Lesson Planning Pack

Each pack in this new series contains a set of four videos on a specific topic. Two of the videos are Lesson Starters for use in the classroom, one is a Great Lesson Idea introduced by a teacher and the other is a Teaching Support video, covering professional development related to covering this topic. The pack contains written resources linked to the topic.

Pack Title – Dance

http://www.teachers.tv/series/lesson-planning-pack-dance

This Lesson Planning Pack for KS2 Dance can also be simplified for use with KS1. It includes fun resources for teachers and pupils that show how dance can be used in a cross-curricular way.

Lesson Starter 1: The Suitcase Dance

http://www.teachers.tv/videos/the-suitcase-dance

A World War II evacuee's suitcase and its contents are the stimulus for an unusual KS2 (Year 5) dance lesson.

This lesson starter can be used for cross-curricular teaching, to complement History, and be used in PE, in dance and movement.

The suitcase inspires a discussion about journeys:

· On what sort of journey would you travel with this suitcase?

· What kind of person might travel with this suitcase?

· How might they be feeling when they are carrying the suitcase?

Flash cards with action words ‘Reach’, ‘Jump’, ‘Roll’ and ‘Turn’ can help the children develop travelling sequences, both alone and in pairs. The teacher can encourage them to use dynamics (fast and slow) to vary the quality of the movement.

Duets can be developed by asking the children to include two moments of physical contact with their partner and to begin reflecting on the theme of evacuees – finding an emotional quality to the travelling sequence.

More information about lesson plans for the Suitcase lesson: http://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/danceresources

Lesson Starter 2: Moving Like Magnets

http://www.teachers.tv/videos/dance-moving-like-magnets

In this KS2 Lesson Starter, dance meets science. Inspired by magnets, a Year 3 class explore the features of magnetism through dance.

Pupils can start the lesson by discussing the properties of magnets: push, pull, repel, attract. Using blue and red coloured A4 paper they can demonstrate visually to each other how opposites attract.

· What are the special properties of magnets?

· How would you move if you were a magnet?

· What happens when you work in pairs and one of you is North, the other South?

· What happens when you are both North?

· How would your class use magnets to change the way they move in their dance lesson?

A simple choreography starts to build when elbows meet elbows, feet meet feet, then North repels North and South repels South.

This Lesson starter can be used to explore and reiterate a basic understanding of magnetism and movement, or act as a springboard for those wanting to develop more complex choreographies.

Great Lesson Idea: Four Body Shapes

http://www.teachers.tv/videos/dance-four-body-shapes

Jenny Powell, teacher and dance co-ordinator at Brindishe Green School in London, explains the Pin, Ball, Wall and Twist method for dance lessons with the help of her Year 5 class.

We see how using different body shapes in dance classes can both make dance more fun and improve cross curricular learning. In this case, Jenny uses the example of seed germination, which the class has been studying in science.

These body shapes are so simple that they have successfully been implemented in classes in all years at Brindishe Green School, from Reception to Year 6. They could be used in conjunction with the Lesson Starters: using the body shapes within a dance journey (The Suitcase Dance) or to describe magnetism (Moving Like Magnets)- a Pin and a Ball might attract.

KS2 pupils show us the different body shapes and reveal how these movements – used in a combination of high, medium and low levels - can make dance lessons imaginative.

Teaching Support: Easy Dance Warm-Ups

http://www.teachers.tv/videos/easy-dance-warm-ups

Dance Warm-Ups are different from PE Warm-Ups, and should begin every dance lesson. Here teachers can learn simple warm ups suitable for both KS1- using four different speeds of walking- and KS2 – an exercise called The Flock.

Alison Swann, a dance in education specialist from The Place, demonstrates two fun, simple warm-ups that even the most wary teacher can do. Alison inspired the Great Lesson Idea and Moving Like Magnets Lesson Starter; each of these lessons began with one of these warm-ups. We see the pupils from the Great Lesson Idea class warming up in this programme.

Alison and Brindishe Green School’s dance co-ordinator, Jenny Powell, address common fears about warm-ups, and explain why a dance warm-up should be different from a PE warm-up. With their help, you'll never use a PE warm-up for a dance or movement class again!

teachingchannel.org