Seriously Silly Songs

Have you ever seen these books by Sandra Boynton? I love them. It's a book and CD pair and they are seriously silly! I use them in almost all of my movement classes with young ones. My favorite are Barnyard dance (animal dance) and Loud and Quiet (see below), it's great to teach opposites with!
My other favorite part about these books is that in the back the songs are written out so you can play them on the piano! My pianist loves (loves!) to play the Dinosaur Round. I teach levels as she plays!
I find the books a reason to be silly, and you all know little kids LOVE to be silly! What silly songs do you use? I would love to hear!

Hello and Goodbye Songs

I'm looking for exceptional"hello" and "goodbye" songs for movement and ballet class! Do you sing acapella in your classes or do you like to sing along with music? I will do either! Have any recommendations? I am teaching the smallest of age groups (starting at 18 months!) this summer, and it's important that I can sign one that I like and they will love too!

Please share your songs in the comments! I bet other readers would love new beginning and ending songs too! :)

Creative Dance Music

Have you ever used these CD's from Eric Chappelle, Music for Creative Dance? I just ordered two of the volumes. I have a feeling I might need them this summer, since I will be teaching creative dance without a live pianist. Eeek! I think these CD's are fabulous, and always offer what I am looking for. I love them especially because, it's all instrumental and gives the students opportunity to see and feel the movement!

I also just ordered A Fantasy Garden Ballet Class I and II from Kimbo Educational. I was looking for some new music for ballet and this came highly recommended! I can't wait to start using it!

Have you found any great music lately? What is your favorite music to use?

Step Lively

As the school year comes to a close and summer is on it's way, can you believe I am already thinking about classes for summer and fall? Please tell me you are too? Yesterday was registration for fall classes at the JCC and one of the new classes I am offering has been on my mind! It's called "Step Lively", an entire creative movement class with a live musician! She plays the Saxophone (the saxophone!), but I plan on incorporating all types of instruments! Think about doing a dance to the sound of a sax, amazing right? I can't wait to develop the curriculum!

Here is the description I wrote:

Join Miss Maria on a dance adventure with live music! Boys and girls will travel under water, through space, and around the jungle to explore each place through movement. Dancers will discover directions, body parts, levels from high to low and movement qualities such as fast and slow. The live music will add an element of surprise and will be used to make dances come alive!

If you live in NYC and are 3 years old come join Step Lively!

My dear readers, have you ever tried a class like this? Have you worked with a live musician? I think experimenting with different instruments adds a whole other level to exploring movement. Don't you?

Milkshake!

I found a milkshakes song from the CD, Songs for Wiggleworms and it's so fantastic! We pour milk, we pour cream (stretches to the side), we stir it all up (spin), and then we shake it up! Of course, we all pick our flavors, including the flavor "pink chocolate" (haha) Doesn't that sound delicious?! I love when we can make a dance with just about anything!

Do you do any silly songs that your students just LOVE? What do you make dances about? I would love to hear?

P.S. Don't forget to enter the Coloring pages giveaway from DanceStudioOwner.com!

The Animal Boogie

This week in my preschool classes I introduced this book, The Animal Boogie! It comes with a CD to dance to and does a really great job of introducing movement words such as shake, flap, leap, and swing. After we do the dance through the book, I ask the kids what their favorite animal was and if they can remember the word the animal moved too. It has a catchy tune too!

"shake, shake, boogie, woogie, oogie"

Barefoot Books has more books like this one, perhaps I will put them on my wish list! Have you tried this book in preschool? Have you tried any new books lately that the kids love?

Listen, Draw, Move

The third lesson of the week is from Lauren Warnecke of Art Intercepts! Thanks Lauren for sharing this creative lesson!

Lauren says she has tried this lesson on ages 3- adult and has had success!

This lesson plan is a great way to develop sensitivity for musicality and characteristics in movement and music such as accent and tempo. First I have the kids lay in a circle with their heads into the circle. I turn off the lights and play them a piece of music that has a specific quality I want them to grasp. They practice active listening with their eyes closed. While they are listening, I set out a big piece of butcher paper and colored markers or crayons. We then open our eyes and listen to the music again—this time I ask them to “draw what the music looks like” paying attention to what colors they use, what their lines look like (strong and jagged or soft and curved), and taking into account that all of the dancers are making a collaborative piece of art. Once the music ends I hang their art as a back drop and play the song one more time and this time they get to free dance to the music trying to incorporate the qualities we listened to and drew in our artwork.

For contrast, I’ll repeat the entire activity with a totally different song that exhibits opposite qualities from the one we just did. This lesson takes about 30 minutes to complete and is always really fun!

(photo via Menomonee Club)

Fireworks! Fire Trucks!

This week I seemed to have posted a lot of ideas I use in my classes with the wee ones. I thought I would finish out the week sharing a few more ideas with you! Why not? This week I tried 2 new dances and they were a big hit--- (I put in two because they both begin with F! Oh, and I have another idea for tomorrow. That's the real reason!)

Fireworks!

I hand out different colored wrist ribbons (not the wand ones, in fear of loosing someone's eye!) and ask them about fireworks. Do they all look the same? Do they go up slow and come down fast or the other way around? So we practice "exploding" on the count of 3 and then fizzling out as we move back down to the ground as slow as we can! It's so fun! We try it one at a time, and then we try it all together, like the finale! Now all we need is a holiday and we are all set!

Fire Trucks!

Drive, climb the ladder, get your hose, drive back home! I have this one little boy at the preschool who is OBSESSED with Firemen! I mean the kid wears a fireman uniform every day, every day! So I brought in this song about a fire truck and of course I add in the creative part at the beginning. He was tickled, and really they all just want to do it over, and over, and over again!

What about you? Have you done any new dances this week that were a big hit?

Jack in the Box

The 2 year olds at the preschool love the jack in the box dance. They start inside their box, and then when it's time.....SURPRISE! They love it, it never gets old to surprise Miss Maria. Teacher hint: I use it as a transition from sitting to standing. It works really well!

Do you have a favorite transition that your students never get tired of?

Back-up Plan

Do you have a back-up plan? Well I learned the hard way a few days ago when my ipod completely stopped working.(Eeeekkkkk!) It was shuffling and wouldn't play in my speakers. Oh my goodness, what a mess! I got to the preschool and was so sad I couldn't use music for the kids. They of course were so sad too. I assured I would have music next week. They were happy with that. I was going to be out all day and had ballet class later on that day. I went to the apple store where they fixed it, but of course had to wipe out all my music. It's restored now, and all my music is back on.

For my ballet class, I used one of the amazing mom's music whose daughter is in the class. I put together a playlist really quick of the kids music she had. It worked fine, but of course I didn't have the usual music and that made for a different class. A few things I noticed:

1)The kids really love the songs we do every week. Repetition really does work. They know the words and LOVE them. If we don't do them, they can't understand why. I did a lot of singing A cappella. It was so fun! (haha)

2)Without repetition it throws everyone a little bit off. I found they were all a little off, including me! I tried really hard, but I understood.

3) It was good for me to develop something on the spot. I had to come up with some different things, adding to the curriculum in a very short time.

Lesson Learned!! Have a back-up plan! I wonder in this time of technology how it's even possible? Maybe a back-up CD? Then I have to carry around a cd player!?(haha, oh my) What are your back-up plans for your music? What do you do in the last second if something happens to your music and you have to make something up on the spot? I would love to hear!

3 Tips for Working with a Live Musician

Do any of you teach classes where you work with a live musician? I work with a live pianist every week for my creative movement classes. I have worked out some kinks and thought I would share some tips with you!

1) Build a relationship- First and foremost build a friendly relationship. Since I have worked with the same woman for 3 years now, it is important that I maintain a relationship. I ask her how her weekend went, how her other jobs are going, etc.

2) Exchange Ideas- I always love to hear the ideas she comes up with. Since she is looking at the dance class from the music perspective, I think listening to her feedback and ideas are essential for the class. I love that every week she comes in with new music and not just any music, but music the kids will enjoy and recognize! They really love it, and look forward to it. If she isn't sitting at the piano right at the start of class, they say "where's the music?" It's almost like they refuse to dance until they can hear the music!

3) Teach the kids to Respect- It is important to me to let the kids know that the musician is part of the class. We say "HI" to her at the beginning, tell her what we plan to do for the day, and then of course on our way out we say "Thank you. " I know this is teaching the kids an important lesson, even if they don't see it now. They will remember it down the road, and always remember to thank the musician if any of them move on to be professionals some day.

Do any of you have any ideas or something creative you teach your kids about live music? I find live music really enhances a dance class, I miss it when I don't have for my other classes during the week. If you are lucky enough to have one, make sure you are thankful for them everyday!

I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

In the meantime movecreateeducate...