Time: 6-8 weeks
This unit focuses on encouraging students to explore a range of movement possibilities in preparation for dance-making experiences. As well, the students' kinesthetic perceptions, techniques, and ability to repeat specific movements are developed. These movement explorations may then be incorporated into students' dance and dance-making activities.
Sample Topic: "Leapin' Lizards and Things That Fly"
Suggested Resources:
Starter List of Activities
Teacher Note:
The following Starter List of Activities is intended to aid the teacher in planning mini-units and/or units. It is not possible to engage students in all of these activities. Teachers need to choose (or develop their own) introductory activities, main activities, and concluding activities to support students in exploring Our Bodies in Motion. The activities in this starter list are described very briefly, and are just a sample of the many activities that can be developed to explore the theme or topic.
1. Introductory Activities
Introduce students to a range of exotic creatures that leap, glide, and fly such as:
Explore the concepts of leaping, gliding, and falling using exotic creatures to introduce the concepts.
Have the students research the behaviour of geckos or amphibians such as toads or salamanders, flying squirrels, flying insects, bats, or birds.
Tell the students that gliding flight is not only found among birds. Although used by hawks and gulls, for example, gliding is also found among some fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. These animals, too, can sustain periods of flight with little or no motion.
Flying fish look like they are flying by using large pectoral fins that work like wings. With strong, thrashing movements of their tails, flying fish can shoot up to 35 feet out of the water.
Gliding mammals include flying lemurs and flying squirrels that have folds of skin to help them glide, rather then fly, from tree to tree or from the tree to the ground.
Some types of frogs fall to the ground from the trees, while some can glide and others can parachute.
Gather resources that may be used later to create a display of exotic creatures that fly, glide, and leap.
Explore the jump (two feet to two feet), leap (one foot to one foot), sissone (from two feet to one foot), and assemble (from one foot to two feet).
Have students start out by walking, gradually making their stride longer and longer. Eventually, they will have to take it into a leap. Practise leaping quickly and slowly, trying different directions. Compare these movements to animal movements. Note that a leap makes an arc pathway through the air.
Teach the concepts of the jump (i.e., from two feet to two feet, mostly vertical, starting and finishing with bent knees). What kind of animals jump? How many different ways can the students jump? Small, big, quick, slow, turning? Have students practise jumping together to a beat. Break into groups and take turns showing their jumps.
Study pictures or videos of lizards and other reptiles and amphibians. What kind of shapes do they make while they are sleeping, about to jump or fly, landing a jump, or approaching prey? Have students try to create these shapes in their own bodies.
Challenge the students to compare two different types of movement. Explore the concept of falling and gliding by using a flat sheet of paper and a crumpled-up ball of paper. Observe how the flat sheet glides compared to the rapid drop of the ball of paper.
2. Main Activities
Invite students to select the jump they want to use and repeat it using a rhythmic pattern such as slow, quick, quick, slow, slow. Note how long they must hold in the landed position to jump fast or slow. Then have students create their own jumping dance with rhythms students create.
Have students use jumping or gliding movements with different pathways. A bird may use a curved pathway and glide while a frog may hop an angled pathway. Encourage students to create patterns using this information. Put the pathways and jumps together in a dance.
Explore a range of movement possibilities focusing on jumps or leaps, gliding, and stillness.
Ask students to experiment with different ways of gliding. Gliding flight is characterized by a period of flight with little or no motion or power to assist it. Try travelling quickly and then gliding using different pathways and different levels.
Plan ways for students to explore different ways of jumping or leaping. Start by creating phrases that include a leap and a glide. Next, begin and end the phrases in stillness. Make note of the transition students have to make from a jump to a glide and back. String one or two phrases together to create a dance sequence. Do the same with falling and gliding phrases.
Using the process described in Planning for Students' Dance Making, have students create a concept web based on the information they have learned about these exotic flying, gliding, and leaping creatures.
Guide the students as they create “Leaping, Gliding, and Falling” dances in small groups. Show the dances one at a time or split the class in half, and give students the chance to comment on the quality of movements that reminded them of animals.
3. Concluding Activities
Plan activities that involve students in reflecting on the dances that have been created. Have students observe the types of jumps, leaps, glides, and falls each group is using. Discuss the different ways that each group has used these concepts in the dances.
Set up displays about the creatures that the students have studied. Invite each student to report on a different creature. Invite parents to view the displays and dances, if students are comfortable sharing their dances.
Show videos or look at pictures of professional dancers who appear to be flying. Explain that with great strength and discipline even human beings can appear to be flying. Compare and contrast the elements of humans and animals in flight.
Watch a powwow dance and discuss the different ways of hopping or gliding that are evident in the dance. What kinds of animals might have inspired those dances? Invite a powwow dancer or Elder to talk about animals that inspire some kinds of traditional dances.
Have students draw pictures of their favourite gliding or leaping animal as it is leaping or in flight. Display the pictures.
Sample Topic: "Metamorphosis"
Suggested Resources:
Starter List of Activities
1. Introductory Activities
Discuss metamorphosis with the students. Have the students think of examples of metamorphosis (e.g., a caterpillar turning into a moth, or tadpoles turning into frogs). View a video about metamorphosis.
Choose one example the students can observe to explore more fully. With the help of the school or school division resource centre staff, students could gather information, pictures, and stories about the example.
Practise changing from something very big to something very small (e.g., tall – short; wide – thin) and vice versa. Make sure the students have a definite beginning, middle, and end to the dance phrase. Students could add an interesting shape to the middle.
2. Main Activities
Ask the students to brainstorm movement ideas associated with the metamorphosis example. Record the ideas on the board. The following are examples based on the metamorphosis of a caterpillar:
Explore the students' ideas about metamorphosis and movement. Encourage full explorations by asking questions such as “When you leave your cocoon, which body part comes out first? Try other ways. Is it easy to get out of the cocoon or do you push and push? Does your caterpillar movement go quickly or slowly?”
Make a dance about the emerging caterpillar. Some slow music can be used to complement the slow movement.
Explore the concepts of bound and free. Ask students how they feel when they are in the cocoon. Address how the movement becomes freer as they are released from the cocoon. How does it feel to be able to move totally freely? Do they feel like moving lightly after working so hard to get out of the cocoon? See if the students can make any other associations to bound and free movement. Have students create a dance with the first section as bound and the second section as free.
Have students select some of the movement ideas they have been exploring to create a metamorphosis dance. Use Planning for Students' Dance Making to guide students as they create.
Use music or percussion instruments to accompany the students in dance explorations and creations. Use a different rhythm or section of the music to represent each stage.
3. Concluding Activities
Have students reflect on their dance phrases. How does each phrase reflect the stage of metamorphosis? How did each group represent the concept differently or similarly?
Pair up and have students show each other their dances and comment on what students saw or intended to show. Refine the dances with peer help. Review the ideas associated with metamorphosis.
In small groups, have the students show their dances or record the dances on video for later viewing. Ask students if they would like to perform their dances for another class studying these concepts.
Have students do some expressive writing about how their transformations took place. This might be a descriptive paragraph or poem. Include feelings of being one form or another.
Look at excerpts from the ballet “Swan Lake.” Explain that the same dancer plays the ‘white' swan and the ‘black' swan. Compare and contrast the different kinds of movement that the two swans use to show the difference between good and bad.
Have students choose another form of metamorphosis to create a dance based on what they have learned.