Curated OER
Telling Stories Through Dance
Examine the movement of characters in the story, Caps for Sale. Using the text, pupils invent gestures and movements for some of the actions and major events. They practice retelling a story by using the movements they developed. They...
Curated OER
After the Dance
Students create a crayon resist painting after exercising. They participate in an exercise session of dance and movement, discuss how they feel after exercising, and create a painting using watercolor crayon resist techniques.
Curated OER
Dance Sequences and Phrases
A series of lessons about dance would be a great addition to your physical education class. Straightforward as well as creative, it teaches the basic skills of dance movement. A rubric helps guide the dancers to let them know what steps...
Smithsonian Institution
Jamaican Song, Dance, and Play: Experiences with Jamaican Musical Traditions
Young musicians experience song, dance, and play of the Jamaican culture. Scholars listen for and recreate beats, they play tunes, make up original dances, and play a game that challenges pupils to pass stones to a specific beat.
Curated OER
Flip and Flop: An Adaptation Through Dancing Echoes with Shapes and Locomotor Movement
Dancers practice echoing through dance. They listen to a story "Flip and Flop" and then are put into pairs. One partner is Flip, while the other is Flop. Flip creates a shape by dancing, and Flop, the other student, echoes that shape by...
Curated OER
Dance and Writing
Fourth graders use dance moves to perform narratives. In this dramatic performing lesson, 4th graders use strong and soft movements to show what character's voice is portraying. Students also use movement to show the feelings in the...
National Dance Week Foundation
Modern Dance Project
As part of a celebration of National Dance week, class members engage in a series of exercises that introduce them to the movements of modern dance.
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Dimension Dances
Use dance to help learners conceptualize line segments, rays, lines, and planes. They choreograph dances that show dimensional space. Dancers start by pondering space, point, and lines as the teacher draws them in the air. Each movement...
Curated OER
Dance: Discovering the Culture of Gullah
It's wonderful to see a lesson that incorporates art, movement, and writing. These three forms of creative expression are explored as learners dance to music from the Gullah people of West Africa. They analyze several paintings, listen...
Curated OER
Theater Arts/Creative Movement Lesson Plan
Here is a series of five exercises intended to bring movement, dance, and theater into the classroom. Intended for special ed classes, but appropriate for any grade, learners will pantomime, play pretend, dance, move, and create...
Curated OER
Dance: Water Dancing
Examine the way water moves, drips, and splashes with an expressive dance. Learners discuss the ways in which water moves, then create dance sequences that show or describe water. There are several suggestions to adapt this lesson to...
Teaching Tolerance
Musical Movement Showcase
Young performing artists create a song or choreograph a dance to illustrate a theme in a text they are reading. Step-by-step directions are included.
Curated OER
Same and Different Through Music and Art
This instructional activity is intended for a music class but would be a great way to teach compare and contrast to any class. Kindergarteners dance the Hokey Pokey to four different styles of music and examine two paintings of Humpty...
Curated OER
Dance Challenge: Calculate and Compare Speed by Measuring a Series of Dance Movements
Really neat! Kids choreograph a dance phrase and then measure the distance and speed of the phrase using a timer and a meter stick. They collect the data on a table which they use to determine an average. A series of observation and...
Curated OER
Analyzing Two Dances and Making a Dance Map: The Nutcracker
Students discuss dance elements and create a dance map. They choose a dance theme and incorporate movement into their dance maps and choreography. They also experiment with different types of music.
Curated OER
Shape In Dance
Students engage in a lesson that is about the concept of shapes. They practice moves that are used to illustrate different types of shapes. Students participate in body movements that are focused around the directions of the body like...
Curated OER
Dance Showing Science Contexts of Movement: States of Matter
Fifth graders dance in different ways to show movement of states of matter. In this matter lesson plan, 5th graders make connected shapes with a partner, make flowing movements, travel rapidly, and more.
Curated OER
Dancing Polygons and Non-Polygons with Patterns
Second graders study movements. In this dance instructional activity, 2nd graders draw patterns selecting one to represent through movement with their body.
Curated OER
Movement
Young scholars experiment and explore a variety of instruments and movements. They play rhythms on instruments, spell words using their bodies, act out the movements of a song, role-play machine parts as a group, pantomime an activity,...
Curated OER
Art and Sole
A series of four lessons encourages learners to engage in all sorts of artistic activities. They participate in creative movement, serve food, sing songs, recite poems, and create a bust of themselves. What a fun and exciting series of...
Curated OER
Dancing Levels in Space
Learners practice mirroring human moves by performing a dance in class. In this physical education lesson, students utilize different spaces around them to perform a dance expressing their full motion. Learners cooperate in pairs or...
Curated OER
Changing Energy: Landforms and Dance
Third graders choreograph a dance to represent the changes in nature. In this dance and nature lesson plan, 3rd graders use sharp quick movements to demonstrate changes.
Curated OER
Dance: Sharp and Smooth Energy Qualities
Students use different qualities of movement to express themselves. In this lesson on movement, students use different qualities of energy and then use their experience as an inspiration for writing poetry.
Curated OER
Round and Dance Music
Third graders recognize a round in singing groups and apply to choreography movements. In this rounds lesson, 3rd graders memorize movements with songs at specific places. Students perform a three part round.