Tap Dance Lesson Plans

Learners practice dance using different speeds of music and types of movement. In this dance lesson, learners view a clip of tap dancing and analyze the speed of music in coordinating with the speed of dance movements. Learners complete a choreography and performance for the lesson.

Students examine the /a/ phoneme in both written and spoken words. They practice finding the /a/ in words, watch how their mouths move when making the sound, and write the letter. Next, they differentiate the sound in words, listen to a read aloud while raising a hand each time they hear a short (a) in a word. Finally, they draw a man tap dancing and write message describing the picture in which they identify the /a/ words.

Students play a vocabulary game with words from an article about Savion Glover's contribution to the film "Happy Feet." Then, small groups of students design and create original movie advertisements using vivid vocabulary to give Glover the recognition that the writer feels he deserves. They write a comparison of one of the newly designed advertisements with the official "Happy Feet" advertisement.

Students examine the contributions of the author Gwendolyn Brooks. They create a journal, read and discuss poems by Brooks, write a poem about themselves, and create a timeline of their own lives.

Learners use appropriate terms to reflect a working knowledge of the musical elements and use terminology from music and dance to analyze and compare structures of musical and other artistic works. They also identify the purpose of the composition and how it relates to the culture. Finally, learners demonstrate an understanding of the form of this composition.

Students participate in a syllable counting and phonics activity and write a letter. They count syllables using the technique of saying each word without moving their lips, and trace and write the letter t. Students also continue discussing Aesop's "The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse" fable, and develop a list of attributes of their own city.

This lesson has students recognize that many groups contributed to the richness of culture in the United States. This lesson provides an opportunity for students to learn more about the groups of people who built their way of life in the United States.

In this lesson learners examine how marine animals use sounds.  In this animal communities lesson learners complete several activities on non-vocal sounds. 

Students explore and play rhythm sticks while listening to songs from around the world. They locate the countries of origin on a map, and tap their rhythm sticks to the beat of the music.

6th graders examine the changes occuring during adolescents using children's literature. As a class, they brainstorm a list of the various roles they play in their family. In groups, they use excerpts of plays from Shakespeare to identify the images of youth and compare them to their own images. To end the lesson, they discuss the changes occuring not only physically but mentally.