Young Fours
The dance session should take place in an open, multi-purpose room with a clean floor or a large carpeted area of the classroom.
Name tags made with colored felt, and the book The Bear Dance, written and illustrated by Chris Riddell.
The students will learn that they can use the words from a book to generate dance movements.
Students will review the rights and responsibilities of the dance class by removing their shoes and socks, arranging themselves in a circle, creating their personal space bubbles, and freezing on cue.
Students will acknowledge themselves and each other by singing a name song.
Students will listen to a story.
Students will explore the movements of stomping stamping jumping, sleeping/resting and stretching.
1. The students are asked to gather in a designated area and sit on the floor to take off their shoes and socks. They are instructed to put their socks inside their shoes and place their shoes against the wall. (Many of the students will not want to take their shoes off. The teacher might try to sing a song about taking shoes off to make it more of a game. Any student who refuses to take off his of her shoes should not be forced to do so, but should be invited to watch the other students in the dance class.)
2. The students are invited into the dance space one at a time. The teacher tells the students that she is looking for dancers who are sitting quietly and that is how she knows they are ready for dance class. She calls the students one by one and asks them to move into the space, to the sounds of the drum.
3. The students are asked to form a circle in the space by joining hands, then sitting down where they are.
4. The students sing the "Swinging" name song and each of them is given a chance to "stand up" and "sit down" when it is their turn.
5. The students are asked to spread out in the space so that they have enough room to extend their arms out to the side without hitting any other students. The students are asked to take out their imaginary magic crayon, and make an imaginary space bubble with their crayon by drawing all around themselves. The teacher tells the students that when they are inside their magic space bubbles they cannot touch any on and no one can touch them, which means no hitting or bumping into each other.
1. The teacher reads, or paraphrases, the first ten pages of the book The Bear Dance.
2. The teacher reads those pages again, and After each page, of the book, the teacher gives the students time to do the movements talked about on each page, one page at a time. The students are asked to return to the circle, and sit quietly, before the next page is turned.
3. The students are given a chance to perform an improvisational dance based on the movements explored. The teacher plays music that might further suggest stomping, stamping, jumping, sleeping and resting, as well as gives verbal cues.
1. The students are asked to return to the circle and then the teacher leads a reflection by asking if any of them can tell her what they did in dance class that day.
2. The students are asked individually what their favorite thing about dance class was for that day, and are given the opportunity to perform that movement on the way to their shoes.
Angela McDonnell
Teachers College
Columbia University
April 1993