DANCE

During our first dance session we were introduced to many different things that should be incorporated into a dance session with children. Warm up games, stretches and the ten key skills to dancing were what we focused on, each having significant importance to the session.

The warm up

We then moved on to look at teaching children the dancing. Before walking into this session I felt okay about teaching dance. I have been dancing since I was young, however I was unsure how I would bring this to the classroom and what to do with the children. We focused on ten key skills, all of which by themselves are extremely simple, and is all you need to create a dance with children.

In this session, we had to make up one move for each skill and were given a sequence of numbers to follow, which turned it into a routine. By doing this, you are giving the children the opportunity to be creative and create a routine that has come from them. ‘Through dance they bring their inner self to the surface where they can express their dreams, fears, needs and joys’ (Cone, 2009), giving them the opportunity be who they are and hopefully gain some confidence from the experience.

ART

In today’s art input we looked further into how the integrated arts are becoming relevant in children’s education and methods on how to go about teaching it, which I find very helpful. Arts education is so important as it ‘is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form’ (Silverstein and Layne, 2010, p.1). It not only allows them to fully understand what they are learning and go beyond the basic understanding, but it gives children the opportunity to become creative and express themselves as they do it (Silverstein and Layne, 2010).

The point of this exercise was to encourage us, and in turn the children, to slow down and really look at what we have in front of us before we move on and create something new. It encourages us to appreciate our work and feel proud of it, but most importantly to have a tolerance for ambiguity.

References

Cone, T.P. (2009) ‘Following Their Lead Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances’, Journal of Dance Education, 9(3).

Eisner, E. (2002) What the Arts Teach. Ch 4. The Arts and the Creation of Mind, London: Yale University Press.

Silverstein, L. and Layne, S. (2010) Defining Arts Integration.