Magnetic Moving 3, 5

MAGNETIC MOVING

MAGNETIC MOVING

Learning Description

In this lesson, students will use movement to illustrate their understanding of magnetic poles.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 3, 5
CONTENT FOCUS: DANCE & SCIENCE
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can create choreography that appropriately demonstrates my assigned magnetic poles.
  • I can accurately match choreography and magnetic poles.

Essential Questions

  • How can dance/movement help us demonstrate the relationship between magnetic poles?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 5:

S5P3. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about magnetism and its relationship to electricity.

Arts Standards

Grade 5:

ESD5.CR.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the choreographic process.

 

ESD5.CR.2 Demonstrate an understanding of dance as a form of communication.

 

ESD5.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology in dance

 

ESD5.RE.1 Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in dance.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 3:

3-PS2-3. Ask questions to determine cause-and-effect relationships of electric interactions and magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.

3-PS2-4. Develop possible solutions to a simple design problem by applying scientific ideas about magnets.

Arts Standards

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 7: I can relate dance to other arts disciplines, content areas, and careers.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Magnet - An object or material that generates a magnetic field. This magnetic field exerts a force that attracts ferromagnetic materials like iron, nickel, and cobalt, and can attract or repel other magnets.
  • Magnetic Poles - Every magnet has two poles: a north pole and a south pole. Opposite poles attract each other, while like poles repel.
  • Magnetic Field - The region around a magnet where magnetic forces are exerted. This field is invisible but can be visualized with iron filings or by its effects on other magnets and ferromagnetic materials.

Arts Vocabulary

  • Energy/Force - Force propels or initiates movement, or causes changes in movement of body position
  • Mirror - To copy the movements of another while facing that individual
  • Pathway - The designs traced on the floor as a dancer travels across space; the designs traced in the air as a dancer moves various body parts
  • Space - An element of movement involving direction, level, size, focus, and pathway
  • Formation - The placement of dancers in a performance space

 

Materials

  • Magnets
  • Paper and pencils
  • Sound source and music

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

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. Also establish parameters for acceptable movement choices and discuss audience behavior/etiquette with students.

  • Begin with teacher-led mirror exercises to get students focused and warm-up for dance activities.
    • Have students arrange themselves in the classroom with enough personal space to move freely without touching a neighbor.
    • Turn on instrumental music with a steady beat.
    • First, have students bring awareness to their bodies by leading them through gentle stretches starting from the head and moving to the toes (e.g., head circles, shoulder shrugs, toe touches, etc.).
    • Next, bring students’ awareness to the rhythm of the music by having them march in place to the beat with high knees, swinging their arms side to side.
    • Now, direct students to follow your movements with energy variations using different movement qualities such as sharp movements–quick, precise actions like punches or snaps, and smooth movements–slow, flowing actions like waves or circles with arms.
    • Finally, bring students’ attention to levels (high, middle, low) and directions (forward, backward, sideways) with movements such as stretching up high and moving on tiptoes, moving low to the ground and crawling forwards and backwards, and bouncing in place at a medium level.

 

Work Session

  • Challenge students to work with a partner and practice mirroring. Students will begin seated, then explore mirror activities that travel through space.
    • Pair Up: Divide the class into pairs, with each pair facing each other.
    • Leader and Follower: Designate one person as the leader and the other as the follower.
    • Slow Movements: The leader starts with slow and simple movements, such as raising an arm, tilting the head, or taking a step to the side.
    • Mirroring: The follower mirrors the leader’s movements as precisely as possible, as if they are the leader’s reflection in a mirror.
    • Switch Roles: After a few minutes, have the pairs switch roles so that the follower becomes the leader and vice versa.
    • Increase Complexity: Gradually increase the complexity and speed of the movements as students become more comfortable with the exercise.
    • Explore Creativity: Encourage the leader to incorporate different levels, directions, and dynamics into their movements, challenging the follower to stay in sync.
  • Tell students that they will be using dance to communicate the properties of magnets.
  • First, discuss or review properties of magnets, including the response of same and opposite poles.
    • Pass out magnets to students and allow them to experiment with how the magnetics move depending on whether two like poles are facing each other or whether opposite poles are facing each other.
    • Students should record findings.
  • Return to the mirror activity. Ask students to now engage in the mirror activity responding to your prompts.
    • Prompt the leader to move in a way that shows magnets facing opposite poles.
    • Prompt the leader to move in a way that shows magnets facing like poles.
    • Debrief the activity with students. Discussing how these concepts would influence choreographic decisions in a dance.
  • Divide into groups (having an equal number of students per group, if possible). Assign each group opposite or like poles.
  • Within groups, have students create short choreographic phrases (eight count phrases with four movements of two counts each) to demonstrate their assigned concept.
  • Provide time for students to choreograph and practice; circulate the room to work with students and check for understanding.
  • When student compositions are complete, students will present their choreography to their classmates.

 

Closing Reflection

  • The students will perform their choreography for their classmates. Discuss appropriate audience participation and etiquette prior to performances.
  • Turn up the volume of the music and help students find the steady beat by tapping their toe on the floor.
  • Invite the first group up to perform their dance.
  • After each performance, the audience should analyze the different choreographic creations, comparing and contrasting them. Students should identify whether the group demonstrated like or opposite poles.
  • Have students write about the choreographic decisions their group made and why those decisions best supported their concept.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, participation in partner mirroring, discussion of magnetism, notes about observations of magnetic behavior, and contributions to choreography.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

  • Students can create choreography appropriately demonstrating assigned magnetic poles.
  • Students can accurately match choreography and magnetic poles.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration: 

  • Have students write a paragraph comparing and contrasting two student choreographic compositions. Identify the magnetic poles about which the piece was created. Discuss the similarities and differences evident between pieces. Did one composition convey ideas better than others? If so, why?
  • Have students portray what they learned about poles through a visual art piece that focuses on the use of color and space to convey the relationship between types of poles.

Remediation: 

  • Scaffold the lesson by creating a whole-class choreography together to demonstrate either like poles or opposite poles. Debrief the process and choreography as a class. Then, assign groups the task of choreographing a dance to demonstrate whichever types of poles was not choreographed as a class.
  • Reduce the number of movements required in choreography.

*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 by: Melissa Dittmar-Joy. Updated by Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright: July 2024 @ ArtsNOW

 

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Moving Motion

MOVING MOTION

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

GRADE BAND: K
CONTENT FOCUS: DANCE & SCIENCE
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"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

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Moving Shapes K-1

MOVING SHAPES

MOVING SHAPES

Learning Description

These activities will allow students to discover the concepts of geometry through shape exploration and the creation of choreographic sequences.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: K-1
CONTENT FOCUS: DANCE & MATH
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can identify shapes that a dancer makes when performing movements. 
  • I can copy the movements of a dancer to make shapes using my own body. 
  • I can perform movements so that other people can see shapes in my body when I dance.

Essential Questions

  • How can I create shapes by moving my body?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

MGSEK.G.2 Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.

MGSEK.G.3 Identify shapes as two-dimensional (lying in a plane, “flat”) or three-dimensional (“solid”).

MGSEK.G.4 Analyze and compare two- and three-dimensional shapes, in different sizes and orientations, using informal language to describe their similarities, differences, parts (e.g., number of sides and vertices/“corners”) and other attributes (e.g., having sides of equal length).

MGSEK.G.5 Model shapes in the world by building shapes from components (e.g., sticks and clay balls) and drawing shapes.

Grade 1:

MGSE1.G.1 Distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes.

MGSE1.G.2 Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape. This is important for the future development of spatial relations which later connects to developing understanding of area, volume, and fractions.

Arts Standards

Kindergarten: 

ESDK.CR.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the choreographic process.

ESDK.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology in

dance.

ESDK.PR.2 Understand and model dance etiquette as a classroom participant, performer,

and observer.

ESDK.PR.3 Recognize the relationship between human anatomy and movement.

  1. Identify basic body parts and how they move.

Dance Georgia Standards of Excellence

ESDK.PR.4 Understand and apply music concepts to dance.

ESDK.RE.1 Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in dance.

Grade 1:

ESD1.CR.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the choreographic process.

ESD1.CR.2 Demonstrate an understanding of dance as a form of communication.

ESD1.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology in dance

ESD1.PR.4 Understand and apply music concepts to dance.

ESD1.RE.1 Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in dance.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

K.G.2 Identify and describe a given shape and shapes of objects in everyday situations to include two-dimensional shapes (i.e., triangle, square, rectangle, hexagon, and circle) and three-dimensional shapes (i.e., cone, cube, cylinder, and sphere).

K.G.3 Classify shapes as two-dimensional/flat or three-dimensional/solid and explain the reasoning used.

K.G.4 Analyze and compare two- and three-dimensional shapes of different sizes and orientations using informal language.

Grade 1:

1.G.1 Distinguish between a two-dimensional shape’s defining (e.g., number of sides) and non-defining attributes (e.g., color).

1.G.2 Combine two-dimensional shapes (i.e., square, rectangle, triangle, hexagon, rhombus, and trapezoid) or three-dimensional shapes (i.e., cube, rectangular prism, cone, and cylinder) in more than one way to form a composite shape.

1.G.3 Partition two-dimensional shapes (i.e., square, rectangle, circle) into two or four equal parts.

1.G.4 Identify and name two-dimensional shapes (i.e., square, rectangle, triangle,

hexagon, rhombus, trapezoid, and circle).

Arts Standards

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

Curved Shape - Shape with no angles or vertices. 

Angular Shape - Shape with one or more angles.

Two-dimensional - A flat figure or shape that does not have any thickness.

Three-dimensional - A figure or shape that has length, width, and depth.

Position - The place where something or someone is located.

Arts Vocabulary

Choreographer - A person who creates dances.

Beat - Basic unit of musical time; can be heard as a regular pulse underlying music.

Pathway - Patterns created in the air or on the floor by the body or body parts, as a dancer moves in and through space. 

Locomotor - Movements that travel through space. 

Non-locomotor - A movement that does not travel through space.

 

Materials

  • Music recordings
  • Method of playing the recordings including speaker, Bluetooth, HDMI, mp3 
  • Printed images of shapes 
  • Projector (to show images of shapes if they are not printed)

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • Project a selection of dance photos, and ask students to name shapes that they see in the photos.
  • Warm-up with students for approximately three minutes.
  • During dance warm-up, use movements that convey shapes that can be identified using mathematical vocabulary, i.e., circle, square, curved, angular.
  • Use a handle question to prompt students to look for shapes as they dance and then name them when the warm up is completed.

 

Work Session

PROCESS

  • Discuss and explore the concepts of curved and angular shapes, as well as pathways. 
  • Identify shapes like circle, square, oval, or triangle as curved or angular. 
  • Divide students into groups and have them create “shape dances” in which the pathways traveled and shapes created correspond to an assigned shape. Students will then perform their “shape dances” for the class. 
  • During the performances, the audience will identify shapes presented with a rationale to substantiate their answers.

 

Closing Reflection

  • Ask students to name the body parts they used to create shapes.
  • Ask students why they chose the shapes that they selected to show with movement.
  • Ask students to describe the connection between math 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 perform/move to a steady beat. 
  • Students’ dances match shape criteria appropriately. 
  • Students identify the shapes being performed.

 

Summative

  • Students identify shapes that dancers, including their peers, make when moving their bodies.
  • Students create shapes using their own movements, including pathways.
  • 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 turn 2D shapes into 3D shapes or visa-versa. 
  • Ask students to create shapes in pairs of students, by using pathways, levels, and partner relationships. 
  • Ask students to partition two-dimensional shapes into two or four equal parts and then modify their dances accordingly to reflect the partitions. 

Remediation: Ask students to name, describe, and demonstrate their shapes.

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Classroom Tips:  Clear desks to have an open space and be tolerant of noise and excitement- it is “working noise!” 

*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

Back to Modules

Moving Sound 4-5

MOVING SOUND

MOVING SOUND

Learning Description

Guide your students in using movement and dance composition to aid their comprehension of sound waves and how they transmit energy.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 4-5
CONTENT FOCUS:  DANCE & SCIENCE
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can explain and define vocabulary related to sound and sound waves.
  • I can communicate the meaning of vocabulary related to sound and sound waves through movement.
  • I can use the elements of dance intentionally and meaningfully to communicate how sound waves transmit energy.

Essential Questions

  • How can dance/movement be a tool to communicate how sound waves transmit energy?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

S4P2. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how sound is produced and changed and how sound and/or light can be used to communicate.

  1. Plan and carry out an investigation utilizing everyday objects to produce sound and predict the effects of changing the strength or speed of vibrations. b. Design and construct a device to communicate across a distance using light and/or sound.

Arts Standards

ESD4.CR.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the choreographic process.

 

ESD4.CR.2 Demonstrate an understanding of dance as a form of communication.

 

ESD4.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology in dance

 

ESD4.RE.1 Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in dance.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

4-PS4-3. Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transmit information.

Arts Standards

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.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Absorb - To receive without echo
  • Amplitude - The measure of a sound wave
  • Echo - A reflection of sound
  • Pitch - How high or low a sound is; determined by the frequency of the vibration
  • Reflection - The return of light or sound waves from a surface
  • Reverberation - A sound that echoes
  • Transmit - To send or convey from one place to another
  • Vibrations - A rapid back and forth movement
  • Sound wave - Sound travels in a wave, which is a moving pattern of high and low pressure or vibrations
  • Volume - How much sound energy reaches the ear

Arts Vocabulary

  • Choreography - The art of composing dances and planning and arranging the movements, steps, and patterns of dancers
  • Level - One of the aspects of the movement element space; in dance there are three basic levels: High, middle and low
  • Body - the physical aspect of the dancer's form and movement
  • Action - The movements that the dancer performs; these movements can be divided into two main categories: non-locomotor (axial) and locomotor
  • Non-locomotor (axial) movements – Movements that occur around the axis of the body without traveling from one place to another
  • Locomotor movements - Movements that involve traveling from one place to another
  • Space - The area in which the dance takes place and how the dancer interacts with this area
  • Time - Use and manipulation of temporal aspects to create rhythm, pacing, and duration in movement
  • Energy - The quality and dynamics of movement, including the force, flow, and intensity
  • Dynamics - The quality of movement in terms of energy, intensity, and speed; movements can be sharp or smooth, fast or slow, strong or gentle

 

Materials

  • Sound source and music
  • Cards with sound terminology written on them

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

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. Also establish parameters for acceptable movement choices and discuss audience behavior/etiquette with students. 

  • Begin the lesson by engaging students in movement that introduces students to the Elements of Dance: Body, action, space, time and energy.
    • Have students arrange themselves in a circle with enough personal space to move freely without touching a neighbor.
    • Turn on instrumental music with a steady beat.
    • First, have students bring awareness to their bodies by leading them through gentle stretches starting from the head and moving to the toes (e.g., head circles, shoulder shrugs, toe touches, etc.).
    • Next, bring students’ awareness to the space in the room by having them march in place to the beat of the music with high knees and swing their arms side to side. Select a “leader” who will guide students in a movement as students walk in a circle around the room. This will allow students to explore traveling movements and pathways (straight, zigzag, circular).
    • Now, direct students to go back to their place; they will explore energy variations with different movement qualities such as sharp movements–quick, precise actions like punches or snaps, and smooth movements–slow, flowing actions like waves or circles with arms.
    • Finally, bring students’ attention to levels (high, middle, low) and directions (forward, backward, sideways) with movements such as stretching up high and moving on tiptoes, moving low to the ground and crawling forwards and backwards, and bouncing in place at a medium level.

 

Work Session

  • As a class, discuss or review concepts of sound and how sound waves transmit energy.
  • Arrange students in small groups.
  • Pass out vocabulary cards to each group with vocabulary such as volume, absorb, amplitude, echo, pitch, reflect, reverberate, transmit, vibrate and sound wave.
  • Ask each group to consider the meaning of their card and how they could use movement to represent it. Remind students of the movements they used in the activator.
    • Allow groups to share their word and movement with the class.
    • Have each group write one to two sentences explaining how sound waves transmit energy.
  • Now, tell groups that they will be creating a short movement phrase that demonstrates how sound waves transmit energy. Students should use the dance concepts that they have learned and practiced in their movement phrase.
  • Students should be prepared to perform their dances.

 

Closing Reflection

  • Before students perform their dances, discuss audience participation and etiquette. The groups will then perform their movement phrases.
  • Ask the audience to identify and discuss how the group showed how sound waves transmit energy using dance. Students should reference characteristics of energy, levels, pathways, etc.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, responses in class discussion, ability to create a movement to communicate the meaning of a vocabulary term, and ability to collaborate with their groups to create a movement phrase demonstrating how sound waves transmit energy.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

  • Students can explain and define content vocabulary.
  • Students can communicate the meaning of content vocabulary through movement.
  • Students can use the elements of dance intentionally and meaningfully to communicate how sound waves transmit energy.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration: 

  • Have students incorporate additional characteristics to their final dances such as variations in volume.
  • Require students to use certain elements of dance in their choreography.
  • Allow students to select their own music or sound to accompany their dance. Their dance should reflect the sound qualities in the music (volume, echo, etc.).

Remediation: Instead of creating a dance in small groups to demonstrate how sound waves transmit energy, work as a whole class to create one dance that students can perform together.

*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 by: Melissa Dittmar-Joy. Updated by Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright: June 2024 @ ArtsNOW

 

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Moving With Fractions 4-5

MOVING WITH FRACTIONS

MOVING WITH FRACTIONS

Learning Description

In this lesson, students will use movement phrases to model common fractions with like denominators and convert fractions into decimals. Students will compare the fraction of locomotor and non-locomotor movements in a movement phrase. Students will then create their own movement phrase and use fractions to describe their performance. Students will recognize that fractions are used in many aspects of our world including the arts.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 4-5
CONTENT FOCUS: DANCE & MATH
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"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can accurately represent fractions of movement in a movement phrase that I choreograph.
  • I can accurately describe a movement phrase using fractions.
  • I can compare fractions.
  • I can identify and use locomotor and non-locomotor movements and levels in choreography.

Essential Questions

  • How can choreography be expressed in terms of fractions?
  • What is a fraction?
  • How can a fraction be converted to a decimal?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 4: 

4.NR.4: Solve real-life problems involving addition, subtraction, equivalence, and comparison of fractions with denominators of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 100 using part-whole strategies and visual models.

 

4.NR.5: Solve real-life problems involving addition, equivalence, comparison of fractions with denominators of 10 and 100, and comparison of decimal numbers as tenths and hundredths using part-whole strategies and visual models.

 

Grade 5: 

5.NR.3: Describe fractions and perform operations with fractions to solve relevant, mathematical problems using part-whole strategies and visual models.

Arts Standards

Grade 4: 

ESD4.CR.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the choreographic process.

 

ESD4.CR.2 Demonstrate an understanding of dance as a form of communication.

 

ESD4.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology in dance

 

ESD4.RE.1 Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in dance.

 

Grade 5:

ESD5.CR.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the choreographic process.

 

ESD5.CR.2 Demonstrate an understanding of dance as a form of communication.

 

ESD5.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology in dance

 

ESD5.RE.1 Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in dance.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 4:

4.NSF.2 Compare two given fractions (i.e., denominators 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 25, 100) by creating common denominators or numerators, or by comparing to a benchmark fraction such as 1/2 and represent the comparison using the symbols >, =, or <.

 

4.NSF.3 Develop an understanding of addition and subtraction of fractions (i.e., denominators 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 25, 100) based on unit fractions.

  1. Compose and decompose a fraction in more than one way, recording each composition and decomposition as an addition or subtraction equation; b. Add and subtract mixed numbers with like denominators; c. Solve real-world problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole and having like denominators.

 

Grade 5: 

5.NSF.3 Understand the relationship between fractions and division of whole numbers by interpreting a fraction as the numerator divided by the denominator

Arts Standards

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 7: I can relate dance to other arts disciplines, content areas, and careers.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Fraction - A numerical quantity that represents a part of a whole number
  • Numerator - Represents the number of parts out of the whole that are being considered
  • Denominator - Represents the total parts of something

Arts Vocabulary

  • Movement phrase - A series of movements linked together to make a distinctive pattern
  • Non-locomotor - This refers to a movement that does not travel through space
  • Locomotor - This refers to a movement that travels through space
  • Steady beat - An unchanging, continuous pulse
  • Space - An element of movement involving direction, level, size, focus, and pathway
  • Level - One of the aspects of the movement element space; in dance, there are three basic levels: high, middle, and low
  • Choreography - The art of composing dances and planning and arranging the movements, steps, and patterns of dancers
  • Choreographer - A person who creates dances
  • Shape - This refers to an interesting and interrelated arrangement of body parts of one dance; the visual makeup or molding of the body parts of a single dancer; the overall visible appearance of a group of dancers

 

Materials

  • Sound source and music with a steady beat

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • Begin the lesson by engaging students in movement that introduces students to the Elements of Dance: Body, action, space, time and energy.
    • Have students arrange themselves in the classroom with enough personal space to move freely without touching a neighbor.
    • Turn on instrumental music with a steady beat.
    • First, have students bring awareness to their bodies by leading them through gentle stretches starting from the head and moving to the toes (e.g., head circles, shoulder shrugs, toe touches, etc.).
    • Next, bring students’ awareness to the rhythm of the music by having them march in place to the beat with high knees, swinging their arms side to side.
    • Now, direct students to explore energy variations with different movement qualities such as sharp movements–quick, precise actions like punches or snaps, and smooth movements–slow, flowing actions like waves or circles with arms.
    • Finally, bring students’ attention to levels (high, middle, low) and directions (forward, backward, sideways) with movements such as stretching up high and moving on tiptoes, moving low to the ground and crawling forwards and backwards, and bouncing in place at a medium level.
    • Have students return to their seats.

 

Work Session

  • Display a rectangle divided into tenths.
  • The tenths should be shaded in three different colors, such as red, white, and blue.
    • The red tenths equal non-locomotor movement.
    • The blue tenths equal locomotor movement.
    • The white tenths equal holds in the movement phrase.
  • Show examples of simple locomotor and non-locomotor movements and have students perform the examples. Ask the students for suggestions of other locomotor and non-locomotor movements and use their suggested movements to perform the movement phrase in the pattern displayed in the rectangle.
  • Discuss the fraction of non-locomotor movements and locomotor movements represented in the rectangle.
    • Ask students to add the number of non-locomotor movements and locomotor movements to get the total number of movements during the phrase.
    • Students should represent locomotor movements as a fraction and non-locomotor movements as a fraction.
    • Students should then compare the fractions of locomotor and non-locomotor movements using greater than, less than, and equal to signs.
    • Have students convert the fractions to decimals and add the two decimals.
  • Divide students into groups. Students will work with their group to create and perform a simple movement phrase.
    • Before sending groups to work, play music for students to choreograph their dances to; help students find the steady. Then, turn music down and allow students to begin their choreography.
    • Tell students that movement phrases will include 10 steps and must show locomotor and non-locomotor movements and various levels.
    • Students will write the fractions and decimals that describe their movement phrase and compare their fractions using greater than, equal to, or less than signs.

 

Closing Reflection

  • The students will perform their movement phrases for their classmates. Discuss appropriate audience participation and etiquette prior to performances.
  • Turn up the volume of the music and help students find the steady beat again by tapping their toe on the floor.
  • Invite the first group up to perform their dance.
    • After each performance, the audience should analyze the dance in terms of locomotor or non-locomotor movements and determine the fraction of locomotor and non-locomotor movements in the phrase. They will also describe the shapes and levels evident in the movement phrase.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, ability to identify and compare fractions, ability to work collaboratively to choreograph a movement phrase that demonstrates locomotor and non-locomotor movements and levels, and ability to describe choreography in terms of fractions.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

  • Students can accurately represent the fractions of movement in the movement phrase they choreograph.
  • Students can accurately describe the movement phrases they see using fractions.
  • Students can accurately compare fractions.
  • Students can convert fractions to decimals.
  • Students can identify and use locomotor and non-locomotor movements and levels in choreography.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration: Challenge students to analyze other elements of their choreography such as levels, directions, and pathways in terms of fractions.

Remediation: Reduce the number of movements students are required to include in their choreography.

 

*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 by: Whitney Jones. Updated by Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright:  June 2024 @ ArtsNOW

 

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