Art Form: Dance

Supplies Needed

-Be You! book

Vocabulary

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

Choreographer - the person who designs or creates a dance piece

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

Body Shape - refers to an interesting and interrelated arrangement of body parts of one dancer; the visual makeup or molding of the body parts of a singular dancer; the overall visible appearance of a group of dancers

Gesture - an expressive movement of the body or limbs

Instructions

1.  Read the book Be You!. As you read, notice the book’s message: to be yourself. Begin thinking about all of the things that make you, you!

2.  After you’ve read the book, use body shapes to spell out your name! For each letter, you can:

• Make the shape of the letter with your body (Ex: “T” with arms
  out wide),
• Make a body shape that represents something that you like
  starting with that letter (Ex: “D” for “dog”
  – crouching on all
  fours).
• Make body movements that reflect what the book encourages
  you to be.

3.  Practice posing the shapes of your name in order.

• Freeze in each body shape for a few seconds/beats.

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

Change Sings book

A device to play an instrumental song of your choosing

Vocabulary

Choreography - a sequence of steps and movement in dance; a dance composition

Levels - the height of a dancer in relation to the floor - high, middle, and low

Locomotor - a movement that travels through space

Energy - the flow of movement in dance; a word that
refers to action, such as running, dancing, leaping

Adjective - a word that describes a noun (ex. the beautiful dancer)

Adverb - a word that describes a verb (ex. singing loudly)

Author’s craft - the author’s choice of words to convey a message

Instructions

1. Discuss the purpose for reading the book, to look for verbs. These can be in the words of the book or displayed in the pictures.

2. Read through the book once, making a list of verbs that spark change.

3. Choose 6 of the verbs to create a movement for in preparation of composing a dance. Will your movements be locomotor or non-locomotor?

4. Prepare to read the book again to find adjectives or adverbs.

5. Make a cohesive list of adjectives and adverbs, again using ones that are clearly stated or those that are implied through pictures.

6. Choose the adjectives and adverbs that will tell how to move specifically. For example: If your verb was “dance,” your adverb to pair with it could be “gracefully.” Comparing the movements. How would they look differently? It could be larger, use more space, and have more energy and weight. It will add variety to your choreography.

7. Plan your choreography - writing down your three favorite word pairings.

8. Find an instrumental song to accompany your dance. Practice your choreography.

Extensions

Change the choreography. Choose some of the other words/movements you brainstormed at the beginning. Create a new dance with a beginning, middle, and end.

Using the same words, create two pieces of choreography and perform them with a partner.

Write your poem about how you can make change in your community.

Art Form: Dance

Supplies Needed

Maybe Something Beautiful book

Vocabulary

Level - high, middle, low

Choreography - the sequence of steps and movements in dance or figure skating, especially in a ballet or other staged dance

Movement phrase - a sequence of dance movements making up part of a choreographic pattern, a dance phrase

Choreographer - a person who creates dance

Locomotor - a variety of movements across space (walking, jumping, hopping, crawling, marching, climbing, galloping, sliding, leaping, and skipping)

Instructions

1. After reading the book, talk about how the characters felt in the beginning. How did they feel as they painted? How did they feel at the end of the story?

2. What caused their feelings to change throughout the story?

3. Talk about how people show their emotions with their bodies. Explore showing emotions with your body. How could you use your body to show excitement? Angry? Sad? Tired? Nervous?
NOTE: As students create movements to portray the feelings, point out specifics that help
show the feeling (i.e. excited might be open, up on tippy toes, with arms reaching high;
sad might be closed, arms folded, spine curved down, and knees bent in a low position).

4. Become a choreographer! Tell students that a choreographer is someone who creates a dance. Choose 3 different emotion words to represent feelings from the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Next, create body movements that represent those feelings.

5. Put all the 3 movements together in a movement phrase to retell the story. A movement phrase is a series of movements that are put together. Think about your movement level. Are they low, middle, or high?

Extensions

Add instrumental background music to your choreography.

Have students adjust their choreography to add locomotor movement to one part of their movement phrase.

Art Form: Dance

Supplies Needed

I Believe I Can book

Vocabulary

Space - the area through which the dancer’s body moves

Time - speed or pace of movement

Movement - an action or motion

Sequence - a series of movements

Pattern - repeated movements

Level - height of a dancer in relation to the floor

Instructions

1. After reading the book, discuss the different feelings or emotions the characters experience in the book.
Examples: fear, brave, sad, powerful, happy, worthy

2. Choose a feeling or emotion from the book.

3. Create a movement that represents the feeling or emotion.

4. Choose a level for your movement. Example: My movement for fear may be at a low level.

5. Perform your movements for an audience! Share why you selected the movement and the level of the movement.

6. Create a few more movements for the different feelings or emotions the characters felt in the book.

Extensions

Combine 3 of your movements and sequence them to create a dance.

Put your movements to music.

Art Form: Dance

Supplies Needed

Thank You, Omu! book

Pencil or pen

Paper

Vocabulary

Choreography - The steps or movements in a dance

Theme - Big idea or message in a story or dance

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

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

Inspiration - Something that you experience that gives
you an idea to create something

Energy - The power, excitement, or emotion that is put
into movement (high energy = quick or fast movements;
low energy = slow movements)

Instructions

1. Read the book and discuss or think about the theme of the story.

2. Write a paragraph or reflection about a time that you gave to others or received something from someone. Include:

• Details about the experience, including a beginning, middle and end.
• How the experience made you and/or others feel.

3. Using the paragraph as inspiration, create a dance phrase of 4-6 movements.

• Include one to two movements for the beginning, one to two movements for the middle, and one to two movements for the end.
• Think about the energy needed for each movement to reflect what happened and/or the feelings it evoked. For example, if the emotion was excitement, you might show a lot of energy in a movement by moving quickly.

4. Share your dance phrase with an audience. Discuss your movement choices
and how they were inspired by your experience.

Extensions

Add a song that fits the emotions of your choreography to your dance.

Add narration (your paragraph) to your dance.