Monday, March 29, 2010

Dora and Diego


This is a lesson shared by Christina Ratatori, a K-5 dance teacher at Elm Creative Arts Elementary School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Christina uses this lesson for her 4 and 5 year old dancers.

To teach pas de chat, I use floor dots (called "dancing dots" with my dancers). We pas de chat over the dots. Before this occurs...

All the girls in the room are referred to as Doras; the boys Diegos. We yell out 'backpack' like in the show (put on our imaginary backpacks) and yell "map" as well. When we take our our maps, I tell the story of how there is a treasure to be found. Uh oh. But there is a hill in the way. We try jumping over the hill. Then marching over the hill. And tip toe over the hill. Nothing works. (This is a great review of our locomotor skills.) The only movement that will work is the special pas de chat. All the Doras pas de chat... then the Diegos... then everyone. The dancers love this! And the lesson ends with a celebration dance using creative movement.


Thank you Christina for sharing this wonderful lesson!

2 comments:

  1. That is so awesome! And think I need to watch more Dora the Explorer. Hiking is such a good way to help kids understand lifting the knees and pushing out of the ground.

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  2. Awesome right?! Be careful on watching more Dora, you might get the songs in your head! :)

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