DANCE

This was our second dance input and was a continuation of the previous week.

We began as usual with a warm up, starting with cardio. Doing this with children it is best to start with a game that gets them running around, which we done a few of. This is important as it will raise the body temperature and the heart rate before starting any activities. Next we moved onto the stretches which different people led with their own ideas for stretches.

Building on our dance from the previous week, we added some new steps and also a beginning and an end. This has only taken us two weeks to develop, however when doing it with children it would take more sessions due to lack of time in the school day. We also looked into ways to make our dance inter-disciplinary, and maths was the one that we focused on. By giving each dance move a number and providing a sheet of maths equations each with answers relating to the number of dance moves, we created a new sequence.

‘I enjoy creating short dance sequences, using travel, turn, jump, gesture, pause and fall, within safe practice.’

EXA 1-08a

This outcome from first level in the CfE fits with this lesson perfectly as it is a dance sequence made up  of simple skills that the children have created themselves.

This kind of progression and all of the ideas within the dance should come from the child. Although we are giving them a framework by giving them the ten skills, they themselves are making up the ten moves and ordering them in their own ways. Also by adding on a beginning pose and an end pose, the dances will all become unique with each groups ideas coming through. By doing this, we get an insight into the children and we begin to see how they learn and what they are feeling through their expression of dance. By actively listening to them trough their dances we get a better understanding of what works for them and what does not (Cone, 2009).

DRAMA

In our first session of drama session we spoke generally about drama within the classroom and how important it is to incorporate it into a child’s education.

We were asked to do a lot of reflection on our past drama experiences within school. I found this helpful to think about as I cannot remember drama at all from primary School, so I hope when I am out teaching, I can make drama a memorable experience for children as it is supposed to be a release and a bit of fun.

I was apprehensive when we began the Integrated Arts module in general, but in particular I was nervous about drama. I hope that continuing through the module and learning about the different techniques will give me confidence as I would like to incorporate drama into my school week when teaching.

We were given a story about a dragon who had no friends because everyone was scared of him. With this we were introduce to our first drama techniques but we were also realising that this kind of story within a drama context is a really good way to bring in bigger issues.

Bullying, leaving people out, not giving people a chance

These are all problems happening out in playgrounds today and can be addressed and hopefully eradicated through a drama like this.

drama can provide a process for learning by living through or experiencing an event

(Smith and Herring, 1993)

References

Theresa Purcell Cone (2009) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances, Journal of Dance Education, 9:3, 81-89.