Lesson Plans for Creative Dance

by Sally Carline

 

Book

 

Lesson Plans for Creative Dance: Connecting With Literature, Arts, and Music offers 28 age-appropriate dances with music for students ages 4 to 12. The lesson plans are based on Laban movement concepts that help you both teach and assess your students. You’ll explore dance with words, rhymes, and other poetry, which you can incorporate in language arts, social studies, art, music, and science. Through this book, you can provide a progression of learning that creates a rich, extended experience for your students

 

Children love to express themselves through movement—and with this great new resource, you can guide them through a range of actions and dances that will help them develop both physically and mentally. Lesson Plans for Creative Dance: Connecting With Literature, Arts, and Music is a resource for physical educators, classroom teachers, and dance specialists as well as a useful supplement to college level elementary education courses. Author Sally Carline has tested and refined the creative movement activities that she has prepared for educators and for preservice teachers, and she includes background material that will ground you in understanding how to best teach and incorporate movement activities in a variety of classes and settings.

 

Lesson Plans for Creative Dance supplies you with lesson plans that incorporate Laban movement concepts and extend children’s movement vocabulary; a progression of learning that creates a rich, extended experience for students; 28 dances with music for students through age 12; and ways to incorporate dance with various types of literature, art, and music.

 

Part I presents guidelines for assessing creative dance based on Rudolf Laban’s analysis of human movement. You learn about body, dynamic, spatial, and relationship awareness and gain insight into using rubrics to evaluate your students. You also learn how to help children warm up properly, channel their energy, and improve their footwork and rhythmic skills. Part I will help you incorporate dance with action words, action rhymes, and other poetry as well as with visuals and rhythm in a variety of settings.

 

Part II offers 28 age-appropriate, ready-to-use dances that include a variety of lesson progressions as your students acquire and develop movement skills. You will be able to teach dance skills and incorporate other creative elements and concepts to give your students an understanding of the many ways in which a skill can be performed. Through Lesson Plans for Creative Dance, you can work on several ideas within the same lesson and continue to develop those ideas in future lessons. You can also incorporate ideas from language arts, social studies, art, music, and science to facilitate children’s learning and increase their enjoyment of various subjects.

 

This lesson planner will help you take your movement education to the next level, help your students acquire skills and knowledge, and bring meaning and joy to your creative dance sessions.

 

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I: Introduction to Teaching Creative Dance

Chapter 1. Teaching and Assessing Creative Dance

Chapter 2. Introductory Activities

Ages 4 to 6

Ages 5 to 7

Ages 6 to 8

Ages 7 to 9

Ages 8 to 10

Ages 9 to 11

Ages 10 to 12

Part II: Dances With Literature, Arts, and Rhythm

Chapter 3. Dances With Action Words and Visual Aids

Chapter 4. Dances With Action Rhymes

Chapter 5. Dances With Poetry

Chapter 6. Dances With Rhythm

Part III: Dances With Music

Chapter 7. Dances for Ages 4 to 6 Snowdrifts The Queen’s Guards Rice Krispies The Ghost

Chapter 8. Dances for Ages 5 to 7 When I Get to the Fairground The Snowstorm Pattern to Cure a Headache Peter Pan and His Shadow Chapter 9. Dances for Ages 6 to 8 The Snowchildren The Full Moon The Little Chinook Battle of the Seasons

Chapter 10. Dances for Ages 7 to 9 The Archers The Wizards The Space Stealers The Volcano Makers

Chapter 11. Dances for Ages 8 to 10 The Warriors The Abandoned Cartwheel The Jesters Planets

Chapter 12. Dances for Ages 9 to 11 Day O Skeletons and Ghouls The Mirage Changes

Chapter 13. Dances for Ages 10 to 12 The Sheriff and the Cowboy Rendezvous The Voyage The Miners

Appendix A

Appendix B

Audiences Resource for physical education, classroom, and dance teachers working with children ages 4 to 12.

Reference for PETE or creative movement instructors.

Text for PE, elementary education, and dance students in elementary education courses.