Art Form: Dance

Supplies Needed

The Smallest Spot of a Dot book

Venn diagram or sheet of paper

Pencil

Vocabulary

Movement - How you use your body to do a dance or action

Choreographer - The “dancemaker” or person who creates the dance

Retrograde - Dancing steps in reverse order

Compare and contrast - Similarities and differences between two or more things

Sequence - Order of events in a story; order of shapes or movements in a dance

Form - The way that a story or dance is put
together

Instructions

1. Read the book and discuss the ways we are similar and different.

2. Choose someone that you would like to compare and contrast yourself with. This could be a family member, friend or even a pet!

3. Using the Venn diagram or a sheet of paper divided into three columns (in the left column write your name, in the middle write yours and the other person’s name, and in the right column write the other person’s name), list two ways that you are unique under your name. The, list two ways the other person or pet is unique under their name. Finally, in the middle under both of your names, list two ways you are the same.

4. Choose one idea from each part of the Venn diagram/list and create a movement for it.

5. Sequence your movements and practice them.

• Perform your sequence in order (first, how you are unique, second, how the other person is unique, and third, how you are the same).
• Perform your sequence in retrograde (backgrounds).
• Perform your complete sequence (forwards and in retrograde) for an audience. Share how each movement shows each idea.

Extensions

Write a reflection that explains why you chose your movements.

Write or verbally explain how your sequence is the same and different when it is performed forwards and in retrograde (backward).

Art Form: Dance

Supplies Needed

The Smallest Spot of a Dot book

Index cards or small slips of paper and a pencil

Vocabulary

Movement - How you use your body to do a dance or action

Locomotor - A movement that moves from one place to another (Ex. walk across the room)

Non-locomotor - A movement that stays in one place (Ex. Wave arms while standing in place)

Improvise - To make up dance moves on the spot without planning

Same - Two or more things that are alike

Different - Two or more things that are not alike

Instructions

1. Read the book and discuss the ways we are the same and different.

2. On separate index cards or slips of paper, write three to four ways that the book states we are different. On separate index cards or slips of paper, write three to
four ways that the book states we are the same.

3. Spread the cards or slips of paper out on the floor in an open space with the writing facing down.

4. Choose a card/slip of paper. Start by standing above it. Look at the card and improvise a non-locomotor movement that reflects what is written. For example,
choose a movement that stays in one place that shows “we all need sun to shine from above”.

5. Choose a locomotor movement to travel to the next card.

6. Repeat steps five and six until you have created movements for all the cards.

Extensions

Choose some of your movements and put them in a sequence.

Write your own ideas of how we are the same and different on the cards/slips of paper and include them in the above activity.

Art Form: Dance

Supplies Needed

The Big Umbrella book

Vocabulary

Movement - How you use your body to do a dance or action

Size - How big or small something is

Choreographer - The person who creates the
dance

Sequence - Order of events in a story; order of shapes or movements in a dance

Form - The way a story or dance is put together

Purpose - The reason that something exists

Instructions

1. After reading the book, discuss the purpose of the umbrella in the story. Talk about how the umbrella changes its size throughout the story to fit its purpose.

2. Create a movement that demonstrates the umbrella’s size and purpose at the beginning of the story.

3. Create a movement that demonstrates the umbrella’s size and purpose in the middle of the story.

4. Create a movement that demonstrates the umbrella’s size and purpose at the end of the story.

5. Sequence your three movements to show beginning, middle, and end, and practice them in order.

6. Perform your dance for an audience. Explain how each movement showed the purpose of the umbrella at the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

Extensions

Write a sentence that explains why you chose each movement in your sequence.

Be sure to describe the size of your movement.
Teach your sequence to someone else.

Art Form: Dance

Supplies Needed

The Big Umbrella book

Vocabulary

Body Shape - A frozen statue created by the body

Level - How high or low you are dancing (high--
fully standing up, middle, low--low to the ground)

Movement - Change of place, position, or posture

Sequence - Order of events in a story; order of
shapes or movements in a dance

Adjective - A word that describes a person, place,
or thing

Instructions

1. After reading the book, The Big Umbrella, discuss the different words that are used to describe objects or people in the book. Examples: big, friendly, tall, hairy, plaid

2. Choose one of the description words from the book, and create a body shape that represents the word. Repeat this for two more words.

3. Put your three body shapes in order to create a sequence.

4. Perform your sequence for an audience. (Don’t forget to not use your voice!) See if the audience can guess the words that your body shapes represent.

Extensions

Take the three words you used in your sequence and figure out the opposite word (for example, if your word is “big”, your new word is “small”). Create a body shape for each of these words and add it to your sequence.

Transform your body shapes into movements.