This weeks lecture was on creative partnerships. This was interesting as it showed me how different groups of people like teachers and parents can work together to enhance pupils’ learning within the arts. It also enriches young peoples lives and provides a more rounded experience using specialists when teaching the arts.
In today’s dance workshop we started off by warming up to Scottish music and this would be good to do in the classroom when learning about Scotland as a topic as it integrates them both together. We then played a few more warm up games like splat and a jelly bean game. Everyone had to walk around the room and when jumping bean was shouted you would jump on the spot, runner bean you would run on the spot, jelly bean you would act like jelly and baked bean you would lie on the floor and pretend to be baking in the sun. These types of warm up games are useful to play with the class as they are fun and engaging. First of all we looked at the ten dance moves that we had created last week relating to the ten words. We were then provided with the numbers in a mixed up order and had to do the moves this way to create a small dance. This is advantageous for a primary school class as it allows pupils who may not be so confident with dance are able to join in and be shown that it is not too difficult when you have a few moves that you can join up together. After this we went into a circle and the whole class came up with moves for the numbers 0-9. We then split off back into our groups and answered maths questions to get the numbers 0-9 in a mixed up order and applied the dance moves to these numbers. Then we were given two Scottish landmarks in our groups and had to come up with dance moves that represented the landmarks. Once we had done this we went back as a whole class and put all of our moves together and made up a short dance. “One of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create a dance that that reflects their ideas.” (Cone, 2009, P81). I found this input very useful as it showed me many easy ways to integrate dance into the curriculum. This allows pupils to work together and be creative. An experience and outcome that could relate to this dance workshop is “I can explore and chose movements to create and present dance, developing my skills and techniques.” (Scottish Government, n.d). This links with today’s workshop as we created movements that represented Scottish landmarks and integrated them together to create a dance.
In music today we started off by looking at figure notes which makes it easier for pupils with ASN needs or have trouble learning to be able to play and learn how to use a musical instrument. The website uses three steps and this means that the pupils are able to work at their own pace but can also still play together at these different stages which allows the pupils to work together no matter what stage they are progressing at. We then moved onto playing the glockenspiel. I found this useful as I had never played it before and by following the shapes and colours on the pages I was able to play the songs after practicing a few times. The songs that we looked at were Frere Jacques, twinkle twinkle, super trooper and jingle bells. I would enjoy doing a lesson like this in my class as the pupils would be able to learn a new skill and also play the same song at the end allowing them all to work together. This means that pupils who are not very confident in music can start off by following an easier music sheet and then gradually progress to the harder music sheets over time.
The dance and music workshop links together as studying the arts allows pupils to be able to work together and be creative whilst learning new skills.
References:
Scottish Government, n.d. Curriculum for excellence: expressive arts experiences and outcomes. Assessed online. Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf
Cone, T. 2009. Following Their Lead: Supportiing Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances, Journal of Dance Education. Routledge. P81.
