As a person moves in everyday life, the BODY uses ENERGY, SPACE, and TIME.

Body Parts (Inner: muscles, bones, joints, heart, lungs)
(Outer: Head, shoulders, arms, hands, fingers, torso, hips, legs, feet)

ENERGY:

Percussive (sharp, choppy, robotic movement)
Vibratory (quick & strong shaking)
Sustained (no interruptions in the movement, smooth, flowing, soft, light)
Sway (soft flowing, rocking lightly)
Swinging (pendular, curving up & down)
Collapse (giving into gravity)
Suspend (defying gravity, highest point)

Shape (Body design in space)
Level (High, middle, low)
Direction (forward, backward, sideward, diagonal, circular)
Size (big, little, expand, condense, contract
Place: (personal space, axial (stationary), general/free space)
Focus: (direction of gaze, mental readiness)
Pathway: (zig-zag, wavy, diagonal, circular, upstage, downstage)

Beat (underlying pulse)
Tempo (fast, slow)
Accent (stress greater or lesser)
Duration (length of time of movement)
Pattern (movement, shapes or rhythm that are repeated)

Students learn locomotor movement & develop an understanding of the Elements of Dance. Students use action words to create movement.

Puppets: Sophia & Quinton shares information via video describing animals of Louisiana.  View Louisiana Alphabets, Part One: A-E

Dance/Movement Vocabulary A-E:

Walk, swim, run, crawl, dig, High, low, long, short ball-shaped, sticky, barrel-shaped, feel, sleep, forward, backward, fly, V-formation, dive, inflate, droopy, hunt, dab, dive, curvy path-way, freeze in a shape, stand still, spiraling, grow, reach.

Louisiana Animals
A-E
Alligator, armadillo, Black Bear, Brown Pelican, Bald Cypress, Crawfish, Coyote, Deer, Ducks, Egret.

Louisiana Tree:
Bald Cypress

• Find your own personal space where you are able to touch the floor and to reach over your head.
• Stand straight/board in back
• Using your arms, slowly take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mount.  Breath in for four counts and then breath out for four counts. Repeat three more times.
• Raise both arms high over your head like a pencil. Put palms of hands together as if it is the pencil point.
• Draw a straight line with your pencil point all the way down and touch your toes. Relax your head and look at your feet. Hold it for 8 counts. Now, slowly draw the straight line all the up back into your straight back pencil position.
• Twist side to side as if you are sharpening your pencil point. Repeat drawing the straight line three more times and twisting/sharpening your point three more times.
• Stand with your legs wide apart in a triangle shape. With your pencil, draw a straight line down so that the point touches the floor, the middle of the triangle. Hold for eight (8) counts. Reverse the straight line back up to point at the ceiling. Repeat three (3) more times.
• Now, shake your whole body out while slowly turning and changing levels.

EXPLORE LOCOMOTOR MOVEMENTS:

A locomotor movement moves you from one place to another through a room/space.

• Beginning in your personal space: Walk around he room for 8 counts, walk at a high level on your tip toes for 8 counts, walk at a middle level with knees bent for 8 counts, walk at a very low level for 8 counts, now walk at different levels for 8 counts.
• Beginning in your personal space: Carefully Run around the room/opened space using all three levels (high, middle, low) for 16 counts and return to your personal space.
• Beginning in your personal space: Gallop around the room/opened space without bumping, using all three levels (high, middle, low) for 16 counts and return to your personal space.
• Beginning in your personal space: fly around the room/opened space without bumping, using all three levels (high, middle, low) for 16 counts and return to your personal space.
• Beginning in your personal space: crawl around the room/opened space without bumping for 16 counts and return to your personal space.

NOTE: 8 counts for each movement or shape

• Walk, fly, run
• Dive, crawl, Freeze in a ball shape
• Grow, freeze in a high narrow/straight shape, melt

Focus on the Louisiana Alphabet Lesson, Part ONE: A-E

Share the video again and pause after each animal is introduced and movement demonstrated by the students.

Ask students to name the animal or animals mentioned in the lesson.

Other options:

View A & B then, have them move like the animals.

Watch the entire lesson Part One: A-E and ask the students to choose two of their favorite animals and demonstrate the movement.

Whatever you decide will work. Repetition is the KEY for pre-k and Kindergartners.

Students could be divided into a group of four to demonstrate or by gender.

This is a good way to connect movement to the curriculum (science, zoology, language, geography, landforms)

1. ________ student/child understood and performed locomotor movements.
2. ________ student/child was able to verbally identify Louisiana Animals
3. ________ student/child demonstrated movements & shapes to identify Louisiana animals.

LESSON EXTENSION:

• Draw your favorite animal. It is ok to choose more than one. Remember to include the Bald Cypress tree or any landform in your drawing.
• Create a dance by choosing 2-3 different animals talked about in the video.
• Read stories and show photos to your students mentioned in the video.

• There is no wrong way when students share what they’ve created through movement.

Please share and submit drawings or a video of movement created and performed by your students or your children inspired by this lesson to:

ccartsinc21@gmail.com

Creatively Yours,

Ms. Dollie Eaglin

Students learn movement qualities which are considered part of the Dance element: Energy

The student will demonstrate and understand the differences of each Movement Quality.

Science: Students develop an understanding on how a rainbow is formed.

Language Arts:

How to write Haiku Poetry using the Movement Qualities to describe nature.

DANCE/MOVEMENT VOCABULARY


Percussive, vibratory, sustained, sway/swing, collapse, suspend, strike, chop, sharp, robotic, fluid, flowing, burst, shake, tension, shrink, deflate, dangle, fall & release, curve, shapes, levels

CURRICULUM VOCABULARY

Science-Rainbow
Diffraction, reflect, prism, spherical, serenity, raindrops.

Language Arts: Haiku Poetry – Traditional, Japanese, syllables.

DESCRIPTION OF EACH MOVEMENT QUALITY

• Percussive: Sharp, robotic, aggressive movement

(hit, whip, beat, chop, cut, strike)

• Vibrate: Shake, repeated burst of percussive movement

(tremble, shiver, flutter)

• Sustained: soft, fluid, continuous movement of the body

(wandering, drifting, floating)

• Sway/Swing: Tension held, drop and release, pendulum

(wave, swoop)

• Suspend: Movement that creates the impression of defying gravity.

(dangle, linger, high point)

WARM-UP/ EXPLORE/ CREATE

• Find a safe space to explore the six movement qualities.
• When exploring each movement quality, use levels (high, middle, low) for each movement quality.
• Move your body and explore a Percussive Quality for 16 counts and FREEZE on count 16 in a unique shape that has sharp edges (ex. A zig-zag shape with your body) Choose a high, middle, or low-level shape.
• Slowly begin to vibrate from your head, shoulders, hands, arms, torso, hips, and finally your legs. Now, your whole body is vibrating. Turn your body while vibrating in or to face different directions. Change levels while you are turning. Freeze on the count 16. While in a frozen shape, move one body part that will continue to vibrate. Example: While in your frozen shape, you will only vibrate your hands, or head, or knees, etc.
• Suspend: Stand with one leg in front of the other and rise on your toes, lift and tilt forward on your tiptoes falling slowly forward. Control your movement as you fall forward and freeze in a shape. Try not to fall on the floor.
• Experiment with the other movement qualities (swing & sustained movement).

A Rainbow is a diffraction of sunlight through water droplets in the air.

Diffraction: The process by which a beam of light waves is spread out and passing through a narrow edge.

How would you move if you were a beam of light?

Movement Task 1:

Use sustained movement as if you are a beam of light waves dancing through a narrow space.

To see a rainbow, you need to be looking at light rain with the sun behind you.

Movement Task 2:

Swing, turn, and create imaginary half-circles with your body.

The rainbow is curved as it reflects the round shape of the sun. A rainbow forms because raindrops are like little prisms. So, no matter how you move, the rainbow will always be the same distance away from you. That’s why you can never reach the end of the rainbow.

Movement Task 3:

Use collapsing movement quality with different body parts and end the collapsed movement in curved shapes. Next, imaging that you are a vibrating prism with colors bursting out of it. Lastly, reach at a high level, ending in a high-level shape as if you are reaching upward to the rainbow.

Spherical: Round or less than round.

Movement Task 4:

While walking, circle your arms, your hips, your torso (only the top part of your body from your head to your waist.) Freeze in a circular shape for 8 counts. Now, move your whole body in a circular movement. Freeze in a different circular shape. NOTE: you could explore and add any of the other movement qualities.

A Rainbow Symbol means Peace and Serenity
Serenity: Being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.

1. ______The student was able to demonstrate and identify all Qualities of Movement.
2. ______The student used directions and levels when demonstrating movement qualities.
3. _____The student understands why and how a rainbow is formed in the sky.
4. ______The student understands the meaning of Peace and Serenity.

• Create a dance using the colors of the rainbow and choose one movement quality for each color.
• Create your own Rainbow Symbol Art and add the words PEACE and SERENITY.
• Write a Haiku poem, a traditional Japanese poetic form, using some of the Movement Qualities:
• Look at a Map of the world and find JAPAN. What special event that included people from all over the world this past Summer?

A Haiku Poem does not rhyme and only consist of three lines with a total of 17 syllables.

Line 1: 5 syllables
Line 2: 7 syllables
Line 3: 5 syllables

EXAMPLE Haiku Poem

Line 1: The fluttering Bee (5 syllables)
Line 2: Vibrated quickly and fast (7 syllables)
Line 3: Between the flowers (5 syllables)

Interdisciplinary Learning through Dance by Lynnette Overby, Beth Posh, and Diane Newman

Kids on the Move: Creative Movement for children of all ages: by Kassandra Schmutz Boyd, Melanie Schmutz Chalk, and Jennifer Schmutz Law

Lesson Plans for Creative Movement by Sally Carline

101 More Dance Games for Children by Paul Rooyackers