MOVING MOTION
Learning Description
Move to learn! Students will create movement sequences to represent and better understand the impact of force on different types of motion.
Learning Targets
"I Can" Statements
“I Can…”
- I can use dance to communicate ideas about science.
- I can identify patterns and pathways that a dancer makes when performing movements.
- I can copy the movements of a dancer to make patterns using my own body.
Essential Questions
- How can dance/movement demonstrate science concepts?
- What are different ways we can represent call and response in choreography?
- What are the different ways we use patterns in locomotor movements?
Georgia Standards
Curriculum Standards
Kindergarten:
SKP2. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to compare and describe differenttypes of motion.a. Plan and carry out an investigation to determine the relationship between an object’s physical attributes and its resulting motion (straight, circular, back and forth, fast and slow, and motionless) when a force is applied. (Examples could include toss, drop, push, and pull.)
Arts Standards
Kindergarten:
ESDK.CR.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the choreographic process.a. Explore working independently and collaboratively with others.b. Create and perform a dance sequence.c. Explore dance elements through structured improvisation and play (e.g. body, space,time, energy).d. Respond to a variety of stimuli through movement (e.g. scarves, songs, sounds, images).
ESDK.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology indance.a. Identify and demonstrate basic creative and locomotor movements and body isolations.b. Demonstrate the difference between personal and general space.c. Demonstrate the ability to perform simple movements in response to oral instruction.
ESDK.PR.2 Understand and model dance etiquette as a classroom participant, performer,and observer.a. Demonstrate attentiveness, full participation, and awareness of others in the dancelearning and performance environments.b. Understand and demonstrate appropriate behaviors as a dance performer, and as anaudience member.
ESDK.PR.3 Recognize the relationship between human anatomy and movement.a. Identify basic body parts and how they move.
South Carolina Standards
Curriculum Standards
Kindergarten:
K.PS.2.1. Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.
Arts Standards
Kindergarten:
Anchor Standard 1: I can use movement exploration to discover and create artistic ideas and works.
Anchor Standard 2: I can choreograph a dance.
Anchor Standard 3: I can perform movements using the dance elements.
Anchor Standard 5: I can describe, analyze, and evaluate a dance.
Anchor Standard 7: I can relate dance to other arts disciplines, content areas, and careers.
Key Vocabulary
Content Vocabulary
Move - To change place or position.
Motionless - Without movement.
Push - To press something away from you.
Pull - To tug something closer to you.
Arts Vocabulary
Locomotor skills - Movements that make the body travel in one direction, or a combination of directions, from one point to another, i.e., walking, skipping, jumping.
Axial skills - Stationary movements that happen in place, without a body traveling from one point to another.
Pathway - The pattern that a body or body part takes during a movement, i.e., straight, zigzag, round and round, back and forth, up and down.
Choreographer - A person who creates dances.
Materials
- Music recordings
- Method of playing the recordings including speaker, Bluetooth, HDMI, mp3
- Printed images
- Projector (to show images of shapes if they are not printed)
Instructional Design
Opening/Activating Strategy
- Project a selection of photos that show objects in motion, and ask students to name objects, motions, and/or pathways that they see in the photos.
- Warm-up with students for approximately three minutes.
- During dance warm-up, use movements that convey movements and pathways that can be identified using science vocabulary, i.e., rolling, zig-zag, motionless, push, and pull.
- Use a handle question to prompt students to look for motions and pathways as they dance and then name them when the warm up is completed.
Work Session
Process
- Compare and contrast locomotor and stationary movements, pathways, and motionless objects.
- Identify movements that can be made with the body that represent the ways objects travel when in motion, including patterns, pathways, and speed.
- Divide students into groups to create a choreography based on call and response.
- Ask group members to select one kind of motion and one pathway (i.e., roll, zig zag, slide, etc.).
- Ask one member of each group to be the “Force Director,” who will initiate the call(s) in the choreography, which would be either a pull or a push. The force director will use a push or pull movement with one or more body parts to elicit a response from one or more team member.
- Upon receiving the call from the Force Director, team members put their bodies in motion as per movement/elements selected in #1 above.
- Ask the Force Director to use a fast and sharp push/pull and ask team members to imagine how that adjustment would modify their responses. Repeat with a slow and soft push/pull. Repeat with a small push/pull. Repeat with a very large push/pull.
- Ask group members to consider rhythm, distance traveled, and number of repetitions in a phrase (i.e., skip along a curved path) with each of the modifications in #4 above.
- Ask groups to select three movements to perform in a sequence; this results in an ABAB pattern of call, response, call, response, call, response.
- Ask the audience to explain the actions of the Force Director and the resulting responses of the group members in the choreography, with a rationale to substantiate their answers.
Closing Reflection
- Ask students to name the body parts they used for movements.
- Ask students why they chose their selected elements in the call and response activity.
- Ask students to describe the connection between science and dance that they experienced in this lesson.
- Ask students to describe what a choreographer does.
- Ask students to explain how they worked as choreographers during this lesson.
Assessments
Formative
- Students should correctly perform the type of motion with the correct body part.
- Students in the audience should be able to correctly identify the type of motion and body part used in the performance.
- Call and response dances should include appropriate relationships between force of push/pull and the resulting “response” or motions made by group members.
Summative
- Students identify movements, patterns, and pathways that dancers, including their peers, make when moving their bodies.
- Students create pathways and locomotor movements using their own movements.
- Students create and remember a short choreography.
- Students perform choreography clearly showing shapes in movement.
- Students move to the beat of a musical rhythm.
Differentiation
Acceleration: Ask students to dance to a different song with a different or faster/slower beat. Ask students to consider including stationary/axial movements in their dances as a layer of contrast. Ask students to include both push and pull “calls” in their dances.
Remediation: Ask students to name, describe, and demonstrate their movements and their relationships to the push/pull forces that initiate them.
Additional Resources
Classroom Tips: Set up chairs and tables in a circular format to maximize students’ engagement and ability to see their peers during the activity and performance. Remind students about rules of movement; they are in control of their bodies and you want to see that movement does not require our mouths. Also establish parameters for acceptable movement choices and discuss audience behavior/etiquette with students.
*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.
Ideas contributed and updated by: Melissa Dittmar-Joy and Julie Galle Baggenstoss
Revised and copyright: August 2022 @ ArtsNOW