WRAP UP

Wow what an amazing experience I was able to have with Miss Stout's afternoon Kindergarten class at Hayden Peak Elementary! We began a little timid and nervous to move in front of each other, but as we explored and learned more about how we can move our bodies we had more and more fun every single day.

When I first arrived, I was absolutely terrified because I was going to teach kindergarteners! I feel extremely comfortable teaching older students because I feel like they understand me much better than younger children. I observed Miss Stout a few time and helped her with her typical day of teaching with her afternoon class. She already is wonderful with getting the kids moving and taught me so much about management. I felt ready to begin. I was lucky enough to get the gym one of the two days a week I was there. The commute was an hour each way and I was lucky enough to have the time to make the drive. Each time I would enter the class the kids would begin to whisper (which I felt horrible about) "Mrs. Taggart is here!". It made me happy knowing that they were excited to get up and move!

I began by having some quick fun classes on Body Energy Space and Time. The elements of dance! They learned pretty well and I learned many of my personal weaknesses. My mentor Elizabeth Hansen was able to give me some wonderful feedback on how to structure my class. It should start with something more simplistic, introductory and structured then begin to allow them some personal choices and freedom. I need to ease my students into the concepts instead of expecting them to know what to do. As a teacher I really need to think about my students and what is age appropriate. There are so many things that go into planning curriculum and I am grateful for this opportunity, for the ability to begin teaching and learning through experience. My teacher wrote me a beautiful letter saying how much she enjoyed watching her kids dance.

"One of the best benefits of having Katie dance with my kids was the opportunity for my kids to shine. I have two specific students who really lit up each time Katie came to dance with them. One student has many difficult struggles at home. Each time she took the dance floor, she seemed to enter a different world. Her creativity shown through and a smile lit up her face. I know that those few minutes dancing gave her a break from what she was dealing with. The other student who really shined was a boy. He is a very intelligent boy who comes from a stable home. It was fun to see the creativity he showed. He is usually a pretty straight arrow. I was surprised to see him participate in something I thought would be out of his comfort zone. it was just fun to watch him dance."

This experience has opened my eyes to teaching and how important it is to keep the arts in schools. I would highly recommend this experience to everyone in the arts!!!

CLASS STORY

We were able to create a class dance based on the class story that my class wrote. It had three characters: Smurf, Clone, and a Snowman. The Smurf was frying food in the forest and the Clone stole some. Hearing the cry for help the Snowman jumped to the rescue, tied up the Clone, and gave the food back to the Smurf.

We talked through the story and really learned how to move like a Smurf, Clone and Snowman. They had so much fun creating this story and performed it for their reading buddies. I am sad its our last lesson but I have really enjoyed working with these children.

RELATIONSHIPS

Today we began exploring our class story. It takes place in a forest so I decided to teach my forest relationship lesson. They learned words like over, under, around, through, on, off, above, below, far, near, beside, between, in, and out.

We began the class by playing simon says. I had them put their hand over their head, their foot between their hands, and stand beside another person. They were having a good time and liked it. We talked about relationships in the simplest way saying how our body parts can have relationships with each other.

My first mistake came when I had the kids imagine a forest as I described it. I don't think they are able to do that. I should have had them move as I described it to them, I should have taken them on a journey through the forest as they moved, rather than imagined it. I then had them create a class forest and (realizing I should have done this all along) walked them through the forest. They became a caterpillar in a cocoon, then turned into a beautiful butterfly. They flew over, under, between and landed on the tree branch. I then had the boys become trees and the girls become deer. vise versa. The kids had fun then I began to loose them. They were no longer exploring but running around like crazy children. I knew they had had enough so I cooled them down and finished the class.

I need to understand how to be age appropriate and to keep them interested. I can't give such young kids so much freedom or else they will no longer be exploring they will be just mindlessly running around.

LETTERS!!

Today we had fun with the alphabet!

We reviewed all of the upper-case letters and noticed how some letters are very straight with bends and some are very curvy. I had the kids explore straight and curved shapes. I wish I would have started out the class with more structure and had them follow me so they knew in more detail what I expected of them. The we talked through specific letters and really made some fun shapes with them.

After the explorations I taught them a small sequence to the name SAM. They curved for 8 counts through the space then made three class straight shapes for the M they made a very strong shape and then started the sequence all over. I had a fun sing song to the sequence so they knew what to to, it went something like this "curving curving curving curving like and upper case S, Upper-----Case-------A, M-MMMMMMMMMM" then it was repeated.

The kids enjoyed the class. I needed to start more simple and structured rather than having them just explore the entire time!

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!