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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...
Education Closet
West Side Shifts
Combine math, language arts, music, and dance with an activity focused on "America" from West Side Story. After listening to the song, learners compare the film to Romeo and Juliet, analyze the song's meter, design choreography, plan...
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Yellow Bird and Me
Upper elementary artists create works which demonstrate an understanding of the many elements of theater and the visual arts. This four-day plan combines many wonderful aspects of visual, musical, and theatrical arts into one very...
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Erase the Quiet
Students recognize how music, theater, dance, and the visual arts can be combined to contribute to their own active learning. They work in small groups to research and use critical thinking skills to identify ways in which the arts could...
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Noh Theater
Students take a closer look at Japanese drama. In this Japanese culture lesson plan, students study the attributes of Noh theater and compare it western theater. Students conduct independent research on the art form prior to acting out a...
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MTV and Othello
After reading Acts III and IV of Othello, give your class a fun, interactive, music-related activity. Begin by asking students about songs they have heard in movies or plays. Let them look up the lyrics online and ruminate about the...
John F. Kennedy Center
Jazz music, Dance and Poetry
Learners view video and become familiar with the type of movement in jazz dance. In this jazz dance instructional activity, students write a cinquain about jazz dance. Learners recognize the elements of jazz dance and the type of music...
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Lesson: Daria Martin: Body as Language
There is a wonderful magic that happens when artists collaborate. Kids examine storytelling through collaborative art. Inspired by Rodin's sculpture Minotaur, Daria Martin and Anna Halprin create a filmed dance sequence. Kids analyze the...
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Tuning the World One Note at a Time
Students investigate music around the world and work with a photographer to understand elements of photography. In this photography lesson, students visit a dance hall and interview the dancers. Students gather ideas and create a video...
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Study Guide for Lelavision's Physical Music
Students complete activities for physical music analysis. In this physical music activity, students read the biography for Lelavision musical sculptures, complete a sound and motion activity, and a making music activity. Students also...
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Graphs of the Heart
Students study Greek literature. In this Greek tragedies instructional activity, students explore the dance-dramas of Martha Graham. Students study the choreography that brings ancient Greek literature to life.
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DANCE
Students create and perform a dance or series of movements one to two minutes in length. Their dance supports and enhances the expressive qualities of the theater production and accompany the music students selected to perform.
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Exploring the Roots of Modern Dance in America
Students develop an understanding of how African culture impacted modern dance in the United States.
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"Mambo" from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein
Students encounter and study "Mambo" from "West Side Story," by Leonard Bernstein. They practice utilizing musical elements (instrumentation, tempo, and dynamics) to create a certain mood for a scene with music. Each student interprets...
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The First Fire : A Cherokee Animal Tale
Fourth graders discover movement through the telling of "The First Fire", a Cherokee tale. Small groups are given sections of the story to tell by creating dances. Music (live and recorded) adds to the final performance and assessment.
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Speak Out!
Students are introduced to Yvonne Ranier's "Trio A" dance and investigate how to express concern over social issues through choreography. They research important issues from the 1960's, choreograph and perform original dances.
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Just Pass It
High schoolers investigate a minimalist dance using two props, a chair and a pillow. They demonstrate transferring a prop from one person to the next in a task-like manner. Then they work as a group to transfer a prop with restrictive...
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Kye Kye Kule
Third graders study the repeating patterns and basic dance movements used in traditional African drumming songs. In groups, they create a story that can be used with a ritual/tradition and a rhythmic piece that uses repeating rhythmic...
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Noh Theater
Students compare Noh drama to western drama and trace the influence of Japanese theater on modern western drama. In this Noh drama lesson, students read the play Black Tomb (Kurozuko) defining the elements and conventions of Noh drama...
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Expressions of Anti-Racism through Painting: The Puerto Rican Community from West Side Story to Connecticut
Students create a graffiti wall using their own name or personal symbol. They examine their own understanding of the film as a source of inspiration and listen to the music from the soundtrack as an effective motivation. They make...
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Noh Theater
Learners explore the roles in Noh drama and the significance of Noh masks while creating their own version of a Noh play in this High School instructional activity adaptable for either the Language Arts or Theater classroom.
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Malambo
High schoolers 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...
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Carnival of the Animals
First graders make a book that shows the different musical pieces in Carnival of the Animals that represent animals. In this animals and music lesson plan, 1st graders tell how they interpreted each part to represent an animal.
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Mirror Exercise
Kids get up and act! To promote inventiveness, timing, and clowning, they pair up and act as though they are looking in a mirror. Child A does a move while child B attempts to mimic it as closely as possible. This is a fun activity that...