Weekly/Bi-Weekly Updates on Lesson Plans and Goals for the Week
This blog will be used to keep parents informed on the amazing experiences I am privileged to be a part of here at the Laurel School.
Preschool
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K-1
9/8 Activity 1 Warm-Up with Isolations Our warm-up consists of gross motor skills to get our heart rate up to burn through energy and bring us into the present moment. We then isolate each part of our body by imagining our body is frozen and using our magic finger to melt one part of our body at a time. These isolations encourage better body awareness, movement development, and control. Body awareness helps create in-the-moment presence and focus, as well as confidence. Movement development increases our abilities. Control helps us moderate which part of our body we need to use to achieve a task, as well as how to use it. Activity 2 Hot Fudge After we have un-frozen our entire body with our magic finger, we then go to the other temperature extreme and move as if we are melting. This creativity and exploration. Activity 3 Group Circle Once we are in a circle, each student offers a dance movement and we put them together one movement as a time to create a class dance! During the second round, we attempt the same movement with one different aspect (same movement on the floor, or with increased speed, etc). This facilitates emotional regulation by offering a safe space to have individual attention in front of others, as well as creativity and confidence. We also learn to work as a group and respect each other's bodies and movements. Activity 4 Ribbon Wands We use the ribbon wands to expand our personal space to test ur spatial awareness. We do some free dance as well as guided questions based on Irmgard Bartenieff Fundamentals and Laban Movement Analysis. These questions are used to encourage movement development and body awareness. Activity 5 Questions We continue the use of creative questions without the ribbon wands to expand creativity. This exercise strongly improves upon movement development, body awareness, and creativity, Activity 6 Cave Dance This activity encourages us to work on body awareness as we use imaginative language to change our environment and bodies with our eyes closed and when we open our eyes we analyze how our bodies changed. Activity 7 Emotion Charades We got to guess how Mrs. Em was feeling based on body language and we discussed how we sometimes make assumptions of how someone is feeling based on nonverbal communication which makes up 80% of communication. Activity 8 Solo Dance Each student has a chance to perform their own dance moves in front of the group. This works on emotional regulation, creativity, and confidence-building. 9/9 We dove further into some of the activities from 9/8, as well as a few additional activities I will list below. It was great to see how concepts had been digested and interpreted a day later! Freeze Dance This activity is always a classic but we enjoy remixing it by freezing when the music is playing (even if it is our favorite song!)! We also come up with themes for each time the music comes back on! This is great exercise as well as a chance to explore creatively, work on skills we previously learned, increase body awareness and control, and work on movement development. Balance-Based Obstacle Course Creation For this activity, students were split into pairs and given six numbered balance circles that they were asked to arrange and creative a movement sequence to navigate from 1-6. This activity focuses on creativity, balance, movement development, and spatial awareness. Parachute For this exercise we focus on working as a group and creatively exploring different uses for and different ways of moving the parachute while synchronizing with each other. This activity encourages creativity, group collaboration, and pure entertainment! Super Powers For this exercise students are asked to close their eyes while they are handed cards with an image that represents a super-power. They then form a circle and demonstrate and teach their super powers to each other. They finish by experimenting with their super power during free dance. 9/15 Activity 1 Follow the Leader Warm-Up For this activity, I guide them in a follow-the-leader style warm-up where we focus on gross motor skills and coordination. We get our sillies out as well as try challenging movements requiring different movement development skills. We focus on moving in different dimensions, speeds, initiation-points, and directions. Activity 2 Magic Finger For this activity we appoint one very special finger to freeze and un-freeze parts of our bodies. This teaches about isolations which encourages, focus, presence, body control, body awareness, and movement development. We learn about the parts of our bodies and the different ways we can move each body part. Activity 3 Magic Door For this activity we use our bodies to create unique doors that require unique ways of entering. Once we go through the doors, we enter into mysterious worlds in which we have to move differently depending on the world's theme (dinosaurs, no knees, trampoline ground, zero gravity, etc). This activity encourages creativity, movement development, and exercise! Activity 4 Partner Mirrors For this activity, students pair up into partners and stand across from each other. One student is assigned the leader, and then the leader switches halfway through the activity. The leader begins to move and his/her partner "mirrors" him/her. This exercise works on group work, confidence, creativity, and body language awareness. Activity 5 Museum This activity is based on the movie "Night at the Museum." The students taught me this one. One student at a time works as the security guard and the other students are statues that only move when the suspicious security guard is not looking. This activity works on control and spatial awareness. Activity 6 Furniture Movement For this activity students are introduced to the idea of embodiment, which is an aspect of body language. Students use their imagination to turn their bodies into inanimate objects. This week we focused on becoming furniture and tricking the students that leave the room and later return. Activity 7 Freeze Dance This activity is always a classic but we enjoy remixing it by freezing when the music is playing (even if it is our favorite song!)! We also come up with themes for each time the music comes back on! This is great exercise as well as a chance to explore creatively, work on skills we previously learned, increase body awareness and control, and work on movement development. Activity 8 Seeds We work on moving as small as possible and growing to move as big as possible. This works on movement development, spatial awareness, creativity, and body awareness 9/16 We repeated some of the activities from 9/15, as well learned a few new activities. Coopra Blanket This is a tool used in creative movement and dance therapy classes. It is a spandex fabric sewn into a circle. We all get inside and work together to move as a group or to bounce each other. This works on group work and spatial awareness. Alphabet Ball This is a ball with different letters from the alphabet written all over it. We pass the ball in a circle and come up with a movement (verb) that begins with the letter our Right hand lands on. This works on vocabulary, reading and writing skills, movement development, hand-eye coordination, and creativity. Body Part Ball This is a ball with different body parts written all over it. We pass the ball in a circle and come up with a movement for the body parts our left thumb lands closest to. This encourages better body awareness, creativity, hand-eye coordination, and reading and writing skills. Ball Pass This activity is a speed-based activity. In a circle we pass the ball without dropping it until we complete a full circle. The importance is put on eye contact and communicating with the person we are catching from and passing to. This works on body language, body awareness, spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination, and group collaboration. 9/22-9/23 & 9/29-9/30 We continued to build upon activities introduced in the first week as well as learned and created a few new activities. Our themes for this past month have been spatial awareness, working in a group, and creativity! Musical Rugs This activity has been a blast! We remixed musical chairs and we put an equal number of rugs in a circle as students in the class. We then put bowling pins in the middle of the rugs and instead of running in to get a chair students must be gentle and soft as they move to avoid knocking over the pin and getting out! This works on control, moving gently, mind-body connection, and coordination. Nature Dance with Scarves For this dance we use our scarves and imagery to learn about nature through our bodies. We use our bodies, scarves, and the lights to dance out rivers, lakes, oceans, rainforests, waterfalls, wind, etc! This enhances our mind-body connection, creativity, understanding of nature and national parks! Group Dance We worked together to create a full dance routine that we performed as a flash mob during lunch! Movement Initation We did a structured free dance in which our movements were instructed to initiate with various parts of our body. This increases our movement development and body awareness. Spatial Awareness Games This was a theee-part activity we did focusing on spatial awareness. The first activity utilized a central rug in which we had to move around in using various vocabulary term movements without touching the rug or moving too far from it. The second activity was a hacky sack hide in which three hacky sacks were his in the room and students were instructed to use their spatial awareness and look through the dimensions, textures, depth, and levels in the room to find them. The third activity was an obstacle course using balancing numbers, cones, and hula hoops! We discussed spatial awareness and how each activity enhanced our functioning when we utilized our spatial awareness. Mat / Relax For this activity each student uses imagery and ocean music on their own mat to move and slow down at the end of class. Some go fishing, swimming, or become a mermaid! This helps us move in our own space and cool down at the end of class with closure. Magical Doors We use our bodies to make magical doors that we must enter in special and different ways. Once inside we enter different universes where we have to move differently (dinosaurs, on our toes, jumping constantly, slowly, robotically, etc) Hula Hoop Dance This is another activity focusing on spatial awareness. They are given movements that have to be done inside a hula hoop without any part of their bodies leaving the circle space. We then put them in a circle and the group has to move one hula hoop at a time with no extras. This means they have to communicate and synchronize moving while watching their spatial awareness. This works on group collaboration and spatial awareness. |
2nd - 6th
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