Family Engagement Blog: Parker Core Knowledge

Dancers participating in Dance Exploration, LLC Creative Movement Classes are taught “Dance to Learn!” Curriculum

Written by Samantha Mattei

Hello Parents/Guardians!
Another very successful and fun-filled week! Your daughters were incredibly imaginative, eager-to-learn, and energetic… they are such a joy to teach. I started out by meeting both of them by having the girls pass around the ‘Happy Hat’, which is a little bowler-hat covered in smiley faces. I asked each student to introduce themselves with her name, and one thing that made her happy. (Both Ashlyn and Macy said they were happy that their families were coming into town for Thanksgiving—too cute!) After that introduction game, and the girls had a few minutes to share their stories, we moved on to the dance! This week, we did a lot of stretching for warm-ups that involved animals, because the students respond very positively to these imaginative and interactive poses. I used the flashcards that promoted color-coding and reading the names of animals (cat, dog, bear, etc). They also came up with a few of their own ideas, such as ‘snow angels’ and ‘unicorns’. We then moved onto ‘across the floor work.’ I placed green, yellow, and red circles on the ground. The girls were instructed to do specific movements (tippy toes, stomps, cat crawls, etc) fast to the green, slow to the yellow, and then stopped at the red, where they would then give us their favorite dance move. It gave each student a chance to shine and show us her stuff! And finally, we wrapped up our day with a freestyle dance, where they both danced and taught me their dance moves… and we cheered-on each other, as they individually went into the center and danced to Devo’s “Whip It”. At the end of class, each girl participated so well, that each was given a ‘smiley’ sticker and a high-five. Another great class!

 

Family Engagement Post: Martin School of Early Education

Creative Dance Students participating in “Dance to Learn!” Curriculum

By Samantha Mattei

Hello Parents/Guardians!
Another very successful and fun-filled week! Your children are incredibly imaginative, eager-to-learn, and energetic… they are such a joy to teach each week. I started out by meeting all of the new students by having everyone pass around the ‘Happy Hat’, which is a little bowler-hat covered in smiley faces. I asked each student to introduce themselves with their name, and one thing that made them happy. After that introduction game, and kids having a few minutes to share their stories, we moved on to the dance! This week, we still did a lot of stretching for warm-ups that involved animals, because the students respond very positively to these imaginative and interactive poses. I used the flashcards that promoted color-coding and reading the names of animals (cat, dog, bear, etc). We then moved onto ‘across the floor work.’ I placed green, yellow, and red circles on the ground. The students were instructed to do specific movements (tippy toes, stomps, cat crawls, etc) fast to the green, slow to the yellow, and then stopped at the red, where they would then give us their favorite dance move. It gave every student a chance to shine and show us their stuff! And finally, we wrapped up our day with a break-dance circle, where each student on the outside clapped and cheered-on their classmates, as they individually went into the center and danced to Devo’s “Whip It”. At the end of class, every student participated so well, that each was given a ‘smiley’ sticker and a high-five. Another great class!