Dance Unit Planner:
Level 1 / Level 2PK / explore elements / identify and explore elements
DI / express ideas - personal experiences and imagination / initiate and express ideas based on a variety of stimuli
C I / share movement - respond to own and others' dance / share dance - describe how dance expresses ideas/feelings
UC / demonstrate an awareness of dance as part of community life
Overview of Unit:
Children will explore making a variety of shapes, images and movements associated with the jungle environment and its inhabitants.
Focus Point:
- Body awareness - the shapes and images we can create with our bodies.
Specific Learning Outcomes:
Students will –
- Listen to African music and stories to develop ideas about the jungle environment and its inhabitants. (UC) (DI)
- Use various parts of the body to create shapes, images and movements representing the jungle. (PK) (DI)
- Share, copy, perform and critique their own and others performances. (CI)
Observe how well children:
- Brainstorm and interpret ideas into movements creating images of the environment and animals.
- Follow instructions in teacher lead movement activities.
- Create a final dance performance based on African animals and music, using the jungle as the environment.
Learning experiences – sequence / Teaching notes
Lesson One:
Introduction
We are going to create a jungle dance. First we will explore what a jungle is, what we find there and how we can express our ideas through dance.
Read “Walking through the jungle.”
Discuss – Different aspects of the book, setting, animals, noises, movements.
Brainstorm – The jungle environment
Focus on the environment, not the animals.
In groups get children to focus on the jungle environment.
Come together and share ideas. Put these ideas on a chart for the class to use to develop their “Jungle Dance.”
What might a jungle look like?
What plants might we see in the jungle? What type of shapes and sizes would they be?
What might a jungle smell like?
What might a jungle sound like?
What might a jungle feel like?
How did the boy in the book move in the jungle? How else could we move in the jungle?
Discuss the things we would need to do to move around the jungle safely – Duck under branches.
Jump over branches.
Push branches away.
Wade through water, slime, mud.
Quietly or noisily?
Warm-up
Direct instruction – copy teachers movements – walk, skip, roll, grow, twist, float, run, glide, explode, freeze, stretch.
Keep a bubble around yourself as you move around the room doing the movements.
Guided exploration
Guide the children as they move in the jungle.
Can you creep low and slow?
Can you creep like your moving under a branch?
Can you creep backwards?
Can you creep sideways?
Can you creep slowly, and then fast?
Making – exploring moving in different ways in the jungle
In groups of five. Each child takes a turn at calling out the way they would move in the jungle, the rest of the group copies.
After all the children have had a turn. Get each group to show the class their favourite movements. The rest of the class will interpret, respond to and offer feedback.
Warm down
Direct instruction – copy teachers movement – walk, skip, stomp, fly, glide, creep, crawl, slide, lie down. While lying roll your hands, shoulders, head, roll your ankles, stretch out to make your body as long as you can. / “Walking through the jungle “by Julie Lacome
Have photos, picture books, reference books available in the classroom for children to get ideas.
Focus on environment. Animals will come later.
Make a chart showing ideas about the jungle environment.
For example:
Look / Smell / Sound / Feel
Trees / Wet / Wind / Hot
Flowers / Warm / Birds / Damp
Rivers / Flowery / Animals / Sticky
Etc. / Etc. / Etc. / Etc.
Make a chart showing ideas about how we would move in the jungle.
Creep, slide, slink, stomp, leap, jump, swing, run, skip, walk, peer, push, slither.
For example:
Moving words from story / Children’s words
creep
leap
Etc…
Copy the teacher – Like Simon says.
Move without sound.
Bubble – keeps us safe, helps us to avoid bumping into each other.
What is creeping?
How do we feel when we creep?
Are we noisy or quiet when we creep?
Who creeps?
When do we creep?
Follow this pattern for other moving words on the brainstorm chart.
Remind the children we are moving as if we are walking in the jungle. (As children – not animals)
Remind them to look out for branches, water, spider webs, mud and to be quiet – we don’t want animals to hear us.
Movement changes from fast, big, and heavy to slow, soft and gentle. Begin on the feet and end lying on the floor exploring body parts.
Concentrate on each movement.
Move without sound.
Lesson Two:
Recap on lesson one
Listen to the story tape of “Where do the elephants go?”
Introduction to lesson two
In this lesson we will focus on the animals in the story and how they would move.
Brainstorm – Animals in the jungle
What animals did we see in “Walking in the jungle”?
What other animals might we see in the jungle?
In groups get children to focus on how the animals in the jungle would move.
Come together and share ideas. Put these ideas on a chart for the class to use to develop their “Jungle Dance.”
Warm-up
Follow the leader – in pairs, one child is the leader, the other is the follower. The leader makes a movement, and the follower copies it. When the leader turns to face the follower, the roles change, with the follower becoming the leader, and the leader the follower.
Guided exploration
Guide the children to move like different animals in the jungle.
Call out each animal and ask the children to move like that animal.
Encourage them to use differing energy and pathways to show how each animal moves.
Making – exploring moving as animals in the jungle
In groups of five.
Each group chooses an animal. They will focus on this animal and how it moves. Creating a group of movements to present to the class.
Each group will perform their animal movements. The class will observe, interpret, respond to and offer feedback.
Warm down
Direct instruction – copy teachers movements- Walk around the room stretching tall then reaching low. Swing arms from side to side, rotate hands. Rotate head, then body.
Performance groups
At the end of this lesson split the class into groups. These will be the performance groups.
Group one – Performs the environment movements.
Groups two, three, and four - Perform the animal movements. Look at movements charts to get ideas for your performance movements.
In the environment group, each person may choose to be a certain part of the environment, rather than all having the same movement.
Listen to the chosen music
Give the class time to listen to the chosen music.
This will be the music used in their performance.
Discuss how we will combine the jungle movements into a class dance. / Who can remember what we did in lesson one?
What movements did we explore and create?
Chart showing children’s ideas about how the animals in the jungle would move.
For example:
Snake / Tiger / Elephant / Lion / Monkey / Crocodile
Slippery / Nimble / Big / pouncing / Light / sneaky
Sliding / Quick / Heavy / Leaping / swinging / Hiding
Etc. / Etc. / Etc. / Etc. / Etc. / Etc.
Add to the chart any other animals the children think of.
Get the class to focus on the movements from the chart.
The leader needs to make the movements simple and clear, and repeats them at least four times.
The leader should use differing pathways, levels and energy.
Give each group a few minutes to choose their animal, they then tell the class which animal they are going to explore.
Make sure each group has chosen different animals. They mustn’t change their minds.
Focus questioning on looking at shapes, weight, energy, pathways, levels, locomotion.
Concentrate on each movement. Do the movements slowly and precisely.
Move without sound.
Split the class into groups.
Give each group time to decide on which animal they will be.
The size and number of groups will depend on class size- each group will perform a specific animal movement.
Lie on the floor, close your eyes and enjoy the music. As you listen to the music try to picture the jungle, the sounds, smells, sights and animals in it.
Environment moving all the time. Animals enter in groups.
Ending with all the animals and environment moving together.
Lessons Three:
Recap on lessons one and two
In this third lesson we will put our movements together to create our jungle dance.
Listen to the chosen music
Again listen to the music. This time allow the class to move to the music. Exploring the way the music makes them feel.
Warm-up
Direct instruction – copy teachers instructions – moving around the room, teacher calls out various environment and animal movements from our charts.
Making
Give each group time to practise their animal and environment movements.
Performance:
Finally put the movements together, the movement in the environment is continuous.
The animal movement group enters one at a time, ending with all the animals moving in the environment. / Split the class into their performance groups.
Through movement we communicate ideas about the jungle.
Keep a bubble around yourself. Look for pathways, use differing levels and energy.
*This part of the lesson could be repeated over a few days to really allow the children time to explore the movements in the dance.
Play the music as the class practise their movements.
Environment moving all the time. Monkeys enter and perform, lions enter and perform, etc… after their performance they stand still in the environment and watch the other animal groups perform. Ending with all the animals and environment moving together.
Resources
Book - Walking Through The Jungle – Julie Lacome
Reference books
Images of Africa, images of animals.
C.D’s - More Songs Out of Africa
The Lion King
The best of Juluka/Savuka – featuring Johnny Clegg
Tape - Tales of the Game Rangers / Success criteria – who can?
- Use various parts of the body to create shapes, images and movements representing the jungle.
- Use a variety of energy, pathways and levels when creating movement.
Evaluation / Next steps
*I would like to do this as part of a complete theme incorporating many curriculum areas.
Decorating the class as an African jungle.
Making masks for the performance.
Writing stories and plays about the jungle.
Learning about Africa.
sara.whitakerPage 129/10/2018