Rules - The Dance

Here's a dance project one of our book clubs created.  They read Rules by Cynthia Lord - an incredible book about how we treat others who are different from us.

Picture of Hollis Woods - The Dance

After reading Pictures of Hollis Woods, the Dark Eclipse (a book club comprised of Sam, Christopher, Caitlin, Kaitlyn, and Sarah) decided to create a dance to show what they learned from the story.  They chose the song "Lean on Me" because it fit so well with the theme of the story.    After the kids shared their dance with the class, they took questions and comments from the audience.  I was amazed at how each movement and motion was carefully selected to convey a very specific meaning.  These students put a ton of effort and thought into this project.  I used an HD video camera to capture their dance, and I'm also trying out a new video server in hopes of a clearer picture.  I love School Tube (which I've been using all year), but their video quality is not great.  I'm hoping this video will turn out well.  We'd love to hear your comments.  The kids loving hearing what others think.

George's Marvelous Medicine - The Dance

When a book club finishes reading a book, they have an opportunity to create a project to show what they learned.  Students are encouraged to share what happened in the book, as well as what they learned about themselves and about life.  This group of students decided to create a dance to show the major events of the story - this was incredibly creative!  They selected a song to dance to and came up with all the motions themselves.  As they were creating, they gave focus to their bodies, energy, space, and time (the elements of dance).  I'm always amazed at what the students of Room 241 will do. 

African Dance

Our 4th and 5th graders were able to learn with the Borenya African Drumming and Dance Group during our artist in residence experience last week. The 5th graders learned African drumming while the 4th graders learned African dance. Our class worked extremely hard all week learning and perfecting our dance. I was proud of their focus and hard work! Below is a video of our performance.

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Our Very Groovy 70's Party

As a reward for filling up our marble jar (based on excellent effort and teamwork during related arts), the kids decided to have a 70's party today. Everyone was invited to dress in their favorite 70's wear, and I told the kids we would play some 70's music. To be quite honest, I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I knew we'd enjoy the music, but I wasn't sure what the kids would do once the music began. When we cranked up the music (a big thanks to Mrs. Duckett and Mrs. Selby for sending in some tunes), the kids immediately made our blue carpet into a dance floor. As you can see from the pictures below, it soon turned into a limbo line - which was a TON of fun. Everyone was laughing, smiling, dancing, and enjoying themselves. It was one of those really special moments in the life of our class. When the limbo line fizzled out, we started doing a line dance Mrs. Waddell-Poole taught them during related arts. Again - everyone danced. The 70's had made their way into Room 241! Enjoy the video below...

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Solar System Dance

One session of our Science Fun Day was spent with Mrs. Waddell-Poole, our incredible dance teacher here at Stone. She led our kids through a solar system dance. Groups of students had to create a dance to explain or showcase a specific aspect of our solar system. The kids got to use these "shape-shifter" costumes that were really fun. Below is a video of the kids performing their dance. After each dance, a student from the group explains what their motions and movements represented.

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Water Cycle Dance

After our hands-on experiment with the water cycle, we decided to deepen our understanding by using dance. Small groups of students were asked to create a dance highlighting the parts of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and run-off. Students were also asked to utilize the elements of dance effectively -body, energy, space, time, transitions, and levels. After each group performed, our audience members gave feedback. I was so impressed with how our students recognized not only science content, but how they also connected the elements of dance to the water cycle. Here are some pictures from our performance.