Dance
Warm up: To music
1. Body Alignment and Posture
Focus on good posture and body alignment
2. Pulse Raiser/Aerobic Exercises
Teaching Tips:
• Do not attempt to teach the entire routine at once. Teach one or two sections to begin with and repeat until the children know it well. Add
a new section or two each time you do it until your routine is complete.
• Teach the steps facing the children without music to begin with. Demonstrate how you are going to count them in. Remind them to start on the right foot and that they are turning right.
• Turn to face the same direction as the children and begin.
a) Switch on the music, march on spot to establish the rhythm, face the same way as the children, count them in and start sequence:
b) march,2,3,4 and turn,2,3,4 until each of the four walls have been faced- see
diagram below
1
2
4
3
c) march forward,2,3,4 and back 2,3,4, turning until each of the four walls have been faced
d) same as c. add kick and clap (simultaneously)- forward,2,3,kick clap
and back,2,3 clap (while turning)
e) march on the spot while you show them the next step then face your class again and demonstrate the side step as below counting them in as before
g) side step to the right- step together, step together, repeat to the left x 2
h) repeat g adding an arm action e.g. arms up and down to tip shoulders x 2
I) 8 knee lifts - right, left, right, left, hands swinging across the body
J) 8 kicks- right, left, right, left
These documents were originally compiled by team members of the previous support services that are now part of PDST.
Variations:
• Vary the routine from time to time e.g. sometimes you may start on the left foot and turn anti clockwise
• Alternatively you might walk diagonally to face each of the four corners.
• At times you may wish to jog instead of marching
• Introduce high and low claps
• You might introduce a number of jumps as you turn to face the four walls
3. Stretches/Mobility
(Hold all stretches for count of 8)
a) stand on left foot, raise the right foot and point and flex four times, circle left and right.
b) Repeat to the other side.(point = point toe to floor, flex = point toe to ceiling)
c) rotate shoulders and hips to mobilise the joints
d) stretch calves and hamstrings
e) right side bend, left side bend and full body stretch
Creative Dance: (p. 66-73 T.G. p. 9 Curriculum) Material covered on in service day 2.
Session theme: Body Parts Ping
Ping Pong Ball
Reference: Exemplar 10 p.69 Teacher Guidelines (called a ball of energy there) The ping pong ball (or football, beach ball etc) can be used as a stimulus
to explore how different body parts move and their range of movement. Imagine you have a ping pong ball on your hand. Hold it and look at it. Now pick it up and place it on your shoulder and bounce it. After 4, throw it up and catch on one knee. Bounce… Repeat allowing the children to experiment with a variety of body parts of their choice parts. “Watch it travel through sky” Now ask them to catch it at a low level, as close to ground as possible and then to catch it behind them, or out in front so that they have to stretch out to catch it. Allow the children to experiment with balancing the ball on a variety of body parts.
These documents were originally compiled by team members of the previous support services that are now part of PDST.
Note: A similar activity for the exploration of body parts is outlined in
Exemplar 9, where the stimulus is Magic Dust and is suitable for Infant classes.
Encourage children to use unusual body parts, for example. ear, nose…
For pupils with special needs, the teacher could demonstrate with a real, soft ball. Bubbles blown could be a stimulus for some pupils. Pupils could watch other more able students and copy them. Again, each movement can be done separately until it is familiar to pupils, before progressing to the next.
Body Jive
A body jive is a sequence of movements, created by moving various body parts, one after another to last for 8 counts for example fist, fist, elbow, elbow, knee, knee, palm, palm (class body jive for the session done on in-service seminars). (Simplify for infants for example shoulder, shoulder, hip, hip, shoulder, shoulder, hand, hand.
Line the children up facing you and teach the sequence.
This class Body Jive forms section A of the class body dance.
Pupils with special needs might only use two moves (or one) for example hand, hand, hand, hand, foot, foot, foot, foot.
To get children moving and mixing, they do the body jive with a partner and when the body jive has been completed, they leave their partner and move freely around the room. When teacher calls ‘freeze’, they find a new partner and do the body jive again. Repeat a few times, each time with a new partner. Walk through it first. Do it to music. Each begin with their own partner, teacher count them in …5,6,7,8.
When working in pairs, children with special needs need to be partnered carefully, so that each pair can perform same type of movement sequence.
These documents were originally compiled by team members of the previous support services that are now part of PDST.
Creating and performing: Beginning to build a body dance
Section B of class body dance: Partner Body Jive.
Variations to the body jive: Different variations and progressions can be explored and developed at each class level. For example, for first and second, classes, change the moves for the last two counts i.e. 7, 8. More able classes could change the last four counts … 5,6,7,8.
Fifth and sixth classes might create a whole new body jive. Allow children time to explore various movements and create their own partner Body Jive.
First development.
Question the children on how they might improve the quality of their movement in their partner body jive…children might suggest things like introducing a change of level or direction. Explore and allow for demonstrations of each suggestion. This is a way of introducing choreographic techniques. Mention how having a clear starting and finishing position will enhance the performance. Allow them a few moments to explore the changes they may introduce. Now, let them practice their revamped body jive to the count of 8.
Pupils with special needs could be introduced to levels by mentioning familiar items such as seeds (low) reach for the sun (high) etc.
Second development.
Ask children to suggest ways of in they can move with expression in their partner body jive i.e. conveying emotion/message/story… Possible suggestions include doing body jive as if annoyed, excited or show any other emotion. Alternatively, you could do body jive as if you were a clown, a skeleton, a robot… The possibilities for integration are endless for example: theme being explored in other subject i.e. robot exemplar 11 (space). Allow children time to discuss and decide in pairs which option you are taking and apply it to their body jive. They then practice. First teacher provides count, and then provides music. This version is now their partner body jive for performance later. For the better able students, dynamics can be mentioned here. How
to move – stamping, on tiptoe, in mud, snow etc.
Now, we have two sections for the body dance – section A- our class Body Jive (fist, fist etc.) and section B – the partner Body Jive. To link these use a transition. A Transition is used to get from one section of a dance to another. Here again, you could take children’s suggestions or as teacher you could suggest a simple transition to begin with such as walking for a count of 8 and clicking fingers as we go.
These documents were originally compiled by team members of the previous support services that are now part of PDST.
Ask everyone to find a space away from their partner and face the
teacher, so that for the first class body jive that they do, they can copy the teachers movements. Talk them through the different sections of the body dance, outlined below. Perform Body Dance to music.
Class body jive x 2 - teacher lead ( all facing top of the room) Transition
Partner body jive x 2
Transition
Class body jive x 2 – facing any direction. Transition
Partner body jive x 2 and hold final position
To enable pupils with special needs to participate, a stimulus such as a poem/story/picture could be used.
.
Viewing
In the session outlined above children have been exploring body parts
and creating dance and performing to music and another very important element of dance in the curriculum is that children are given the opportunity to view dance. Children have also worked individually and in pairs and the progression from that is to move on to group work. Two
pairs can join together to form groups of 4 as shown on the video used as part of the in- service day. The groups number themselves pair 1 and pair
2. Tell all pair ones that they will perform first and pair 2‘s will view and secondly pair 2’s perform and pair 1’s view. When children are viewing dance, we want them to be a focused, engaged audience, so give them something to watch out for, i.e. Count how many body parts they use,
take note of use of levels and directions or try to identify the mood or emotion shown. Children perform to music, take feedback from the audiences.
Cool Down: To music – could include some of the stretches and mobility exercises done in the warm-up.
These documents were originally compiled by team members of the previous support services that are now part of PDST.