Sharp Hands, Soft Hands

This lesson is shared by Tiffany Braniff of the popular blog Dancing Branflakes! Tiffany says this lesson was adapted from Royal Acadamy Dance Syllabus a long time ago!


Sharp Hands for 3-5 year olds

I have the children sit in a circle and pretend we are about to make a "witches brew." Then I ask, in my witch's voice, what witches wear. We put on our cloak, hat, and pointy nose and begin throwing things in the pot. We throw dragon eye balls, poisoned apples, and whatever gross and scary things we can think of. I make sure we throw them with "sharp hands" with stretched out fingers and palms. We make plopping or sizzling sounds depending on what's getting thrown in. The point is to get the kids to think about their hands and what they are doing. And at the end, we of course drink our poisoned brew then collapse to the ground.

Soft hands for 3-5 year olds
The opposite of sharp hands, we sit in a circle and pretend we are either princesses picking flowers in the ground or fairies picking stars from the sky. We have to do it with gentle fingers as to not crush the flowers or stars, depending on who you are that day. We put either the stars or the flowers back into our baskets for safe keeping. The girls love to tell me what color dress and tiara they are wearing. Then we all get up and pretend we are throwing the flowers onto the ground like flower girls and tossing the stars back into the sky so we can see them later.

Like sharp hands, this exercise helps students pay attention to their fingers and helps with fine motor skills.

Thank you for sharing this lesson with us Tiffany!