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.
The students will learn to distinguish between different sounds made with the drum and recognize these sounds as corresponding to a particular locomotor movement.
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 explore movement inspired by the sounds of the drum.
Students will choose a specific sound of the drum to represent and inspire specific locomotor movements.
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. They can choose any movement that the drum prescribes, but are told to listen to the sounds of the drum, and to go and sit in a circle in the center of the room.
3. 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.
4. 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 can not touch any one, and no one can touch them, which means no hitting or bumping into each other.
1. Sitting in a circle, the teacher shows the drum to the students and tells them that it can make sounds which tell people how to move. The teacher will then play a rhythm on the drum and ask the students to clap that rhythm with her. The teacher asks the students: "What kind of movement does that sound tell you to do?"
2. The teacher gives the students time to practice the locomotor movements to the sound of the drum, with verbal cues. She may have to suggest movements if she is trying to teach something specific such as skip or hop, but they might come up with running, jumping, and walking.
3. The students are given time to practice the movements with out verbal cues, listening only for the rhythm of the drum. The students may have to be directed back to the circle several times if the movement gets too wild. Going back to the circle to calm them down should be a natural part of the dance class by this point.
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
March 1993