Shadow

So today was Groundhogs Day! It snuck up on me this year, but when I woke up this morning I decided to develop a lesson I could do with the littles about shadows. It's hard to show without a sun/light to help but I am pretty sure the students understood what shadow is. They also talked about Groundhogs day in their classrooms so I thought I could support that lesson. I had the 3's stand behind each other and as they moved their shadow moved too. Similar to mirroring but not facing each other. It was a great start to a really fun lesson! I would love to add a book next year and maybe a song? Anyone have ideas to share? Did you do anything to celebrate groundhogs day? I would love to hear!

Hugs!

Ahhh, the first week back after the holidays is always a tough one, but I am feeling equipped with new ideas, new classes and of course very rested. I approach this week with a new master calendar and new motivation tactics to exercise and take dance classes. I am looking forward to being happy and healthy! What have you prepared for the weeks ahead? New curriculum? New props? New music? I would love to hear!

Have a great week back and

In the meantime movecreateeducate...

Happy New Year!

My dear readers,

I hope you all have a very Happy New Year! I know 2010 will be a great year! Do you have any goals or wishes for the New Year? Here are a few of mine...

1) Grow even more as a teacher and a person. I have made HUGE strides this year, but I know I can push myself further!

2) Become Certified in Teaching Children's Yoga- This year I will finally take the workshop at Karma Kids Yoga in downtown NYC. I have been saving my dollars and looking forward to adding creative yoga to my toolbox!

3) Attend Dance Teacher Summit, and NDEO conference this year. I want to be as present in the world of dance education as I can. Meeting and learning from new teachers will only make me a better one!

4) Get 100 followers on this blog! Dance Educators Rally! We can do it right?

What about you? It seems that I always have a goal, when I meet one- I move right on to the next one. What are your professional goals this year? I would love to hear...

In the meantime Happy 2010!

(photo by Kathleen Rose O'Hara)

Tools for the Toolbox

Greetings from Cleveland, OH! That's where I will be blogging from this week for the holiday. On my way last night on the plane I was doing a review of my classes from last week and this week (since it was a short week) I realized that I have been making some breakthroughs with my kids and incorporating some new and different stuff that I haven't used before. The good news is, I have been expanding my toolbox and not even know it. I would like to share them you incase you find yourself stuck for ideas at the beginning of December!

1) Head- shoulders- knees- and toes backwards- Have you ever tried it? It's not so easy, and the kids are better at it than I am! Always do it forward first and then for an extra challenge see if they can do it backwards!

2) Teach Skipping via a book- I have a book called READY-SET-SKIP... they love the book and it has so many action words in it like leap and creep and hop. By the end it has them skipping (or attempting to) and they seem to love it! I love it to because it really works!

3) Turn a beanbag into a telephone- this is the cutest and most fun! We turn the beanbags into a phone and we talk to each other about our day, or sometimes people call us! The whole class does it at once and it's so funny to hear all the conversations that three year olds have the phone. So fun!

4) Reverence- I taught my 2 and 3 year old ballet classes Reverence. I couldn't believe how easy it was for them to pick up. It was short and sweet, I gave them the back story of why we do a reverence and why it's important to do it at the end of every class. They wanted to do it over and over and over! Now reverence will be a part of our class and that makes me smile!

5) Turkey Pokey- After spending most of November looking for an appropriate song to use for Thanksgiving I thought of this little ditty! We remembered all of the parts a turkey has (did you know the thing that hangs down in the front that makes them gobble is called a waddle? I had no idea) and them put them to the song- "You put your feathers in, you put your feathers out, you put your feathers in and shake em all about" They went running out of the room to teach their parents! A huge hit, and so easy to create!

Do you have any tools to share? Just sitting down and thinking about all the little things that makes a creative movement or creative ballet class is fascinating! I hope you find the tools helpful and a great addition to your class!

In the meantime Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

So, I know it's Halloween.. but I just had to share this photo.

I am loving a turkey and a tutu together!

Isn't it adorable!?

A pumpkin patch, an apple tree, and the Wizard of Oz...

What do all of these have in common? It's Halloween of course! Even though Halloween is not my most favorite holiday, it is really fun to celebrate in movement and dance class!

3 Halloween Ideas just for movement class...

1) Travel to the pumpkin patch where we found really really big pumpkins, and really small pumpkins! Give them faces- happy, sad, surprised, scary! I use heavy and light pumpkins to teach them the difference between big and small.

2) Pick apples and put them in baskets... (they love to pick imaginary fruit!) What color are the apples? Red or Green or Yellow? The girls say pink! (I just go with it) Let's fill up one basket together! TEAMWORK!

3) The Wizard of Oz- travel down the yellow brick road and find out what's down the road. My kids saw different things like trees, and animals. I asked them what different locomotor movements we should do down the yellow brick road. (skip, hop, crawl, tip-toe)

In my 4 year old classes we became the characters in the story like the tin man, and the lion, and the scarecrow. They loved it!

What do you do to celebrate halloween in your movement classes? I would love to hear!

In the meantime movecreateeducate...