same old track." Walk right 8 beats.

3. "Into the center with a whoop and a holler." Move to center of the circle and back out again for 8 beats.

4. "Find another couple and circle up four. Circle to the left." Each couple finds another couple, joins hands, and circles left in this group of four.

5. "Circle to the right."

6. "Birdie in a cage." One dancer hops into the center of the circle and does an improvised dance (flap elbows like a bird, or anything else) while the other three hold hands circling right.

7. "This birdie out, the next one in." After about 8 beats of music, the first "birdie" hops out and joins the circle while her partner hops in. Repeat two more times for each dancer to have a turn in the "cage."

8. "Swing your partner." Partners join hands and turn in a circle.

9. "Find another couple and circle up four. Circle to the left." Each pair finds a different couple and joins hands, circling left..

10. "Birdie in a cage.".

11. "This birdie out, the next one in." Three times, then "swing your partner.".

12. Repeat steps 9 through 11 as many times as you like..

13. "All join hands and circle to the left." All students join hands in a big circle..

14. "Circle right.".

15. "Swing your partner.".

16. And last but not least: "Thank your partner!".

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Five Easy Social Dances for Early Elementary

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Overview The early grades are an ideal time to introduce children to different styles of dance. At this age, children are eager to explore all the ways their bodies can move and are open to taking risks and following cues. They enjoy moving to music and interacting with their peers on the dance floor.

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Some useful YouTube channels to get kids moving & grooving!

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Whether you're stuck inside because of the weather, you just need to change up the tone on one of THOSE days at home, or you're looking for ideas for brain breaks for your class, this collection of YouTube channels includes a heap of kids exercise videos to get kids moving, grooving and having fun.

The videos shared by these channels are perfect for a re-set, whether you are at home or at school.

For those of you wondering, what is a brain break? It's simply a short (under 5 minutes), engaging activity that teachers use to refresh and refocus student attention. A brain break should get the blood pumping and the brain working!

RELATED: See our complete library of AWESOME free brain breaks.

Kids Exercise Videos: 7 YouTube Channels to Get Kids Moving & Grooving

1. Debbie Doo: Great movement routines to simple songs, perfect for younger kids.

2. Cosmic Kids Yoga: A big collection of yoga routines presented as adventures for kids. Check out the short 2 minute videos for brain breaks or the longer stories if you have more time.

Does your class love yoga? Click through to see our dedicated list of fabulous kids yoga YT videos - this list includes quick yoga routines AND longer sessions for those with more time.

3. PBS SteveSongs: The Steve Songs videos feature a popular PBS performer.

4. The Learning Station: A huge range of fun action songs kids will love.

5. Have Fun Teaching: As an adult, the Fitness Songs are on the repetitive side but my girls love them! Better for younger grades.

6. Dance Sweat Live: The Mini Workouts feature simple dance routines to popular songs. Great for older kids too.

7. Move to Learn: Simple, fun workouts for children across a range of ages.

BONUS: Although not a channel, the DSDC Wellness Laughter Yoga Leap for Joy is fabulous fun if you have a large space to move around in.
What are your favourite Youtube channels for kids movement? Click through on the images below for more related resources;

Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.

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Brain Breaks: 7 YouTube Channels to Get Kids Moving

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Whether you're stuck inside because of the weather, you just need to change up the tone on one of THOSE days at home, or you're looking for ideas for brain breaks for your class, this collection of YouTube channels includes a heap of kids exercise videos to get kids moving, grooving and having fun.

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Check out the National Dance Education Organization web site!

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Philosophy, Early Childhood Standards - National Dance Education Organization

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Why dance is so important as other content subjects? Check out this website!

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Dance - and physical activity - should have the same status in schools as math, science and language. Psst: it may even help raise test scores, says Sir Ken Robinson.

For several years, I've been a patron of the London School of Contemporary Dance. In 2016, I was invited to give the annual lecture in honor of founding principal Robert Cohan, and I decided to talk about the role of dance in schools.

Before the lecture, I tweeted the title "Why Dance Is as Important as Math in Education." I had a lot of positive responses and a number of incredulous ones. One tweet said, "Isn't that going to be one of the shortest lectures ever?" Another said flatly, "Ken, dance is not as important as math." One person tweeted, "So what? Telephones are more important than bananas. Ants are not as important as toilet ducks. Paper clips are more important than elbows." (At least that was a creative response.) Some responses were more pertinent: "Is that so? Important for what and to whom? By the way I'm a math teacher."

I'm not arguing against mathematics - it's an indispensable part of the great creative adventure of the human mind. It's also intimately involved with the dynamics of dance. Instead, this is an argument for equity in educating the whole child. I'm talking about the equal importance of dance with the other arts, languages, mathematics, sciences and the humanities in the general education of every child.

Dance can help restore joy and stability in troubled lives and ease the tensions in schools that are disrupted by violence and bullying.

What is dance? It is the physical expression through movement and rhythm of relationships, feelings and ideas. Nobody invented dance. It is deep in the heart of every culture throughout history; dance is part of the pulse of humanity. It embraces multiple genres, styles and traditions and is constantly evolving. Its roles range from recreational to sacred and cover every form of social purpose.

Some people have long understood that dance is an essential part of life and education. In Dance Education around the World: Perspectives on Dance, Young People and Change , researchers Charlotte Svendler Nielsen and Stephanie Burridge bring together recent studies of the value of dance in all kinds of settings: from Finland to South Africa, from Ghana to Taiwan, from New Zealand to America. The low status of dance in schools is derived in part from the high status of conventional academic work, which associates intelligence mainly with verbal and mathematical reasoning. The studies collected by Nielsen and Burridge explore how a deeper understanding of dance challenges standard conceptions of intelligence and achievement and show the transformative power of movement for people of all ages and backgrounds. Dance can help restore joy and stability in troubled lives and ease the tensions in schools disrupted by violence and bullying.

A number of professional dance companies offer programs for schools. One of them is , a nonprofit based in New York City, which brings ballroom dancing into elementary and middle schools in some of the most challenging districts in the country. Using dance, the organization aims to improve social relationships especially among genders and to enrich the culture of the schools by cultivating collaboration, respect and compassion. Founded in 1994 by the dancer Pierre Dulaine, the program now offers each school twenty sessions over ten weeks, culminating in a showcase.

Toni Walker, former principal of Lehigh Elementary School in Florida, shares this story from working with Dancing Classrooms. "When this young lady first came to Lehigh, the file on her was probably two inches thick," Walker recalls. "She felt she needed to prove herself and make sure everyone knew she was strong and would fight." The girl didn't want to join the ballroom dancing program ... but participation wasn't optional. Soon, she found she had a natural ability. "In the next lesson, she had a little bit of a different attitude and we didn't have to fight with her to dance," Walker remembers. "She just got in line."

By the third and fourth lessons, Walker says, the student was transformed: "She carries herself differently; she speaks differently; she is kind; she is respectful; she has not had one [disciplinary notice], not one. Her mother can't believe what she sees. It's amazing. Amazing. The program is far greater than people understand."

In one evaluation, 95 percent of teachers said that, as a result of dancing together, students' abilities to cooperate and collaborate improved.

Dance education has important benefits for students' social relationships, particularly among genders and age groups. Many forms of dance, including ballroom, are inherently social. They involve moving together in synchrony and empathy, with direct physical contact. In an evaluation of Dancing Classrooms in New York City, 95 percent of teachers that as a result of dancing together, there was a demonstrable improvement in students' abilities to cooperate and collaborate. In a survey in Los Angeles, 66 percent of school principals said that after being in the program, their students showed an increased acceptance of others, and 81 percent of students said they treated others with more respect. Dance has economic benefits, too. As well as being a field of employment, dance promotes many of the personal qualities that employers recognize as essential in a collaborative, adaptable workforce.

One principal was especially impressed by the improvements in reading and math scores among her fifth-grade students. "There are no ifs, ands, or buts about the program's impact in the academic lives of our children," says Lois Habtes of the Emanuel Benjamin Oliver Elementary School in the Virgin Islands. "When I first got here, they were failing scores. Last year - our second year in the program - they got up to 83 percent. This year, our fifth grade scored 85 percent on the reading test, the highest in the school."

Dance and theater are mostly seen as second-class citizens in schools.

It's not just dance, of course. The success of Dancing Classrooms is an example of the well-documented relationship between physical activity and educational achievement. The trend in most US school districts is to cut phys ed and similar programs in favor of increasing time for math, science and English. These measures have simply not improved achievement as so many policy makers assumed they would.

A panel of researchers in kinesiology and pediatrics conducted a massive review of more than 850 studies about the effects of physical activity on school-age children. Most of the studies measured the effects of 30 to 45 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity three to five days a week on many factors - physical factors such as obesity, cardiovascular fitness, blood pressure and bone density, as well as depression, anxiety, self-concept and academic performance. Based on strong evidence in a number of these categories, the panel firmly recommended that students should participate in one hour (or more) of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day. Looking specifically at academic performance, the panel found strong evidence to support the conclusion that "physical activity has a positive influence on memory, concentration and classroom behavior."

Most children in public schools in the US receive some education in music and visual arts, patchy though it often is. But dance and theater are mostly seen as second-class citizens, and opportunities in the arts, in general, are lowest for students in areas of high poverty. "There are still millions of students who do not have access to any arts instruction. Many of them are in our poorer communities where the programs are arguably needed the most," says Bob Morrison, the founder and director of Quadrant Research.

Would it be okay to have millions of students without access to math or language arts? he asks. "Of course not, and it should not be tolerated in the arts. There is a persistent myth that arts education is for the gifted and talented, but we know that the arts benefit everyone regardless of their vocational pathways," he says. "We don't teach math solely to create mathematicians, and we don't teach writing solely to create the next generation of novelists. The same holds true for the arts. We teach them to create well-rounded citizens who can apply the skills, knowledge and experience from being involved in the arts to their careers and lives."
Excerpted with permission from the new book You, Your Child and School: Navigate Your Way to the Best Education by Sir Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica. Published by Viking, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Copyright © 2018 by Ken Robinson.
is a global leader in educational reform and a New York Times bestselling author. Professor Emeritus at the University of Warwick in the UK, he advises governments, corporations, education systems, and some of the world's leading cultural organizations. s the author of four novels and coauthor of several works of nonfiction, including the national bestseller "The Culture Code" (with Clotaire Rapaille), "The Element" and "Finding Your Element." ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This piece was adapted for TED-Ed from

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Why dance is just as important as math in school

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For several years, I've been a patron of the London School of Contemporary Dance. In 2016, I was invited to give the annual lecture in honor of founding principal Robert Cohan, and I decided to talk about the role of dance in schools.

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Dance can help students in STEM disciplines!

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Research and Innovation

Photo credit: Hernán Piñera. Shared under a Creative Commons license. Click for more information.

A proof-of-concept study at North Carolina State University finds that participation in dance programs helps students - including those in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines - develop skills such as creativity and persistence that benefited them in the classroom and beyond.

"Our core question was what drives students to participate in the arts at an institution where there are no arts majors and there is an emphasis on STEM," says lead author Fay Cobb Payton, a University Faculty Scholar and professor of information systems and technology. "We wanted to know what benefits students get from engaging in the arts when they're majoring in other disciplines.

"We found that study participants feel that they benefit substantially from participating in the arts - in this case, dance - and that, in this context, the arts can be viewed as a structure for fostering inclusion and nurturing persistence, among other things."

Over the course of a year, researchers conducted in-depth interviews and focus groups with 25 study participants who had been involved in on-campus dance companies as undergraduates. Fifteen of the participants were STEM majors, majoring in disciplines such as applied mathematics, engineering and chemistry.

Study participants reported that participating in the dance companies gave them a sense of community, a healthy outlet for expressing themselves, and access to a more diverse group of people than they found in their academic disciplines.

"Participants also reported that being involved in dance made them more creative in the way they approached problem-solving in the laboratory or classroom," Payton says. "For example, the dancers said they were accustomed to working as part of a group, and felt this helped them incorporate multiple viewpoints when tackling academic challenges."

Study participants also said they found a sense of rigor in the discipline of dance that mirrored the academic rigor they faced as students, but that many of their peers were dismissive of dance as a serious pursuit.

Anecdotally, the researchers found that there was a lack of awareness among other students about campus activities and opportunities related to the arts.

"This is a small, qualitative study," Payton says. "The next step is to look quantitatively at larger groups and other forms of the arts, such as music, with the goal of developing best practices for incorporating these diverse fields of interest in way that improves outcomes and well-being for undergraduates.

"We'd like to see more institutional support for the idea that STEM and the arts can complement each other. This isn't about training professional dancers, but about training students from a variety of fields in how to be creative, work well in groups and so on. It's good workforce preparation - and it also makes students happy. That's something which is often overlooked, but it's important."

The paper, " STEM Majors, Art Thinkers - Issues of Duality, Rigor and Inclusion," is published in the Journal of STEM Education. The paper was co-authored by Ashley White, a recent NC State Ph.D. graduate, and Tara Mullins, director of the dance program at NC State. The work was made possible by a grant from the NC State Foundation.

-shipman-

Note to Editors: The study abstract follows.
"STEM Majors, Art Thinkers - Issues of Duality, Rigor and Inclusion"
Authors: Fay Cobb Payton, Ashley White and Tara Mullins, North Carolina State University

Published: Oct. 3, Journal of STEM Education

Abstract: There is a growing interest in STEAM (STEM + Arts) education nationwide. To uncover why these interdisciplinary initiatives can play a significant role in the student educational experience, it is critical to identify characteristics of university students who are participating and enrolled in STEM and arts curricula. We are interested in students actively participating in dance curricula while pursing STEM degrees, and how the students perceive social inclusion given the dominant presence of STEM fields at a predominantly white institution (PWI). We conducted focus groups with undergraduate students from two NC State University dance companies. Focus groups transcripts were coded according to our research questions along with an additional taxonomy including academic emotional engagement, self-efficacy and level of activity. Sub-themes were analyzed using pattern matching and thematic analyses. Data themes included personal, academic and institutional issues, as well as career workforce preparation. Students indicated that rigor, stigma, enhanced problem-solving skills, interdisciplinary thinking, and increased diversity and inclusion opportunities characterize their dance experiences. These experiences highlight aspects of human diversity including ethnicity, race, gender identity and class, and how dance provides a safe zone that is significantly different than experienced in their STEM coursework. Current dance students expressed why the arts are an intentional part of their academic experiences. The students drew parallels to problem-solving approaches, team collaboration and data-driven application for the "think and do" ethos that is central to the university. Our findings offer STEM researchers and leaders, along with policy-makers and funding agencies opportunities to reframe the current thinking and approaches central to broadening participation in STEM.

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How Dance Can Help Students in STEM Disciplines

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Research and Innovation A proof-of-concept study at North Carolina State University finds that participation in dance programs helps students - including those in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines - develop skills such as creativity and persistence that benefited them in the classroom and beyond.

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Dance helps the the students develop empathy

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Schools are increasingly using movement and expression as vehicles for teaching kids social-emotional skills.

Audrey Cleo Yap

"Ch-ch-tsss. Ch-ch-tsss." On a chilly Wednesday morning, Baja Poindexter sounded out the steps of the rumba to a classroom of fifth-graders at West Athens Elementary School, located in one of Los Angeles's most violent neighborhoods. She encouraged her class of mostly Latino students to do the same. They tenuously clasped each other's hands in ballroom dance "frame," or body position, and swayed to the music at "Miss Baja's" command. "Side, together, to the lady! Side, together, to the gentleman!" she bellowed.

Toward the end of the hour, the students grew restless and squirmy, the volume of their chatter drowning out Poindexter's voice. She paused. "You've got enough things against you in the outside world. When you come to school, it should be a safe space for you, but you have to make it that way by being respectful to each other."

Poindexter is a teaching artist for Dancing Classrooms, a nonprofit based in New York City that brings ballroom dancing to schools primarily in underserved communities. Started by the dancer Pierre Dulaine in 1994, the 10-week program was featured in the 2005 documentary Mad Hot Ballroom and uses ballroom as a vehicle for teaching elementary- and middle-schoolers social-emotional skills like respect and teamwork and, by extension, empathy. For many underprivileged students, in-class time with programs like Dancing Classrooms is the only time they will have regular exposure to the arts.

"You can't touch someone in a ballroom-dance frame and that person, for any length of time, be an 'other,'" said Rodney Lopez, the global program director.

For Poindexter, 26, teaching ballroom is also an empathic exercise. Growing up in Chicago's South Side, she started working at age 12 to help financially support her family while participating in every free or low-cost dance program she could find. She often used dance as an outlet for the same frustrations she sees in her students at West Athens. She said one of her classes last year descended into a collective crying fit when students threw verbal jabs at each other about relatives dying from gang violence.

"They're at a disadvantage, and, at some point, they realize they're at a disadvantage," she said. "Will dance keep them away from some of these negative things? I do believe that, and that's why I teach."

And by the end of 20 classes, which culminate in a regional showcase and competition, the effects in the classroom are palpable: In a 2014-2015 survey of L.A.-area school principals, 66 percent reported an "increased acceptance of others" among their student bodies, while 81 percent of students said they treated others with more respect, following the program. Rob Horowitz, the associate director of the Center for Arts Education Research at Columbia University's Teachers College, recently conducted a two-year study on the program in New York City whose results have yet to be published. In year one (2013-14) of the study, 95 percent of teachers reported their students improved cooperative and collaborative skills; researchers observed 95 percent of students demonstrating cooperative skills.

"They're more respectful toward the girls. In the morning when we go into class, they always say, 'Ladies first.' [After the 10 weeks], I call them ladies and gentlemen so they remember," said Michael Pe ñ ate, a teacher.

It's a similar belief in the power of movement that prompted Ricka Glucksman Kelsch to start Dance and Dialogue. The free one-day workshop convenes middle-schoolers from various socioeconomic strata in L.A. County to take master dance classes in different genres; last year's event featured a class taught by a deaf instructor. They also bond with each other by sharing personal stories in small group sessions modeled on the Native American talking circle. Topics range from coming out to parental substance abuse, and Kelsch credits the willingness of students to share to their common interest in dance. "These kids don't know each other. They would never tell each other this," she said.

Kelsch teaches dance part-time at the elite private school Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica (the Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel and actress Kate Hudson are alums) and was partly inspired by her own privileged students, some of whom she said "didn't know that some students wake up and, less than a mile away from Crossroads, don't have food to eat, don't have outfits to put on, wear the same clothes every day."

In its first year, Dance and Dialogue drew 80 students; now in its third, the workshop is expanding to two days (one for middle-schoolers and one for high-schoolers), and Kelsch anticipates over 300 students will participate. Approximately 80 percent of the students will hail from underprivileged communities.

Studies have shown the cognitive benefits students experience through being exposed to dance and other art forms, which is then linked to improved test scores and grade-point averages, especially for disadvantaged students. However, empathy-the notion that someone can share in and feel the feelings of another-is a squishy concept. It's also not always easily quantifiable, although a 2010 University of Michigan study indicated declining rates of empathy among college students which some attribute to lack of interaction and play with peers at a younger age, qualities inherent in dance.

"[Dance] is incredibly effective in terms of social-emotional development and in terms of being able to incorporate kids from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different social backgrounds and have them do something common," said Columbia's Horowitz. Horowitz is leading a two-year study on Dancing Classrooms commissioned by the organization.

While the long-term effects on students' capacities to be empathic aren't yet clear, Horowitz's findings suggest a lasting impact. "Empathy is hard to observe, but we do see kids helping each other with the dance or seeming to care about each other. We know that we can't reduce everything from the arts to a number, but we work on it."

Numbers, though, are crucial for making the case that arts education deserves a place in the classroom. Since the 2008 recession, arts funding in school districts around the country has been adversely affected, making programs cost-prohibitive for schools in low-income communities in particular, where other sources of funding are often hard to come by.

Last year, the Los Angeles Unified School District revealed the results of its Arts Equity Index, a survey of school principals on arts instruction and access at their schools filtered by factors like local income and professional development for arts teachers. LAUSD officials then categorized the approximately 635 participating schools' programs in categories that ranged from "non-existent" to "excelling." The results were abysmal, revealing what some officials had feared: that arts education access had been restricted to mostly affluent schools while poor ones languished. Dance programs were particularly lacking.

"What we find ourselves doing sometimes is putting the fewest amount of dollars in the schools where the students need it the most," Rory Pullens, the district's head of arts education, told an audience at an event last March. In an email, Pullens said he hopes to boost LAUSD's arts budget to $33 million in the 2016-17 school year from its current budget of $26.5 million; some argue a robust program would require $45 million in funding.

The 1970 Ryan Act compounds the problem for dance curriculum specifically in California. Pioneered by teacher-turned-congressman Leo J. Ryan, it abolished dance- and theatre-specific teaching credentials in the state, creating a hurdle for specialists to teach. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this may not have been Ryan's intention, but Ryan himself did not live to formally clarify its language: In 1978, he was gunned down while investigating the Peoples Temple settlement (a.k.a. Jonestown) in Guyana.

But there are places bridging the gap between student populations who have access to arts education and ones who don't. At Gabriella Charter School (GCS) in East L.A.-where 88 percent of students are considered socio-economically disadvantaged, qualifying for free or subsidized lunches-dance is an integral part of the K-8 school's curriculum. GCS students dance for at least one hour day, often integrating movement with academic subjects: Think of a "digestive dance" to help learn how food moves through the digestive system in fifth-grade science or original choreography inspired by chemical bonds in eighth-grade chemistry. Students also learn to critique each other's dances, which, the principal Rhonda Sivaraman argued, makes them more empathic toward each other.

But even a dance-heavy curriculum is not necessarily a treacly, "You Got Served"-style panacea to issues like bullying. Much of the evidence that dance is an effective tool for improved school environments and student relationships is anecdotal and survey-based. It also relies on variables like a school's administrative investment and program continuity, the latter of which goes back to funding. In a three-year study of dance education in Utah (led by Horowitz and published in 2008), school teachers reported positive impacts on students' social skills, but 28 percent were "not sure" if peer relations improved.

"I cannot say we've never had instances [of bullying], but if you can show me a school that has had no bullying or behavioral problems, please point it out," said Sivaraman.

Still, dance can be an effective tool for conflict resolution. When Sara Potler LaHayne studied as a Fulbright Scholar in Bogotá, she observed Colombian students bonding with each other over reggaeton music and dancing, engaging with each other more than they were with textbook lessons about compassion and diversity they were learning in class. The experience inspired her to start Dance 4 Peace in 2008. Later re-branded as Move This World, the nonprofit outfits schools with a video-based curriculum of daily ritualized tools (movements and mantras, for example) designed to help students and teachers manage stress and express emotions.

"Think '8-Minute Abs' but for emotional well-being. Empathy is a muscle that we have to flex. It takes active work. You don't just check the box that you're emotionally intelligent," said Potler LaHayne of the program, currently in 34 Title I schools. The results are encouraging: Move This World partners reported an aggregated 37 percent decrease in incidents of conflicts from the 2013-2014 to 2014-2015 school years, although the decrease cannot be exclusively attributed to using the curriculum.

Certainly it's a nice idea, that somehow if students, regardless of ability or class, could simply "dance out" their problems during the school day.

"Dance is the ultimate form of expression, which sounds elitist," Kelsch said. "But when I watch West Side Story, I say, 'If we could just solve the world's problems like that.' Just do a pirouette and BOOM. 'I'm mad at you.' Wouldn't that be great?" She laughed. If only it were that simple.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Audrey Cleo Yap is a multimedia journalist based in Los Angeles. She covers entertainment, education, and sports.

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Schools are increasingly using movement and expression as vehicles for teaching kids social-emotional skills. "Ch-ch-tsss. Ch-ch-tsss." On a chilly Wednesday morning, Baja Poindexter sounded out the steps of the rumba to a classroom of fifth-graders at West Athens Elementary School, located in one of Los Angeles's most violent neighborhoods.

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A Curriculum Without Dance or Movement Is Incomplete

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A Curriculum Without Dance or Movement Is Incomplete

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Integrating Dance and Creative Movement Throughout the Curriculum

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Here is a compilation of articles and activities aimed toward using more dance in the classroom.

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Classroom Dance Activities | Dance Education Resources

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Explore EducationCloset's archive of dance activities and resources. Integrate dance into your classroom education with these fresh ideas today.

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This is a good way to teach shapes and check comprehension about shapes in lower elementary. Teacher will challenge students to make shapes such as a triangle, alone or in a duo. Try parallel lines. Change to perpendicular.

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This websites offers a lot of resources and links for dance.

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Dance Links & Resources

Continue your journey into the world of dance by traveling around the web.

Dance Education Resources

Resources on Individual Artists

The CBC and Radio-Canada websites, as well as the sites of the CBC Archives and the archives de Radio-Canada, offer a wide range of documents about many dance artists. Use their search engines to access interviews and videos on a particular dance artist.
Here are some of the many dance artists included in these websites:

Study Guides and Additional Resources

Sites for students

Ballet Education Resources

Canadian Dance Service Organizations

Dance Educator Organizations

International Dance Service Organizations

Canadian Dance Libraries, Archives and Resources

International Dance Libraries and Archives

Dance Book Publishers

Centre national de la danse, France
www.cnd.fr

Contact Collaborations, Inc., USA
http://www.contactcollaborations.com

Dance Collection Danse
www.dcd.ca

Dance Books, UK
www.dancebooks.co.uk

Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc., USA
www.humankinetics.com

Oxford University Press, USA
www.oup-usa.org

Princeton Book Company, USA
www.dancehorizons.com

Routledge, USA
http://www.routledge-ny.com

Theatre Books
www.theatrebooks.com

The Banff Centre
www.banffcentre.ca/press

Wesleyan University Press, USA
http://www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

Dance Film and Video Distributors

Canadian Dance Media

International Dance Media

Dance International Magazine
http://www.danceinternational.org/

Ballet and Dance, UK
http://www.ballet.co.uk/

Ballet-tanz aktuell, Germany
www.ballet-tanz.de

Dance Europe Magazine, UK
www.danceeurope.net

Dance Magazine, USA
dancemagazine.com

Dansenet, France
www.dansenet.com

La danse, France
www.ladanse.com

London dance, UK
www.londonddance.com

Mouvement, France
www.mouvement.net

The Dance Insider, USA
www.danceinsider.com

The New York Times Dance Reviews, USA
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/arts/dance/

The Village Voice, USA
http://www.villagevoice.com/dance/

Educational podcasting for teaching and learning, UK
http://www.recap.ltd.uk/podcasting

Dance and Technology

Additional dance links pages

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Continue your journey into the world of dance by traveling around the web. Dance Education Resources Resources on Individual Artists The CBC and Radio-Canada websites, as well as the sites of the CBC Archives and the archives de Radio-Canada, offer a wide range of documents about many dance artists.

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Member Dashboard and follow the instructions emailed to you to log in. If you did not receive the email, click here to view it. Once logged in, please click on the Profile tab to confirm your contact information is correct, input your demographic data, and select your online forum and email communication preferences. Click here for help orienting yourself with the new website. If you have any issues using the new site or are unable to log in, please complete this form.

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The National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) is a non-profit, membership organization dedicated to advancing dance education centered in the arts for people of all backgrounds. NDEO provides dance artists, educators, and administrators of all backgrounds a network of resources and support, a base for advocacy and research, and access to professional development opportunities that focus on the importance of dance in the human experience.

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FCIT (the Florida Center for Instructional Technology) and ETC (the Educational Technology Clearinghouse) provides digital content, professional development, and technical services supporting the appropriate integration of technology into K-12 and preservice education. ©2009 Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida

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Dance/USA - The national service organization for professional dance.

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Dance/USA sustains and advances professional dance by addressing the needs, concerns, and interests of artists, administrators, and organizations. By providing national leadership and services, Dance/USA enhances the infrastructure for dance creation and distribution, education, and dissemination of information.

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Research Guides @ Fordham: Dance: Famous Dancers/Choreographers

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Library research guide on many aspects of dance

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These dancers have made their mark on the world.

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Over the past century many exceptional dancers from all styles of dance have graced dance floors, television, movies and the big stage with their talents.

But when it comes to individual dancers, it can be hard to say who has the best moves. Great dancing skill involves great poise, power and poignancy.

The following list highlights some of the best dancers of the 20th century-selected for their fame, popularity and influence around the globe.

Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948-present)

Known as the best living male ballet dancer, Mikhail "Misha" Baryshnikov is a famous Russian dancer. In 1977, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his work as "Yuri Kopeikine" in the film "The Turning Point." He also had a significant role in the last season of the television series "Sex and the City" and starred in the movie "White Nights" with American tap dancer Gregory Hines.

Sammy Davis, Jr, (1925-1990)

American singer, dancer, actor and comedian Sammy Davis, Jr. was an entertainer remembered mostly for his tap dancing ability. His mother had been a tap dancer and his father a vaudevillian. He traveled the circuit with his father at the age of 3 and began tap dancing at the age of 4. After discharge from the Army in 1946, he rejoined his father and perfected his performance by doing flash-styled tap dancing and impressions of popular screen stars and singers, playing trumpet and drums, and singing to the accompaniment of Sammy Sr. and his Uncle Will Mastin's soft-shoe and tap as background. Years later, he befriended Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and became a member of their group of friends, known as the Rat Pack.

Gene Kelly (1912-1996)

An American dancer, Gene Kelly is remembered for his highly energetic and athletic dancing style. He is one of the biggest stars and greatest innovators during Hollywood's golden age of musicals. Kelly considered his own style to be a hybrid of various approaches to dance, including modern, ballet and tap.

Kelly brought dance to theaters, utilizing every inch of his set, every possible surface, every sweeping camera angle to break out of the two-dimensional limitation of film. He is well-known for his performance in Singin' in the Rain.

Patrick Swayze was a well-known American actor, dancer, and singer-songwriter. His mother was a choreographer, dancer and dance instructor. In 1972, he moved to New York City to complete his formal dance training at the Harkness Ballet and Joffrey Ballet schools. His dance moves hit the mainstream when he wowed audiences in 1987 starring as a dance instructor in the popular movie Dirty Dancing.

Gillian Murphy (1979-present)

Gillian Murphy is a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre and Royal New Zealand Ballet. Murphy joined the American Ballet Theatre at the age of 17 as a member of the corps de ballet in August 1996, and was promoted to soloist in 1999 and then to principal dancer in 2002.

Michael Flatley (1958-present)

Michael Flatley is an American Irish dancer, famous for producing Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. He began dancing lessons at age 11 and at age 17 was the first American to secure a World Irish Dance title at the World Irish Dance Championships. Flatley was taught dance by Dennis Dennehy at the Dennehy School of Irish Dance in Chicago, then went on to produce his own show. In May 1989, Flatley set a Guinness Book world record for tapping speed at 28 taps per second and subsequently broke his own record in 1998 with 35 taps per second.

Ginger Rogers (1911-1995)

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer and singer, widely known for performing in films and RKO's musical films, partnered with Fred Astaire. She appeared on stage, as well as on radio and television, throughout much of the 20th century. Rogers' entertainment career was born one night when a traveling vaudeville act came to town and needed a quick stand-in. She then entered and won a Charleston dance contest which allowed her to tour for six months. Then, she started her own vaudeville act, which traveled to New York City. She took radio singing jobs and landed a role in her Broadway debut of "Top Speed." Within two weeks, Rogers was discovered and chosen to star on Broadway in "Girl Crazy" by George and Ira Gershwin. Astaire was hired to help the dancers with their choreography. Her appearance in "Girl Crazy" made her an overnight star at the age of 19.

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Most Famous 16 Dancers of the Past Century

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Over the past century many exceptional dancers from all styles of dance have graced dance floors, television, movies and the big stage with their talents. But when it comes to individual dancers, it can be hard to say who has the best moves. Great dancing skill involves great poise, power and poignancy.

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For 's 90th anniversary issue, we wanted to celebrate the movers, shakers and changemakers who are having the biggest impact on our field right now. There were so many to choose from! But with the help of dozens of writers, artists and administrators working in dance, the Dance Magazine staff whittled the list down to those we felt are making the most difference right now.

Click through the links below to find out why they made our list.
Michelle Dorrance Benjamin Millepied Katherine E. Brown Sydney Skybetter Marc Bamuthi Joseph Monica Bill Barnes Justin Peck Linda Shelton Alastair Macaulay Ohad Naharin Gilda Squire Christy Bolingbroke The Actors Fund International Association for Dance Medicine & Science Michael M. Kaiser Misty Copeland Maria Kochetkova Ryan Heffington Robert Battle Pamela Tatge Lourdes Lopez Andy Blankenbuehler Alexei Ratmansky Amy Fitterer Gina Gibney The Harkness Foundation for Dance Joe Lanteri Larissa Saveliev Glorya Kaufman Max Richter Joby Talbot
Who didwe miss? Send us your suggestions. We'll be publishing a Readers' Choice companion to this story.

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international association for dance medicine & science

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The Most Influential People in Dance Today

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For Dance Magazine's 90th anniversary issue, we wanted to celebrate the movers, shakers and changemakers who are having the biggest impact on our field right now. There were so many to choose from! But with the help of dozens of writers, artists and administrators working in dance, the Dance Magazin...

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Follow this link to discover the National Core Arts Standards regarding dance and find out how you can make the students' movements intentional.

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Dance Model Cornerstone Assessments | National Core Arts Standards

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Artistic Processes are the cognitive and physical actions by which arts learning and making are realized. National Core Arts Standards are based on the artistic processes of Creating; Performing/ Producing/Presenting; Responding; and Connecting.

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The following are the 11 anchor standards.  Click the link to see how they apply to dance.
1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work
2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
3: Refine and complete artistic work.
4: Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation.
5: Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
6: Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work.
7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
9: Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
11: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.

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Follow this link to discover all of the National Core Arts Standards and explore what you can do with dance and other art forms.

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What are the National Arts Standards? A process that guides educators in providing a unified quality arts education for students in Pre-K through high school Read More

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Dance Supports More than Education - It Supports Mental Health and Overall Brain Health

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Dance Supports More than Education - It Supports Mental Health and Overall Brain Health

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Check out this link to how dance and movement therapy helps every human strengthen their emotional well-being.

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The human brain is amazing and unique! Our brains are comprised of billions of organized nerve cells that are precisely connected and contai n groups of neurons that govern all behaviors and bodily functions. This essential organ has 100,000 miles worth of blood vessels and yet accounts for only 2 percent of our body weight! Involuntary functions such as circulation, temperature regulation, respiration, and sensory perception are controlled by this neural activity. The brain is the primary center of operation and, as part of the nervous system, it is responsible for our emotions, thoughts, sensations, reasoning, consciousness, cognition, and memory.

While many experience a continuum of healthy brain functioning, there are also many people living with brain disorders caused by illness, genetics, or trauma. Brain afflictions include: brain injuries, brain tumors, neurodegenerative diseases (such as Parkinson's and dementia), and mental illness. These disorders often result in physical and cognitive disabilities, sensory impairment, and changes in mood, behavior, and personality. Feelings such as frustration, depression, and loss are common for those affected.

Dance/movement therapy (DMT), based on the principle of mind-body connection, engages the sensory systems, and stimulates the physical, emotional, and cognitive areas of functioning simultaneously. This psychotherapeutic modality supports brain health and improves quality of life, as participation enhances coping skills and compensates for sensory deficits. DMT also offers the opportunity for individuals with brain disorders to express their feeling states, regardless of functional level.

Brain Awareness Week is a worldwide campaign coordinated by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, a philanthropic organization that has been committed to educating people of all ages about brain health and advancements in brain research since 1993. Let us honor their mission and move together towards brain wellness!

References and Resources:

Related Reading

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Dance/Movement Therapy Supports Brain Health | ADTA

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The human brain is amazing and unique! Our brains are comprised of billions of organized nerve cells that are precisely connected and contain groups of neurons that govern all behaviors and bodily functions. This essential organ has 100,000 miles worth of blood vessels and yet accounts for only 2 percent of our body weight!

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Citation For the Australian Article Found under "Research and Support"

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Citation For the Australian Article Found under "Research and Support"

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Torzillo, M. miriam. torzillo@my. jcu. edu. a., & Sorin, R. (2018). Dance ANYway: Toward a Pedagogic Framework for Teaching Dance. International Journal of Arts Education, 13(3), 39–53. https://doi-org.ezproxy.gvsu.edu/10.18848/2326-9944/CGP/v13i03/39-53(Article)

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You are entering a secure login area in which designated applications at GVSU are allowed to use your login credentials entered on this site for authentication. This allows you to login once with your network ID and password and have access to designated applications without logging in multiple times.

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This is an interesting article supporting the fact that schools, even in Australia, are heading in the wrong direction, and that holistic approaches to education are the best bet for student learning.

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Read this book about Nate, the only boy in his ballet class. A tale your students need to hear.

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After seeing a ballet performance, Nate decides he wants to learn ballet but he has doubts when his brother Ben tells him that only girls...

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Teacher can practice singing this song with the students first. Then repeat, stand in a circle, and touch body parts mentioned in the song. It could be used to get attention from students and warm up their body for movement. Especially for lower level students, teachers can also try to speed up the singing and let students touch their body parts as fast as they can. They would be super excited!

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06 Body  Head Shoulders Knees & Toes Speeding Up ¦ Nursery Rhyme ¦ Super Simple Songs

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This is an movement activity which can help students focus and collaborate with others. Each student will have a partner and face each other (sitting or standing). A is the leader and moves slowly enough that B can mirror the movements. Coach the students to use slow, smooth movements so that an audience member would be able to tell who is the leader from the follower. Then coach students to switch roles without talking or being told to switch by the teacher (Shastri, 2013).

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ENCHANTED CIRCLE THEATER                                          Arts Integration E-Library

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Excerpted from Actively Engaged:Theater Games as a Dynamic Teaching Tool in the Classroom, written by Priscilla Kane Hellweg and due out in 2016.

Notes: The Mirror Game develops so many life skills and performance skills that it is generally used in every college theater class around the country. It adapts beautifully to participants of all ages. I have led the Mirror Game with wiggly first grade students, sassy eighth graders, sophisticated college students, and in nursing homes with residents in wheel chairs.

The Mirror Game can develop into a kind of meditation on leading and following, on visual listening, and on what it means to be "a partner" to another person. It also provides a gentle challenge for teaching others how to initiate action. Many students have told me they learned how to be creative while leading in the mirror game.

Object of the Game: To practice leading and following another persons movements as if in a mirror mirroring each others actions.

Recommended for: Groups in Kindergarten - Adult
Time needed: 30 minutes
Room set up: A cleared space with room for group to stand in a large circle.
Materials Needed: None

Skills Development: Creativity and inventiveness, Leadership, Non-verbal Communication, Patience, Self Awareness, Self-control, Spatial Awareness

How To Play: (Downloadable PDF of the Mirror Game)

Partners stand facing each other, approximately 1.5 feet apart. One person chooses to lead, the other to follow.

Encourage the participants to begin SLOWLY, in a way that their partner can follow, and move in synchronized gestures and movements as if they are mirror images of the other: Raise one arm, then the other. Shift weight from one leg to the other. Move both arms in slow circles. The essential challenge is to move as ONE.

Have participants take turns, leading and following.

COACHING NOTE: I regularly say - if you want to trick someone - trick me. Make it hard for me to know who is leading and who is following. Then I go around the room, from pair to pair, observing and enjoying their tremendous teamwork.

Before beginning the exercise, I explain that I will cue the beginning and ending of this activity using quiet Tibetan bells. (Two flat-styled bells on opposite ends of twine. When gently struck, they ring a most beautiful chime.) I ask partners to stand in stillness facing each other until the bell signals the leader to begin. I tell them that I'll chime the bell chime in the middle as well. When they hear it, they're instructed to pause for a moment in stillness before switching leaders and followers. The third time I chime the bells, I ask them to come back to a neutral standing position and hold in stillness until the bell is silent.

In essence, I am establishing the ritual of theater when I guide them to follow the bells. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end, and I guide them to adhere to the structure.
I tend to lead the exercise in a series of three rounds:
Round One: I ask them to take turns with leading and following, for 3 minutes each. During the first round people tend to giggle a lot, and use their arms in simple patterns. They seem to run out of ways to move.

Round Two: I ask them to challenge themselves by controlling their laughter, and finding new finding new ways to explore the mirror- change directions, levels, include leg movements. I also ask them to challenge ME by making it hard for me to tell who is leading and following. When facilitating this section, I literally walk around the room, taking on the role of the witness, observing their work and noting who is leading. I guide as I meander, suggesting to leaders that they slow down to make it easier for the follower to be precise in their following. Having a witness tends to help people feel accountable, and that helps them be responsible leaders and followers.

Round Three: I often add music, and encourage partner sets to loosen up on the reigns of who is leading and who is following. I suggest they try to lead and follow simultaneously.
Variations:

Try leading a small group of people.

Try it with partners on opposite sides of the room.

Try it sitting in chairs.

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Excerpted from Actively Engaged:Theater Games as a Dynamic Teaching Tool in the Classroom, written by Priscilla Kane Hellweg and due out in 2016. Notes: The Mirror Game develops so many life skills and performance skills that it is generally used in every college theater class around the country.

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Dance can be integrated in English language and arts. The teacher can show/pronounce a phonogram or spelling patter (-ack, -ick, -ot, -eek, -op). Read a poem that contains the pattern or read a list of of words, some with the target. When students hear a word that rhymes with the pattern, tell them to create movement and/or make different shapes. Suggestion: Rehearse possibilities. Post a chart of words, such as bend, twist, reach, and push out, to extend thinking.

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Fun Rhyming Song For Kids | Make a Rhyme, Make a Move | Jack Hartmann

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Dance can be integrated in a science lesson! For the water cycle lesson, the teacher can first read aloud Water Dance by Thomas Locker (2002). Next, explore options for movement words in the book. Tell students they will be creating movement sentences to represent the phases of the water cycle. Divide the class into 13 groups, each with a sentence from the book; alternatively, use fewer groups and give each several sentences. Each group creates sentences(s). Repeat, asking students to dance in order from 1 to 13 without background reading (number sentences, if needed).

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This is an amazing resource of different lesson plans for elementary education, all include dance and the core content areas.

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This is an amazing resource of different lesson plans for elementary education, all include dance and the core content areas.

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This does not directly suggest using dance, but the suggestions for incorporating ELLs into the classroom (pg 16-17) tie easily into integrating dance and movement into the curriculum to support understanding and learning.

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This slideshows outlines different ways to teach parts of speech and the English language through dance and movement.

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Dance in the ESL classroom is a possibility.

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These are all adaptable and include some sort of movement, the movement could be varied depending on students abilities

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It's human nature to not want to stop what you are doing. For example, trying to get my husband to go to bed when he is slumped over his book in a chair sound asleep. Adult man suddenly becomes recalcitrant toddler. ("I'm reading!")

So getting elementary students to transition without drama can be a big challenge. Here are some ideas to try out in your own classroom.

Setting transition expectations

I must start with another reminder about setting expectations. Every single one of these must be modeled and practiced or you'll just have chaos. Organized chaos, perhaps, but chaos nonetheless.

Classic counting

This is been around for quite a while. Even a kindergarten class can learn how to respond to a slow count to the number four. If the kids are starting out on the rug, for example, it might go like this:

One: they stand up

Two: they turn around

Three: they walk to their desks

Four: they sit down, fold their hands and look at the teacher

Let me tell you, if you're used to chaotic transitions, then observing this will make you think that the classroom is filled with magic!

Chants and clapping

Chanting is sort of enhanced counting. You can take a little lesson from the Army and do a "you say/they say" chant that is easily accompanied by some clapping or pounding on the desk. This echo chanting may sound like:

This is what I learned today

Math and science is fun to learn

Can't wait

To learn more

Sound off (one, two)

Sound off (three, four,)

Sound off (one, two, three, four)

Math and science is fun!

You might notice that it doesn't exactly rhyme. But you know what? The kids don't care! They just like chanting and clapping. So don't let a lack of a rhyming gene stop you.

You can use this for nearly any subject. But be warned that kids who are clapping and pounding their desks will not be able to multi-task and put away and get out folders at the same time. Therefore, such an approach is a good way to start or end a transition, in contrast with playing music which accompanies the entire transition.

Thematic music

If you're handy with some MP3s or streaming on your phone or computer, you can try this out. One teacher told me that she plays the theme from "Hawaii Five-O" when she transitions to math and the theme from "Bill Nye the Science Guy" when she transitions to science.

After she wraps up a lesson and they start to hear the song play, they know to quickly put away their things and get ready for the next subject.

Sounds like super fun to me! The kicker is that they know they must be ready before the music stops. That's an awesome way to get them to stay focused and not talking while they dive into their desks. Of course, to be truly effective, there has to be a little bit of incentive. My teacher-follower said:

"For every minute they go over, I take a minute off of their recess. After the first week, it is extremely rare that we miss any recess!"

"Get moving" music

One teacher said that when it's time to switch classes, she plays "I Like to Move It, Move It." In the morning when kids are coming into class and putting away their coats (a transition in itself from before-school to being-in-school) she plays upbeat music such as "Staying Alive."

Almost any modern pop song will do as long as you carefully screen it for appropriate language. Just keep the songs quick-paced and the kids will move along smartly.

Dancing allowed!

You can also expect a little bit of dancing to occur! And that is entirely acceptable because it helps them get their wiggles out and get ready to focus on the next subject.

Fun timers

Some followers pointed out that there are all kinds of great timers online that can be used on smart boards or projected on any screen. If you give kids a challenge to "beat the timer," they will be very motivated. This kind of motivation will usually encourage your rule followers to influence the slowpokes to get with the program.

There's that little competitive edge in every human that makes them want to show they can rise to the occasion when given a challenge.

Tip: Write their best time on the white board and challenge them to do better.

If you are following a classroom reward system, perhaps they might earn a minute of dancing at the end of the day if they beat their best time.

Quizzes and brain breaks

One of my followers had the great idea of doing a five- or six-question quiz with the kids using signals for their answers such as doing a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. This is a great way to wrap up the subject you're working on and also check for learning.

After this, transition into a little brain break that includes some kind of physical movement for a very limited time (even just a few seconds) and then launch them off to their next subject.

Change the learning location

Speaking of transitioning between subjects, it's usually very helpful to physically move from one location to another if possible. For example, if they have been on the carpet, then for the next subject they go back to their desks or vice-versa.

Humans do like some variation to keep things interesting, and this is as true for elementary school students as it is for adults.

Your mini-lesson as the transition

Many subjects are kicked off with a mini-lesson on the carpet. The very act of moving down to the carpet for that brief period of time can effectively act as your transition between subjects.

It also gives you an opportunity, after teaching the mini lesson, to explain exactly what they need to do to transition effectively when they get back to their desks. And if you follow some of the steps above, you can have them stand in place to get some wiggles out before they follow your instructions.

Upper grades mean more flexibility

You may find that you must carefully control transitions in the lower grades, meaning the kids do explicit tasks in an explicit order, such as I outlined in the counting sequence above.

But as they get older, once you've set expectations for a well-ordered and respectful classroom, you may find that some groups of kids are able to manage a two- or three-minute transition on their own with activities such as:

Sharpening pencils

Stretching

Very light conversation with their neighbor

If you consistently praise them for doing a great job, in many cases you will be able to let transitions naturally take care of themselves over time. However, it doesn't hurt to give them a countdown from 5 to 1 in order to help them reengage. If you set the expectation that they need to be in their seats ready to learn at number one, they'll learn how to quickly wrap up and get back on task.

Transitioning from recess to learning

Students should not be allowed to think that their break continues into the classroom, or that rowdy behavior is acceptable even if they just finished a wild game of soccer and won. But you have to wind them down step-by-step.

As always, set clear expectations for what the transition will look like.

Step 1: from playground to classroom

During the first week of school, meet your students out on the playground and wait until they meet expectations for walking in line.

Then move indoors where silence and straight lines are expected. March them right to the drinking fountain for a quick sip, give them a bathroom break, and them move into your room.

That's step one. It is filled with lots of cues that tell the kids it is time to settle down and get back to learning. Frankly, if you allow a thundering herd to stampede all the way into your room, you've lost the battle before it has begun.

Transitioning to specialists

If your schedule calls for an immediate transition to a specialist (art, fitness, library, music) immediately after lunch on some days, then the first part (orderly line up, drinks and bathroom) becomes even more important.

If needed, waiting until all kids are seated in the specialist's room and doing a formal hand over can send a clear signal that play time is over.

Step 2: an interactive activity

Step two takes the activity level down one more notch. A great activity is to have them engage in a partner activity for ten minutes. These activities can be designed to be appropriate for any grade level:

Spelling activities with a partner. If your spelling program - like the one I use - includes activities such as sorting words by rule, this is a great time for kids to team up to get that done.

Flash cards for math facts. A classic partner activity.

Partner reading. Taking turns reading each paragraph or page.

By the time they are done, they are ready for the final "calm-down" step.

Step 3: silent reading

This is done for an age-appropriate number of minutes with a proper book for individual reading levels. For example, in 4th grade, we start at ten to fifteen minutes, but gradually increase to thirty minutes (max!) as the year progresses.

At the end of silent reading, twenty to thirty minutes have passed since the end of school recess. These minutes have not been wasted; except for a few minutes at the drinking fountain and bathroom, your students have been engaged in curriculum-based learning.

And they are now ready for any subject, no matter how amped up they were after recess.

Video tips: transitioning from recess to learning

Putting it all together

The key to elementary school transitions is to:

practice as much as necessary until all students can be successful

maintain the routine every day

After a week, your students will know exactly what to expect and what to do. Kids crave consistency; this is a great place to give it to them!

If they are held accountable for expectations once they have thoroughly practiced, students will be on auto-pilot, smoothly transitioning through activities on their own.

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It's human nature to not want to stop what you are doing. For example, trying to get my husband to go to bed when he is slumped over his book in a chair sound asleep. Adult man suddenly becomes recalcitrant toddler. ("I'm reading!") So getting elementary students to transition without drama can be a big challenge.

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There are a lot of arts and STEAM lessons here! 

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There are a lot of arts and STEAM lessons here! 

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I especially like the one on forces and motion

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The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM

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Free Arts Integration Lesson Plans - Download one (or more) today! These samplings are some excellent arts-based lessons to give your program a boost.

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These movements are on cards!! Yay student involvement!

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This article is long but a great read! This gives many reasons for incorporating dance into any classroom and has some great ideas!

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Brain Breaks, Activators and Transitions

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Brain Breaks, Activators and Transitions

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Never underestimate the power of Pinterest!

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This is a super cute option but there are so many others on YouTube!!

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Right Brain/Left Brain Activation Activities

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Right Brain/Left Brain Activation Activities

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This is a series of quick activities that can be done separately or in connection with each other as a quick brain enhancement activity

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Brain Fitness Exercises. Make you smart, Brain activation.Right Brain exercise

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This book includes a movement CD for all of the animal movements!!

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animals get funky!  from a-z: children's movement book

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Animals Get Funky! From A-Z: Children's Movement Book

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Are you looking for creative ways to add movement into your family's day?The 26 DANCE CONCEPTS in the Animals Get Funky! dance book and music program help children of all ages:-Feel more confident in creative play-Practice balance-Develop social skills-Experience less stress-Express uniqueness-Pl...

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This is book that could be used early on in the year to help everyone feel comfortable with the moving you are asking them to do.

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juvenile fiction / animals / jungle animals

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juvenile fiction / performing arts / dance

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juvenile fiction / social themes / self-esteem & self-reliance

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juvenile fiction/performing arts - dance

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juvenile fiction/social themes - self-esteem & self-reliance

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social themes - self-esteem & self-reliance

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juvenile fiction / animals / jungle animals

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juvenile fiction / performing arts / dance

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juvenile fiction / social themes / self-esteem & self-reliance

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juvenile fiction/performing arts - dance

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juvenile fiction/social themes - self-esteem & self-reliance

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social themes - self-esteem & self-reliance

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The bestselling Giraffes Can't Dance is now a board book!Giraffes Can't Dance is a touching tale of Gerald the giraffe, who wants nothing more than to dance. With crooked knees and thin legs, it's harder for a giraffe than you would think. Gerald is finally able to dance to his own tune when he g...

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This book is part of a series. I had it for my children when they were younger and it provides a lot of options for movement that could be used throughout the day. It is a great book for connecting movement to existing lesson plans! I wish I had kept it, I may order it again.

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the book of movement exploration: can you move like this? (first steps in music series)

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The Book of Movement Exploration: Can You Move Like This? (First Steps in Music series)

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Features activities that bring out the strong movement impulses in children, who love to burn off energy by spontaneously dancing around the living room or running from place to place. This work helps children develop an awareness for their bodies, time, space, weight, locomotion, flow, and shape.

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For those students who love dancing, simply mentioning the word "dance" gets them up on their feet and immediately moving. For other students, the idea of pirouettes, step-touches, and fan kicks causes them to break out in a cold sweat. Dancing is fun, a great way to exercise, and a wonderful way to express feelings and emotions onstage, but it can be intimidating for students with two left feet - or even students who are good dancers but lack confidence.

Here are some tips for providing more leadership and growth opportunities for your dance enthusiasts, and to encourage your less dance-inclined students to dip their toes deeper into the dancing pool.

1. Start with those who love dance

First and foremost, if you are working on a class production and have students who absolutely love dance, that is an ideal opportunity for you to get those students more deeply involved. You can have them work with the choreographer of the show: first by shadowing to learn proper warm-up techniques, how to explain the moves to the other students, and how to give corrections and feedback. (If they have a background in dance already, they may already have this knowledge.) You can assign "dance captains," and have those students lead warm-ups and rehearse choreography while other students are working on other tasks.

From there, if you have some really skilled and enthusiastic students, have them choreograph a part of the show. Perhaps they can work on a dance break during a song, a transition to cover a scene change, the sequence of bows, or even a brief number within the show. Have the students plan their choreography in advance (either by writing it out on paper, or filming themselves doing their choreography) and show it to you. If it works with your vision for the show, then they are good to teach it to the rest of the cast! Be sure to credit their work in the program (such as "Monkey Around choreographed by Susan Martin and Kyle Reeve"), and let them film the cast doing their choreography, so they can have a recording of their work.

2. Use movement to tell a story

Within the classroom, challenge your students to think of dance as just another way of telling the story. Compare dancing to singing in a musical - why do characters break out into song? It's because the character's emotions and feelings are so strong they can't just speak the words. It's the same with dance - it's another way of conveying emotions, feelings, and advancing the story.

Dance is also so diverse. It doesn't always have to be all jazz hands and grapevines - it could be a series of interesting movements or lifts, it could be inspired by martial arts (like tai chi), it could be a stylized way of entering and exiting, it could be a dance fight... there are lots of possibilities. Have your students brainstorm a list of different ways that dance could be used beyond just the traditional "song and dance" style of performing. Have them think of it as creative movement, if they need to.

Speaking of diversity, there are so many different styles of dancing to explore. How could these different styles be incorporated into theatre? Perhaps your students claim not to like dancing only because they haven't found a style they like. Your students might like hip hop, highland, popping and locking, ballroom, or ballet. Encourage them to explore different styles of dance - have them watch YouTube videos of different styles, and see how they might incorporate those moves into a show or scene. Or perhaps they might see two dance styles they like, and combine them together to make a unique hybrid style! (A tap dancing tango? Why not?)

Students will create three frozen tableau scenes to tell a story (the beginning, the middle, and the end of a scene), but, rather than breaking the scene and just moving in a quick and neutral fashion to set up for the next scene, students will find a way to transition from scene to scene using flowing, dance-inspired movements. Have students hold the first tableau for five seconds, and then move slowly and smoothly (tai chi speed) for ten seconds to their second position. Students must keep moving for the entire ten seconds until the second tableau, then hold that pose for five seconds. And then, again, take ten seconds to flow their movements into the final frozen picture. Ten seconds doesn't seem like a lot of time, but when moving from frozen picture to frozen picture, it's quite a long time! Encourage students to move their bodies in interesting and varied ways - use turns, levels (high/medium/low), reaches, stretches, and so on. Feel free to set the scenes to music if you wish!

Click here for a free reflection.
Kerry Hishon is a director, actor, writer and stage combatant from London, Ontario, Canada. She blogs at www.kerryhishon.com

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Dancing in the Drama Classroom: 3 Ways to Get Started

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Dancing is fun, a great way to exercise, and a wonderful way to express feelings and emotions onstage, but it can be intimidating for students with two left feet or those who are good dancers but lack confidence. Here are some tips to encourage your less dance-inclined students to dip their toes into the dancing pool.

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This website requires a membership, but there are many lessons for every grade that include dance!!!

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Share My Lesson is a destination for educators who dedicate their time and professional expertise to provide the best education for students everywhere. Share My Lesson members contribute content, share ideas, get educated on the topics that matter, online, 24/7. We issue Creative Commons licenses, and we do not share our members' private data with anyone.

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This is my cousin Keegan's company. He owns a dance company which focuses on freestyle and break dance! Check it out!

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Every genre of dance has its female stars. Whether one looks to the prima ballerinas floating across the ballet stage or the light-footed ballroom dancers who fly around the dance floor in swirls of movement, there are many women to admire for their technique, artistry, and innovation. These 10 female dancers attained superstar status in their day and are no less revered in the present.

Anna Pavlova

Even if you are not a ballet enthusiast, chances are you have heard of Anna Pavlova, the tiny Russian ballerina who rocked the world of classical ballet at the turn of the 20th century. Enyclopedia Brittanica notes she was the most celebrated ballerina of her time. After being accepted into the elite Imperial Ballet School, her teachers soon realized her unique style was exceptional, and she became an instant hit. It is estimated she performed more than 4,000 times. She started a ballet trend in America as many little girls began to take lessons after seeing her performances.

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Anna also was instrumental in the design of the modern pointe shoe. She was so passionate about her art she died while in rehearsals for a show in Europe. She inspired many future ballerinas, and her gumption and drive for the art of dance have long been cherished.

Ginger Rogers

Best known for her film performances with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers was an Academy Award-winning actress and dancer who stole the hearts of film audiences around the world. Her career took off when she won a Charleston dance contest and was sent on a performance tour as her prize. Ending up in New York City, she landed a job on Broadway, where she was discovered in the musical Girl Crazy and offered a Hollywood contract. Signing with Paramount Pictures, she went on to make famous films with Astaire, in which the couple flirted and danced in a way movie audiences had never seen before. She once famously said she had to do the all same moves Astaire did, only backward and in high heels. During her film dance career, her talent and charisma helped her earn progressively better salaries and billing. In this way, she helped the art and appreciation of dance evolve during one of its most critical periods.

Irene Castle

Before there was Fred and Ginger, there was Vernon and Irene Castle. According to IMDB, they were "the best known ballroom dancers of the early 20th century."

Born Irene Foote in 1893, Irene Castle grew up on Long Island, New York, taking dance lessons and performing in local theater productions. She married Vernon Castle, a handsome Englishman, in 1911, bringing her own youthful energy and stylish elegance to their partnership. They soon found success performing in Parisian nightclubs, and by 1915 were the darlings of high society. Back in New York, they opened a dance school, and later opened a nightclub and a seaside resort with a dancing school.

The Castles' famous dance, the Castle Walk, was a sensation when they debuted it in 1915, and it became their signature dance. Their style and flair are evident in this video clip of the Castle Walk. When Irene Castle cut her hair short for an operation in 1915, women the world over had their hair cut in the new "Castle bob." The Castles are credited with starting a ballroom dance craze that lasted through the 1920s and setting the standards for competitive ballroom dancing according to Dance Archives. After Vernon Castle's untimely death in 1918, Irene largely retired from dancing. However, she came out of retirement to serve as a consultant to Astaire and Rogers when they made the 1939 film The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.

Isadora Duncan

Drawing inspiration from the art and culture of classical Greece, Isadora Duncan laid the groundwork for what evolved into modern dance.

She threw off the constraints of the late Victorian era for the freedom of Grecian-style robes and a natural, expressive style of movement. Born in San Francisco in 1877, Duncan honed her unique dance style in Europe at the turn of the 20th century. Dancing barefoot to classical music, she ran, skipped, and leaped about the stage with a simple grace entirely new to the world of theatrical dance. Her performances throughout Europe, the United States, and South America met with both adulation and derision. However, artists and intellectuals idolized her for her artistry and progressive ideas.

Wishing to pass on her technique, Duncan founded dance schools for young girls in Germany, France, Russia, and the U.S. These students went on to instruct others in Duncan's dance style and philosophy. Only a snippet of film exists of Duncan performing, but her technique and choreography live on through experts like Lori Belilove, artistic director of the New York-based Isadora Duncan Dance Company.

Josephine Baker

Born in St. Louis, Josephine Baker left home at an early age, having dropped out of school and gotten married by age 13. She set off performing on the artistic circuit of small, rundown theaters in the American South, and was later discovered in New York City by a visiting American who lived in Paris. She signed a contract to join the first revue in Paris that would feature African Americans and dynamic nudity. Once she arrived in Paris and started rehearsals, she was quickly promoted to become one of the stars of the show. She was catapulted to instant fame by her Danse Sauvage, and later her Banana Dance, and went on to enjoy a 50-year successful career until her death in 1975. Known for her unforgettable sense of rhythm, her unfailing smile, and her sweet singing voice, Baker was one of the most-loved dancers of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe.

Katherine Dunham

In a life spanning nearly a century, Katherine Dunham brought together elements of ballet, modern dance, and the dance forms of Africa and the West Indies to create a style of jazz dance reflecting African American culture and heritage. From the 1930s through the 1950s, when American society was still segregated, Dunham founded a dance school and a company of black dancers who performed in nightclubs and films, on Broadway, and on television. The company disbanded in 1960, but she continued choreographing for operas, movies, and musicals. Students at her school over the years included Marlon Brando, James Dean, Chita Rivera, Eartha Kitt, Arthur Mitchell and Jose Ferrer.

She also ventured into academia, receiving a grant to conduct anthropological fieldwork in the islands of the West Indies. In 1936, she received a bachelor's degree in social anthropology from the University of Chicago. She wrote five books in her lifetime, numerous articles, and even a short story for Ellery Queen's Magazine. Dunham died in 2006, a few weeks shy of her 97th birthday. The Katherine Dunham Museum in East St. Louis, Missouri, preserves a collection of her costumes, photographs, ethnic art objects, and other memorabilia documenting her life and work. The Institute for Dunham Technique Certification ensures dance instructors who teach the technique maintain professional standards in carrying on Dunham's work.

Margot Fonteyn

British ballerina Margot Fonteyn attained early celebrity, being named prima ballerina of the Sadler's Wells Ballet, later the Royal Ballet, at 17. Noted for her line, musicality, and acting ability, she danced leading roles in classical ballets such as Sleeping Beauty and Giselle, as well as works like Ondine created for her by choreographer Frederick Ashton.

After enjoying a brilliant career of more than 25 years, Fonteyn was considering retirement when she met the young Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev in 1962. Although at 42 she was 20 years his senior, she agreed to dance with him in a production of Giselle. Their chemistry evoked rapture from critics and audiences alike. Fonteyn's career soared to new heights as younger audiences discovered her, and she continued dancing to age 60. She was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1956 and stayed active in the dance world until her death in 1991.

Marie Taglioni

Overcoming inauspicious beginnings, Marie Taglioni achieved a level of fame today's celebrities would envy. Born in 1804 into a family of dancers in Sweden, Taglioni had a plain face, exceptionally long arms and legs, and a hunchback. She was trained from an early age by her father, who is said to have developed the arm movements and poses characteristic of her style to disguise her physical abnormalities. The first ballerina to dance entirely en pointe, Taglioni embodied the ethereal, idealized image of Romantic-era ballet. The iconic long white tutu she adopted and her graceful port de bras were most famously showcased in the ballet La Sylphide, choreographed by her father in 1832. Though she was already admired for the strength and delicacy of her dancing, La Sylphide vaulted the young ballerina to stardom. Taglioni became the toast of Europe, with her image on merchandise and her name given to caramels, cakes, hairstyles, and even a stagecoach.

Taglioni retired from dancing in 1847. Her husband is believed to have used her fortune to pay his debts, so she spent the remainder of her life teaching social dance. However, she left as her legacy the archetypal image of the ballerina as an otherworldly sylph, floating effortlessly about the stage in a cloud of white tulle.

Martha Graham

Modern dance would be quite different today without Martha Graham, who has often been referred to as the " mother of American modern dance." She broke away from traditional ballet, focusing instead on the ferociously unconventional and sharp movements that became her trademark. Her style was high-energy and fierce, involving an abrupt, jerking technique emanating from the solar plexus. Many argue that Graham's movements cannot be taught, as they are rather "felt" by each individual dancer. Still, the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York City remains a mecca for many young dancers.

In 1998, Graham was honored as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, and her style and choreography continue to be replicated throughout the modern dance world. Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, and Merce Cunningham are just a few of her "descendants," and her unique brand of dance is sure to live on for future generations.

Mary Wigman

For Mary Wigman, dance was more a process of personal transformation than a performing art. Born in Germany in 1886, she was profoundly shaped by the suffering she saw around her during World War I. Eschewing ballet as empty technical virtuosity, she sought ways of moving that expressed the gamut of human emotion. For this reason, she is known not only as a modern dance pioneer but also a founder of dance therapy. Wigman resisted creating a codified technique, preferring movement that arose out of natural impulse. She did not shy away from the ugly or tragic, allowing dance to serve a cathartic function for both dancer and audience. Many of her dances are set to only a drum beat, such as her Witch Dance, or no music at all. Her style of expressionist dance continues to influence dancers and choreographers to this day.

Dancing Art

Some of these women began as dancers and had careers solely in dance. On the other end of the spectrum are actresses or singers who also danced as part of their performance repertoire. Whether your personal dance taste leans toward classical ballet, modern movement, or a touch of the exotic from other corners of the globe, these women can be appreciated not just for their talent but also for the contributions they made to the art of dance.

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Every genre of dance has its female stars. Whether one looks to the prima ballerinas floating across the ballet stage or the light-footed ballroom dancers who fly around the dance floor in swirls of movement, there are many women to admire for their technique, artistry, and innovation.

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This website offers help to try a new dance for the classroom.

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Teaching Tools has everything you need to enable children and youth to lead healthy active lives. A variety of tools on many topics can be found quickly and easily; including lesson plans, activities and supplements. Ophea's programs provide high-quality support by fulfilling curriculum expectations and supporting a Healthy Schools approach.

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A good website to discover authors that inspire future dancers.

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Recently, a visitor here at EducationCloset had requested book ideas for getting kids up and moving and interacting with the literature. I remembered a book that I recommended way back in October in an article about children's books that could help free the inner artist, but it also seemed a natural book to get kids up and moving. I have never taught this book before, but I thought it would be such fun to create a lesson integrating literature and dance using this book, so I did.

Here is my idea for an arts integration lesson integrating literature and dance for first or second graders using Mem Fox's book The Straight Line Wonder, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal.

It is the story of 3 straight lines who were friends until one line decided he did not want to be straight anymore. In the end, he become famous for his non-linear movements, and he reunites with his straight line friends. It is a book with wonderful movement opportunities and an important message. May this lesson help open your students' eyes in integrating literature and dance inspirations that surround them while bringing them to a deeper understanding of story!

Literature Inspired Dance: The Straight Line Wonder

Objectives:

-CCSS.ELA Grade 1 RL.2. Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
-CCSS.ELA Grade 2 RL.2. Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.

-Grade 1, DA:Cr1.1.1 Explore movement inspired by a variety of stimuli and identify the source.
-Grade 2, DA: Cr.1.1.2 Explore movement inspired by a variety of stimuli and suggest additional sources for movement ideas.

Lesson Development:

-Using partner talk, whole class discussion and nonverbal cues have students discuss/indicate whether they have seen a dance performance, whether they know what a choreographer is, and whether they have any ideas where choreographers get their ideas in integrating literature and dances they create.

-Show a clip of the ballet Cinderella (you may wish to show just some of this 10 minute clip). Tell the students to look for a familiar story. Ask the students to identify the story being told through dance.

-Explain that a choreographer is someone who creates and integrating literature and dance movements for the dancers.

-Have the students brainstorm the different ways this choreographer might have been inspired to create his choreography (the story of Cinderella, the music, etc.). Explain that when a choreographer is inspired by a story or a book, s/he needs to know the main idea or central message and the key details of the story or the lesson/moral and then integrating literature and dance to demonstrate those ideas.

-Read the story The Straight Line Wonder by Mem Fox. Instruct the students to listen for things in the story that might inspire movement and give a thumbs up when they hear something that makes them think of a movement.

-Have the students identify the main characters and the types of movements each character might do (2nd and 3rd straight lines might stand straight, wag finger, put up stop sign hands, put hands on hips, etc.; 1st straight line jumping in a rounded shape, twirling, sharp/angular movements, etc.). Have them practice the various movements. Discuss what lines 2 and 3 can do to show they have "run off" (sit down, turn their backs to the first line, etc). Have the students experiment with those movements.
Explore how the lines can show they are friends in the end and still show who is which character. Have the students experiment with those movements.

-Put the students into groups of 3. Read through the story with each child in the different groups moving as one of the three characters. Read through the story 3 times so each child has the chance to be all three of the line characters.

Transition:

-Create a storyboard with the students to demonstrate the relationship changes of the three lines (friends admonish, friends leave first line to dance alone and get discovered, friends in the end). Have the students identify the central message or lesson in the story and decide how that can be shown in their movement.

-Have students in their small groups establish the roles. Play instrumental music for the groups indicating when they should perform the next part of their dance (beginning, middle and end). Have them rehearse their performances.

Closure:

-Have students dance their pieces for one another. The students should watch for the movements that indicate the identity of the character and the relationship of the friends in each part of the story. In order to meet the dance standard for second graders, have them keep their eyes open for other sources of dance inspiration and allow them to explore those movement ideas as well!

Formative Assessment:

-Watch individual students for appropriate movements at the appropriate times as they demonstrate their dances.

-Have students write and/or discuss how they demonstrated the central message in their dance and have them identify the source of the inspiration for their movement.

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Books To Move To: Integrating Literature and Dance

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Recently, a visitor here at EducationCloset had requested book ideas for getting kids up and moving and interacting with the literature. I remembered a book that I recommended way back in October in an article about children's books that could help free the inner artist, but it also seemed a

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This lesson plan uses dance and movement to teach and review the water cycle

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Principal wants students to get off of computers and dance!

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Chinese school principal teaches students shuffle dance during break

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Please print this off or get one in class on Tuesday. This will help you explore the Padlet and give you some ideas for where to begin looking. Thank you for visiting our Padlet! Have fun!

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This website offers support for teaching dance and movement in your classroom.

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Transcript of
Body Movement and Space
Teacher: Emily Caruso Parnell

Grade 1 and 2 the main focus is on the first two elements of the dance: body and space. So, there are five dance elements: body, space, energy, time, and relationships. Body and space are sort of the two most basic. To move you've got to have a body and you've got to have space in which to move. So those are the two that we really focus on in the first two primary grades.

Teacher: Good morning boys and girls, we're going to have a lot of fun today: we're going to do some dance and we're going to do some movement. I have a little bell that I use. Do you remember what the little bell means? What do you think it means?

Student: It means freeze.

Teacher: Freeze! Like a statue. So let's practice a couple of times just to make sure we have that, because that's a really important thing for safety. When we're moving around and doing lots of fun things you need to know when it's time to stop so that no one gets hurt. So let's go. Move your arms and your head, move your arms and your head, move your arms and your head. Nice statue, Tory. Try it one more time. Move your arms and your head, move your arms and your head, move your arms and your head. Good job ...

It's important to work with the elements of dance because those are really the building blocks of how we make dances. And the focus in the elementary curriculum is on creation as opposed to being on imitation. The idea is not that I do something and the children have to copy it exactly and that that's how they're evaluated, based on how well they copy me. The idea is that I provide a framework within which they can be creative. And the ways that we build dances are with these elements.

Teacher: So I would like you now to think about a movement you would like to do when you say your names. So think about a movement that maybe tells me about how you're feeling this morning, so maybe if you're feeling tired you might go [yawn], or maybe if you're feeling excited you might go like this.

So today we started with a warm up which was sort of a combination warm up/icebreaker/get to know you session where the children each said their name and then did their movement.
Teacher: So this is my movement, I'm going to go like this: Emily. Can you all do it with me?

Students: Emily

Teacher: Everyone together.

Student: Emily

Teacher: Because I'm feeling excited this morning and that's my excited movement. And your name is?

Student: Cadence

Teacher: Cadence? And so do you want this to be your movement, Cadence? With your arms behind your back? OK, so she leans forward like this. Cadence. Can we do it together?

Students: Cadence

Teacher: Now we'll put them together: Emily, Cadence. Good. And next we have?

Student: Aidan.

Teacher: Do you want that to be your movement, Aidan, like that? Okay, do it together, Aidan. Okay now we have Emily, Cadence, Aidan. And next to Aidan is?

Student: Evan.

Teacher: So I like Evan's movement. Let's tuck our heads in, get our shoulders up.

Student: He's the shyest person in the class.

Teacher: That's fine, it's OK to be shy. Here we go.

So some of them did a very shy movement and some of them did a movement that was sort of, that they didn't even realize was a movement until I pointed out that they were doing something. And then some of them had a very big movement, and it was interesting that the movements got larger and larger and bigger and bigger and more and more confident as we went around the circle. And then we strung them together to create a long movement phrase that had by the end of it 24, including myself, 24 names and 24 movements that all went together in a row.

This is an activity that could be done throughout the day in a more informal way as opposed to being in a circle. You could certainly have children do this at their desks with a movement involving just their arms and their upper bodies and their heads.

Teacher: Excellent job! Hand up, give yourself a pat on the back, you did a great job, very good.

It serves a bunch of purposes: it got me familiar with their names, because they weren't students that I spend every day with and it also gives me something to hang the names on: that movement, that sense of how they're feeling, and it also helps me to see. It gives me the chance to observe what their movement vocabulary is like as we go through our warm-up because, I sort of see, OK this kid is very prone to taking wild risks. They want to stand on their head. So I need to be watchful as we go forward, keeping them in the corner of my eye to make sure that they're not trying to do some crazy martial arts thing that they're going to get hurt. It also gives them their first taste of the fact that this will be dance but it's not going to be dance as I like to call it. No one's going to ask them to point their feet, no one's going to ask them to assume positions that they are completely unfamiliar with. That the little shoulder shrug that they do when they're nervous, that that can be dance too.

Teacher: When I say go, I would like you to find a spot in the room that's all to yourself. Where you're not too close to anyone and you're not too close to anything and I know that's going to be a bit challenging in this space, but you can do it. Are you going to be under a table?

Students: No!

Teacher: Are you going to be leaning on a wall?

Students: Noooo!

Teacher: Go!

So next we're going to do a more formal warm-up.

Teacher: All right. So we're going to start at the tops of our heads, and we're just going to give our heads a little pat down. Can you just give a little pat down, just like a gentle ....Imagine you're petting a cat, maybe. But it's your own head, instead of petting a cat. And then you're going to pet your face, give yourself a little pat, just gentle, gentle, gentle. Good, then can you pat your shoulders?

They went through opening and closing movements, which they really, really like. Opening and closing. Then we move top half, bottom half, right half, left half of our body.

Teacher: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Good, you can count with me. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

And it allows the children to sort of begin to get comfortable in their bodies and the idea of moving their bodies, that that's the medium we're going to use today is our bodies. They get out of their heads and into their bodies. So it gives them that transition time between what we often do in schools, which is sort of educate ourselves from the neck up, and then we get to go back into our bodies and get educated again from the head down.

Teacher: Can you make a chainsaw sound? Now we're going to glue the left side of our body, and you're only going to move the right side. Very nice, and then glue the right side.

And then they do criss-cross movements which, the theory goes, is supposed to help the right side of the brain connect through the corpus collosum to the left side of the brain, and be more helpful in getting the kids' brains active than let's say jumping jacks, which is just on one plane, whereas crossing over is on a different one.

Teacher: Alright, so now we're going to choose from our list a couple of body parts, maybe just one, we'll see how we do, and we're going to write a little poem. This poem, it's this kind of poem, it's called a... sinquain. What little word do you see in there? Do you see a little word? Not a little word in English, it's actually a little word in French that you might know. "Sinc" What does Sinc mean in French? What does it mean?

Student: Five.

Teacher: Five. Right. Sinc. So sincuain is a poem with ....five lines. Five lines. It's a very short little poem.

And then we picked one body part and they picked the back, which I thought was an interesting selection, a bit of a hard one to write about really, and so we wrote a sincuain that described the back, some adjectives to describe it, some moving words, some verbs to describe it, a short sentence and then one last sort of summative piece and they used that poem to then create a little short movement phrase. One of the big challenges that generalist teachers have is how do I assess this, and how do I evaluate this? Because they feel like they're not qualified to know what is good and what is bad. One of the things that helps a lot is to set up these success criteria that I set up in the lessons ahead of time, so that children can refer to them as they're working. So they're self-assessing, essentially. They're using it as a checklist, and saying OK do I have all three levels, have I got a solo, do I have a frozen ending, am I using a pathway? They have all those things, whatever it happens to be that you set up, and certainly using the curriculum and looking at what elements are focused on in each grade can really guide your success criteria.

Teacher: I would like your dance to show the poem. So when someone listens to the poem they might get pictures in their head and you're going to use those pictures that you get in your head when you hear our poem to create your dance. You're going to use different levels. When we were moving in the space, were we always on our feet?

Students: No.

Teacher: No, sometimes we were on our knees, sometimes we were on our bums, sometimes we were lying on the floor, and that's using different levels. Using high level movements, middle level movements, and low level movements. Right, so that you're not always standing? Understand?

Students: Yeah.

Teacher: You're going to find a spot in the room where you want to work.

This is an easy way to do dance composition. These blue words, these are the loco motor movements. We say loco motor and that's our dance word for traveling. So there are eight basic traveling movements and those are on the cards and then there are these four basic shape types which are also on the card. So it makes it an easy way for the kids to compose a dance. They decide how they jump, they decide what the roll looks like, it could be a long roll, it could be them doing a forward roll, it could be them rolling on their knees, it's entirely up to them what the movement winds up looking like and how it winds up feeling. But the sequence is established by these cards. So it just gives them some parameters, it's not so open ended. Sometimes dance composition is very hard for children because we say go and make up a dance and it's too broad and they can't anchor their creative ideas onto anything. This allows them to have a bit of an anchor for their creativity.

Teacher: Boys, you can do lots of movements from sports, right? You can do maybe swimming movements? That's a great back movement, isn't it?

Teacher: Slow music, happy music, sad music, soft music, loud music, what kind of music do you think you'd like? And this is Mr. Broughton over here, want to tell him what you think you'd like your music to be?

Student: Loud music.

Teacher: Loud music. OK thank you, very nice.

So that helps the children to self-assess. It also helps them to refer back to get feedback and it also helps you as you're going around to give feedback and say are you sure you have this? I think you're missing some things here, I think you should check back. Then the next level of it is a more formal evaluation. So you can turn the success criteria into what is essentially a checklist. If they have everything on the checklist I would say you would give that a level three. If they meet those expectations plus, it's extremely creative. They've approached the problem you've given them from a different angle, they've perhaps used some interesting shapes that you've never thought of, they've got some interesting groupings, they do some pair work for instance. Well then that would take it above three into a four and the other levels would be for if they've missed some things, right? Maybe they weren't self-assessing and maybe they did miss some things, or maybe they really didn't meet the expectations at all.

Teacher: Now wherever you are in the room, I want you to do eight more swings. Not sitting on your bum, ready? One and a two and three and a four and a five and a six and a seven and a eight! Little runs, slow, not so fast!

You may have some students observe while other students are moving, you may have some students create music using rhythm instruments while other students are moving, and then have them switch so that one group watches the other group for awhile and then they switch so that you're using the same space but you're reducing the number of people moving in the space. Kids, after they've moved their desks a few times, they've very good at it and they'll do it very quickly. There are classrooms where it's very challenging, where there are fixed desks, for instance science labs that have been converted into regular classrooms and that is I grant you very challenging. You can do things in narrow corridors, you can do things in spaces in between, just choose the activities that you're going to do in the classroom and save the activities that are not that suited to a small space for the bigger space. You may also choose your groupings so that some kids are frozen while other kids are moving so that there's not as many kids moving in a small space at once which reduces the number of collisions that are possible.

Teacher: Now show me a straight shape, what's your ending?

My personal hope would be that teachers would be hard pressed to find places where they couldn't use movement to teach the curriculum. There are lots of places where you can use movement to teach other subject areas: science. There's tons of movement in science. Molecules move, atoms move, structures move, plants move, animals move. There are tons of places. Now, is that all formally dance? Well, there is some internal debate about that. Dance and movement can be integrated into all your curriculum areas, and it can also be taught as its own art form, it's not a choice that you have to make.

Teacher: I would like to hear a high/low, which means that I would like to hear about the part that you liked the most today, and if there was a part that you didn't like so much, I can hear about that too. Christopher?

Student: I liked everything!

Teacher: You liked everything? That's great. Mikaela?

Student: There was one little part that I didn't like.

Teacher: That's OK, tell me.

Student: That we used a little too much ___ and my legs started to hurt.

Teacher: Your legs started to hurt, you got tired by the end? It was a long day of dancing, you're right, it was a long day of dancing. John?

I think there are lots of great opportunities to integrate, and I think there are lots of places where dance is really very easy to integrate, and my sincere hope is that teachers, that they take themselves in hand and they really try this and don't just try it once, try it several times because, it might take you more than once to get good at it. You don't need specialized dance training, you don't need to have spent hours and hours in pink tights and shoes to know how to do this.

Teacher: I would like you all to give yourselves a big, big round of applause. Here we go! Yay!

It's very much natural movement that we're just expanding, movements that you already know how to do, movements that the kids already know how to do, that we're expanding and building upon and making into art and just reframing our perspective on it. So seeing it as dance, choosing to see it as dance as opposed to just choosing to see it as regular human movement. It's a little noisy, it's sometimes a little chaotic and we have to get our heads around that sometimes that's what education looks like. Sometimes education is noisy, sometimes education is a bit of controlled chaos, but the kids are learning and the kids are doing and the kids are communicating and the kids are writing and the kids are reading - and all that is happening concurrently with this dance activity. So, be brave. Go for it.

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Emily Caruso Parnell begins to explore the elements of body and space in dance with specific movement activities designed to make students more comfortable expressing ideas and communicating through dance. Students learn about body and space with intentional movements, starting first with individual movements and then composing sequences of movement.

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Skoning, Stacey N. “Movement and Dance in the Inclusive Classroom,”
TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus, Vol 4, Issue 6, 2008, pp. 2-11

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How to Marionette Footwork | DLow Shuffle | Shoot Dance (Official Dance Tutorial)