This day was SO FUN! It was also really sad as my time with these crazy and hilarious 4th graders came to a close. We had two days to rehearse for the final performance before performing it for a 5th grade class also at Bonneville Elementary that had been participating in the program as well.
We decided to split the class into four different groups and we assigned them different lessons from our time together. We used the Legends lesson, Halloween lesson, Utah Climates lesson, and Utah Animals lesson. We ended the performance as a group with the Erosion lesson. Each group had specific instructions to highlight that lesson for the other class and they had to create a performance for it. I gave each group a couple of different options of music that would play in the background as well.
The final two class rehearsals before the performance were somewhat stressful because there was a lot to do and not a lot of time. It was hard to balance my time between the four groups as I was helping all of them prepare and rehearse what they had created. I was hoping the students would remember what they had created and not get nervous in front of the 5th graders.
The day of the performance ended up being December 20th, 2019. This was the last day of classes so each class was missing a lot of students! However, we were really impressed with how the students adapted their pieces even though there were people missing and it was so fun to watch them go through the movement that we had explored throughout the semester.
Approaching this lesson plan was intimidating because there was so much info to go through, so it helped when I just copied and pasted the original lesson plans and then chose the parts that I thought were most important or the most enjoyable from the students. I tried to write clear instructions and printed out papers with instructions for each group so they would have something to look at before needing to come to me to ask questions.
Here was the final big lesson plan:
Arts Bridge Final Project Lesson Plan
Objective: By the end of 35 minutes, the 4th grade students of Ms. Jones’ class will prepare the final project of the class by getting into groups and choreographing movement from different lessons throughout the internship to be ready to perform for another class.
Materials:
Speaker and music for each lesson
Poster and markers for Utah Animals lesson
Instructions for each dance printed out so the group can read and see what they need to do
Lessons:
Legends
Halloween Lesson Plan (Energy Lesson Plan)
Utah Climates
Utah Animals
Erosion (the entire class)
Instructions:
- Small review of each of the lessons to refresh their memories. Move through small parts
of each lesson to warm up their bodies.
- Explain that we will be using these lessons to create our final project to perform for
another class. Have students pick their favorite but also make sure that the groups are
mostly even.
- Give each group their specific instructions so they can start working on their dances. I
will go around to each group to help as needed.
Instructions for Legend group: Pick 3 of the 5 instructions to create a dance. Have a beginning shape and ending shape. The dance needs to be at least 30 seconds.
LEGEND LESSON
Legend features
1- The hero
-Ask who their favorite hero is and have them make a shape like a hero (tall, bold,
strong)
2- Great actions (of hero or other characters)
-Great, or large movement. Spinning, jumping, hopping, leaping
3- Space-time: where the story unfolds, specific and locatable
-Divide room into four quadrants for four different locations and make movement that
goes with that quadrant
*Outer space: light, weightless
*Sea: Wavy, flowy
*Jungle: Swatting and slashing at bugs that are attacking you
*Desert: Everything is slow motion
4- Reality of stories: they were real at some point, but details have been exaggerated
-Get into groups of 3 or 4 people. The first person makes a small shape, person behind
will make the first shape but just a little bigger and so on until the last person makes the
biggest shape possible. Rotate until everyone has made the small shape.
5- Fantasy: supernatural or magical facts
-What was the fantasy of this story?
*Wolf talking
*Putting stars in the sky
-Put a body part in a fixed point (like the star) and try to move your body in any way you
can without moving that fixed point. (Example: Putting my hand high above me and act
like it is being held there by someone and move as much as I can around that.)
Instructions for Energy Dance: Create a simple dance that shows different energy qualities of movement. (Listed below)
ENERGY DANCE
Halloween
Create a dance of 2-4 8 counts and perform the dance with several different energy qualities.
Can choose from: sustained, percussive, vibratory, collapse
Instructions for Utah Climate group: Make a dance that goes through the 3 different climates
we talked about. Include different shapes from the Chicken in the Henhouse game in every location as you move throughout Utah. At least 1 shape in each climate area, but they can do more.
UTAH CLIMATES
Experience and Identify:
3 different groups to explore different climates in Utah
Desert: St. George area. Very hot and dry.
Mountains/Forest: Uinta Mountains. Average temperatures with heavier rainfall and snowfall.
Lake/Wetlands: Lake areas – lots of water, maybe more humid.
Have the 3 groups create a movement that shows what the climate is like in that area. Then
have each group show the other groups and then we will move around Utah using the different movements to show what climate we are in.
Game: Chicken in a Henhouse (but with landforms)
You need to get with a partner to make these shapes:
Mountain: Hands up together to make the point of a mountain
Plateaus: “Crabwalk” position next to partner. It has to be totally flat!
Basins: Land that descends into water – shape that has an angle going to the ground, like water could run down the shape onto the floor.
Valleys: Has hills and mountains surrounding it, typically V shaped. Partners make a V shape and lay on their backs, contract so their torsos are the valley part and their arms and legs are up to create the hills and mountains. (Good ab workout)
Arches: Lay on your back and put your feet together to make an arch in the air.
Lake: Flat and wide shape on the ground and do the wave with your partner.
River: Moving body of water. Thin shapes that travel throughout the space.
Instructions for Utah Animals group: The group will make their own Cinquain Poem with actions to perform.
UTAH ANIMALS
Instructions for Cinquain Poem
Line 1: One work subject of the poem (noun)
Line 2: Two words to describe the title (adjectives)
Line 3: Three “ing” words that show action (verbs)
Line 4: Four-word phrase that expresses a feeling
Line 5: One-word synonym for the subject or one word to wrap it all up
Movement Instructions
Line 1: Shape of animal
Line 2: Two shapes
Line 3: Three actions
Line 4: Acting out the phrase
Line 5: Group shape
Desert: Desert Tortoise, Rattlesnake, Tarantula
Forest: Cotton Tailed Rabbit, Barn Owl, Black Bear
Wetlands: Mosquito, Duck, American Bullfrog
WHOLE CLASS: Start as a whole class by getting into your groups and making your rock shapes. Choose one person from the group to “weather down” your rock with one of the weathering agents we talked about. After we see each of those, we will make one big rock shape. Ms. Jones will come weather down the rock (Surprise!) and everyone will erode and deposit themselves somewhere to finish the performance.
EROSION - Everyone
Weathering – the breaking down of rock. Weathering agents:
Water
Ice
Wind
Animals
Growing plants
Get into groups of 5. Each person is assigned a different weathering agent. 4 people will make a
big group shape like a rock and the last person will try to weather down the rock with movement
like their weathering agent.
Erosion – movement of sediment from broken rock
Water
Ice
Wind
Gravity
Move as a group from one side of the room to another. Pretend you are a particle of the rock that
is moving through water, then as ice, then wind, then gravity.
Deposition – dropping sediment in a new place
Our big bow!
CONCLUSION
Overall, this experience was INCREDIBLE! I was on a dance team last Spring where we went to many different elementary schools and saw different schools and students every day. Arts Bridge was so special because I could go to the same school, same classroom, and work with the same amazing students every time! I loved working with Ms. Jones who was so helpful and cooperative and patient, even when some of my ideas didn't go so smoothly. It was inspiring to see the potential and growth of the students as they got more comfortable with themselves and their movement through exploring different concepts. Finding ways to integrate dance into core standard lessons was a definite challenge that I think really pushed me, and I hope it helped those students see how you can incorporate movement and dancing into anything you want. I am so happy I could have this experience to push myself as a teacher and a dancer, and also learn about things like erosion and poetry on the way. ;)
GO ARTS BRIDGE!