Dancing Words Blog

For Teachers and Teaching Artists: Mother Goose

Yesterday I taught a special class at my school that brought together 8th graders and kindergarteners. It was a fun lesson.

The kindergarteners are exploring "rain" so that was our central theme for the day. For one warm up, I used the nursery rhyme "Rain on the Green Grass."

I am a huge fan of incorporating nursery rhymes into preschool and kindergarten dance classes. They are important cultural references - both the language and the rhythm of the rhymes. They are fun, joyful, and silly too - which children love. I also recommend the article How to Choose a Goose by Joanna Rudge Long that appeared in the Horn Book Magazine in 2008. The article does a great job describing the value and importance of nursery rhymes.

Listed below are three books I use as references myself and keep on my teaching bookshelf:

Mother Goose Numbers on the Loose - Leo and Diane Dillon

The Neighborhood Mother Goose - Nina Crews

My Very First Mother Goose - Iona Opie and Rosemary Wells

 

Animal Inspiration for 3rd and 4th Graders

A Zeal of Zebras is a beautiful new book by Woop Studios. Chronicle Books is one of the leaders for publishing imaginative, graphically interesting kids books. A Zeal of Zebras goes through the alphabet and describes groups of animals using collective nouns (an ostentation of peacocks, a leap of leopards, etc).

In third and fourth grade classrooms, the book can be fun inspiration for an animal dance project. Students can get into small groups of about 3-5 students. They can each select one page from the book.

Each small group can use the artwork and text to create a short group dance with a beginning shape, inspired by the artwork. The students can then create a dance with about 6-8 actions for their animals. The students might need to do some research beyond this book for more information on their animals. 

 

Dr. Seuss's Birthday

Friday, March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's Birthday. We have some special activities happening at my school, and I will be leading a 45 minute lesson for 1st graders. 

I will be using The Foot Book as our inspiration for the day. I will be starting with a short name activity in the circle. On the board will be about 6 classic Dr. Seuss images of characters, selected for their interesting shapes. Each student will say her name and create in her body one of those shapes. The group will echo this back. 

We will then sit to hear The Foot Book. 

Exploring feet and the many ways our body can move, we will improvise, including:

• Moving with slow feet and fast feet (either with a drum or using two pieces of music)
• The many ways our feet can move: walking feet, kicking feet, jumping feet, hopping feet, pointing feet, flexing feet

Last, I have created a short dance using the text - and the rhythm of the text - for the 1st graders. I will teach the dance, we will add music, and then we will perform it for each other (half of the class at a time). 

If you try out any of the activities, please let me know!

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, I also recommend A Great Day for Up for use with preschool students. It is a great springboard to explore up and down.