VERBS AND ADVERBS

Today was my first lesson back from the break. I am now officially Mrs. Taggart instead of Miss Bourne and that gave the kids mouths something fun to practice. Today we talked and danced about verbs and adverbs. I first had them run, jump, skip, leap, walk, skitter, etc all over the room. I then asked if it was fun. They all said "YES BECAUSE WE GOT TO MOVE!" reinforcing in my mind how necessary it is to have creative dance in elementary schools. I explained that all of these moving words or action words are verbs. We practiced saying VERB about a million times and some kids really caught on. I then told the story of King ING and Queen LY. (a story my mom and others learned from Virginia Tanner)

The kings subjects are all verbs like walk, skip, jump etc. and the Queens are all adverbs like happy, quick, wiggle etc. The king and queen fall in love and join kingdoms so when the verbs meet the adverbs they become walkING quickLY and skippING happiLY. The kids didn't know what a few of my words were so I really needed to go through them and make sure they were age appropriate. All in all though they had fun running around and acting out many things. Kindergarteners are a whole different breed and its exciting trying to get to know how to teach them!

"BROWN BEAR BROWN BEAR"

Today I just wanted to have a lot of fun with the kids and see how well they remember what we have done together. I began by having a fun warm up...When I played the drum slow they dance slow and when I played the drum fast they were to dance fast. They did alright and honestly just ran around like crazy kids. Then I tried to trick them and I had them dance slowly when the drum was fast, and fast when the drum was slow. They loved it and had a really fun time. Kids just love taking off their shoes and running around!

I then brought out a book they are very familiar with. "Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See." They all know this book very well and almost have the order memorized! We talked about each animal and how they moved, what quality and what level. We played around with that. I tried to get them to use their imagination and they all ended up just moving like the animal, like crawling etc. It was cute the the kids liked switching things up. It was a very relaxed day and I wanted them to just explore in their own bodies. I learned that sometimes you just need to let the kids do what they are feeling rather than going so in depth into the dance curriculum. They were all smiles after the class and I can't wait to see them after their break!

MOVE KIDS MOVE!

Today we had a fun class on locomotion steps like walking running skipping jumping hopping sliding leaping etc. I thought that since we had the HUGE gym space that it would be a way fun idea to let them MOVE. I don't know what it is but whenever we are in the big space the kids have a hard time behaving. After a quick silent warm up and a skip circle around the gym we attempted to form lines. After the lesson I decided that it would have been more effective to just call out their groups and have them explore across the floor rather than challenging them to keep their lines.

After exploring everything I took each line and had them create a certain shape in the corner. I gave them instructions. They at first were not very creative and followed the leader. I asked them to be the most creative person and that sure got their attention. I would ask the class about their shapes and pathways and what they were doing. The kids loved the guessing game.

At the end I asked them to as quietly as they could put their shoes and socks back on and line up when they were ready. I was blown away by how quiet they were!!!

I have learned a lot from these little youngsters. One thing I have been wanting to do is group work but I know that kindergarteners don't work too well in groups so I have really been avoiding that. We are going to dance a wonderful story that the class made up when they get back from a short break and I am excited for that!