intermediate

Entries Tagged as 'intermediate'

4th & 5th graders, talkin’ about site-based choreography…

August 5th, 2010 · Comments Off · Uncategorized

I’m just saving this for later… Via Maya Soto & Carla Barragan — thanks, ladies!

Summer homework: Dance Day

June 20th, 2010 · Comments Off · Uncategorized

Tomorrow’s the last day of classes. With my 4th & 5th graders, we’ll watch the Dance Day video & I’ll give them their summer assignment. Here it is… Summer homework Learn a dance, get some exercise & celebrate Dance Day on July 31! Go to www.dizzyfeetfoundation.org & click on the Dance Day video, where Napoleon […]

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Tags:intermediate·students·video

Tap Dance in the public schools

March 7th, 2010 · Comments Off · Uncategorized

… is hard to do. No tap dance shoes. Even if I did have shoes for the kids, no way am I going to let the floor get scuffed up. Nonetheless, we just finished some tap dancing, and it was successful, thanks to the instructional DVD Rhythm Kidz — Tap Dance in Tennis Shoes with […]

Dancing for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 16th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Lesson Plans

Context: I taught this series of lessons this week in response to a late request for some dances for the school’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day assembly (scheduled for & completed this past Thursday). My initial response was “no can do!” because I’d already planned my classes — focused on introducing the choreographic devices of […]

Creating a time & place for flow

October 25th, 2009 · 4 Comments · Uncategorized

Last Tuesday, my fifth graders clicked into flow, despite the frantic limitations of this year’s 30-minute classes, and it crossed my mind that I might survive. Cause flow is why I teach & what keeps me going. Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or […]

Lesson Plan: Setting parameters to get started

October 13th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Lesson Plans

Grades: 1st-5th grades Teaching points: The dance classroom has standards: Make good decisions. Show respect. Solve problems. [These are school-wide standards.] Targets: Understand & practice the nitty gritty: standards, routines & procedures for dance class; Get moving! Context: Just now it’s no longer the first week of school, but the first week of school comes […]

Performance: Kids & costumes & sound, oh my!

June 7th, 2009 · 6 Comments · Uncategorized

The silence resounding on this blog since the last entry reflects in reverse the noisy mantra that took over my brain and all spare moments of my life the past few weeks, accelerating toward and recovering from performance. Like the shrill chant of “lions & tigers & bears” in The Wizard of Oz, the details […]

Performance: Learning x 325

May 12th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized

Busy time of year… building toward the final performance. We’ve had small performances throughout the year — one class at a time, showing something at the end of a unit. And we meant to have a performance last December, but it was stormed out. So the excitement is bubbling now. Each day, students ask me, […]

Assessing dance while unleashing creative chaos

March 16th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized

Anyone happening into my classroom this week might think, or yell, “What’s going on here?!” Get the creative juices bubbling in 28 children, and you’re gonna have some moments of chaos… Students in intermediate classes just now are completing Classroom-Based Assessments in Theatre & Dance, which call for the choreography of solos. As quiet and […]

Mid-year: What have we learned, and where do we go from here?

March 8th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized

From September through December, we danced. January was music and percussion month. This last Friday, we finished a month of theatre (2 sessions of 2 weeks each). Having played with, discussed, mastered?, explored, and pursued theatre vocabulary and skills, we’ll return to dancing tomorrow. First & second graders have now developed skills of observation, sensory […]

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