Dance in SchoolsEducating DanceGrowing Topic Week
Written by Jenny, TRS Teacher
I had a fabulous day at Greenvale for their topic week dance day all about the theme of growing. We looked at life cycles and what we need to be able to grow as humans, animals and plants.
My day started with year 2. We explored different movements to show things we need to grow e.g. sunshine, food, water, shelter. Each factor had a gesture that the children had to perform and we moved around the space using these movements in different pathways. We then looked at the lifecycle of a butterfly as a class and then they got into groups and the children created some excellent dances based on different lifecycles including frogs, chickens, strawberry plants and sunflowers. I was really impressed with the variety of movements they created and how they linked them altogether.
“I liked learning the dance and jumping to pop out of the cocoon”
“We used different levels to show the stages of the tadpole turning into the frog”
To finish off we played a game using the parachute and lots of balls to represent seeds. As a class they moved the parachute in different directions helping the seeds to grow. We also put scarfs on top to represent the bees and butterflies pollinating the flowers. They then shook the parachute up high and bounced the balls off into the air to show the seeds dispersing and then landing back on the ground to repeat the lifecycle. The children (and teachers) had a great time representing what they had learnt through their dance session.
“The parachute game was really fun”
After lunch it was Reception and Year 1 classes’ turn. We focused on the life cycle of the butterfly and referred to the book, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle. I was so impressed with how the children could recite parts of the book and they loved telling me all the food the caterpillar ate. The children learnt a short dance based on the life cycle and then did a few short tasks to explore the movements of the caterpillar and the butterfly in their groups. We even had a human caterpillar race from one end of the hall to the other. We finished off by using colourful scarfs to decorate our butterflies and explore the idea of having wings and taking flight.
It was so lovely to see the children’s imaginations come to life. They worked really well together in their groups and produced some really lovely movements.
“I liked making pretty patterns with my scarf and making butterfly wings”
“It was fun pretending to be caterpillars and wiggling our bodies”