Today in our last dance session we explored the ‘appreciate’ stage of dance.
https://vimeo.com/376244950
We performed the whole dance and had it videoed so we could watch it back and evaluate ourselves. We did this by using three stars and one wish. It is important that children understand why they need to evaluate their work, so they can improve it. “They evaluate themselves on what they know about dance, how well they learned or created dance, and how they feel about dance.” (Cone and Cone, 2005) They can do this in relation to their skills gained, their use of a choreographic device, their thoughts and feelings and rhythm, timing, precision, quality etc. Adding a choreographic device to the dance makes it more exciting than dancing in one position. It also gives everyone the chance to be at the front and perform the dance they have worked together to create. I evaluated myself when watching our dance video back.
- Remembering the dance moves.
- Dancing in time to the music.
- Energy and enjoyment when dancing.
- Work on the precision of the dance moves.
I can now look at what needs improvement and correct it. Children would do this before their big performance. We have developed many skills over the last few weeks and the children in our future classrooms will develop them too. Working collaboratively to create a piece of music and getting that sense of achievement when it is successful.
In music we learned how to play a ukulele and performed Last Christmas.
The ukulele is unique as the two outer strings are pitched higher and the two inner strings are pitched lower, compared to other string instruments which go low to high. Therefore, the ukulele has a unique way of tuning, but there are many videos and resources out there that can help.
For example, the song ‘My Dog Has Fleas’ can be used. The online resource ‘Ukulele in the Classroom’ can be used to help you get started on learning how to play the instrument. It has been used on CPD courses to teach teachers how to play it and be able to teach it in their own classrooms. Coloured stickers can be put on the neck of the ukulele to show children where their fingers should be when learning the chords. Ukulele’s are cheap to buy which makes them a good instrument to use in the classroom. They also do not have to be sterilised and can be used left handed without having to be restrung. An online resource called UkuChords.com can be used to show and teach children how to play the chords.
We took each chord at a time and played along to a piece of music that worked with that chord. You would work a lot slower with children, making it a series of lessons rather than one lesson. We also introduced strumming techniques such as shuffle strum and the country strum, which made the music a bit more interesting. It was quite hard to move between the chords so to help the children overcome this we must teach them to hold the instrument properly and where their fingers should be – first finger, first fret; second finger, second fret. Ukulele’s also consist of four of the notes from the Pentatonic Scale, therefore, it is hard to make it sound bad. 95% of pop songs use the same four chords, this can be shown in this Youtube video, so if we learn these four chords and teach them to the children, they will be able to play along to most pop songs, which they will enjoy because it is music they will know.
We then played the song Last Christmas, which was good as it was the same four chords repeated every eight bars, so it was easy to play.
This would be relatable for children on the lead up to Christmas, which they could perform, building up their confidence and self-esteem.
References
Cone, T.P. and Cone, S.L. (2005) Teaching Children Dance Human Kinetics Publishers.
The Ukulele Teacher (2011) How to Tune a Ukulele [online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl7uzySXUSw [Accessed on: 18th December 2019].
The Axis of Awesome (2011) 4 Chords, Music Videos, The Axis of Awesome [online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ [Accessed on: 18th December 2019].
