Haiku Choreography K-1

HAIKU CHOREOGRAPHY

HAIKU CHOREOGRAPHY

Learning Description

In this lesson, students will explore and understand the structure of haiku poetry by using the structure of haiku to create choreography.

 

Learning Targets

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

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can create movements/choreography to beats and patterns.

  • I can create choreography to the structure of haiku poetry.

  • I can communicate meaning through movement.

Essential Questions

  • How can I show the structure of haiku through dance and choreography?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

ELAGSEKRL5 Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).

 

ELAGSEKRF2 Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes). 

  1. Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.

 

Grade 1: 

ELAGSE1RL4 Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.

 

ELAGSE1RF3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

  1. Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.

Arts Standards

Kindergarten:

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

 

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

 

ESDK.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology in 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.RE.1 Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in dance.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

ELA.K.F.3.7 Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in words

 

ELA.K.AOR.5.1 Identify and describe the basic characteristics of literary text to include narrative, drama, and poetry. 

 

ELA.K.AOR.8.1 Determine the effectiveness of an author’s use of words and phrases in literary, informational, and multimedia texts: 

  1. identify and explain descriptive words and phrases that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.

 

Grade 1: 

ELA.1.F.3.7 Read a two-syllable word by breaking the word into syllables. 

 

ELA.1.AOR.1.2 Identify and explain the purpose of forms of figurative language to include alliteration and onomatopoeia, as well as descriptive phrases and words, and imagery.

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.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Poem - A genre of literature

  • Line - A sequence of words arranged in a specific order, typically forming a complete thought or phrase
  • Beat - The rhythmic pattern or meter of a poem
  • Theme - The underlying message, central idea, or insight into life that a story, poem, or other work of literature conveys
  • Imagery - The descriptive and figurative language an author uses to create vivid mental pictures and sensory experiences for the reader
  • Haiku - A traditional form of Japanese poetry consisting of three lines with a syllable pattern of 5-7-5

Arts Vocabulary

  • Choreographer/Choreography - The art of designing and arranging sequences of movements, steps, and gestures to create a dance piece

  • Beat - The rhythmic pulse or pattern of the music that dancers move to
  • Form - The overall structure or arrangement of movements, sequences, and choreography within a dance piece
  • Levels - The vertical positioning of the dancer's body in relation to the floor (high, mid, low)
  • Shape - The visual configuration or arrangement of the dancer's body or limbs in space
  • Tempo - The speed or pace of the music to which dancers perform
  • Energy - The quality, intensity, and dynamic force behind movement

 

Materials

  • Several examples of haiku poetry
  • Music
  • Crayon, colored pencil, or marker–anything that shows color and has a name

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • Place one feeling word in each corner of the classroom. 
  • Give each student a crayon, colored pencil, or marker–anything that shows color and has a name.
    • Tell students to move to the feeling word that they think their color name best fits. Allow students to discuss why they selected that word.
  • Next, divide students into partners. Have partners create a movement to show their feeling word. Encourage students to use their whole bodies.
    • Now, have students stand in a circle. Students should be standing next to their partner. 
    • Turn on music. Allow each pair to say their feeling word and show their movement. This will make one class “feeling dance”. 
  • Debrief the activity with students discussing how students used movement to communicate an idea. Tell students that dancers and choreographers also communicate meaning through dance.
    • Ask students to share observations about how feelings were expressed differently.

 

Work Session

INTRODUCE BEAT IN DANCE

  • Discuss beats and how dancers and choreographers use beats. Show students a video to demonstrate. 
  • Choose one movement from each feeling word from the activator. Without music, have students follow your movements as you put them together to make one dance. 
  • Now, add music. Count as you perform the movements. Have students follow along with you.

 

INTRODUCE LEVELS AND ENERGY IN DANCE

  • Engage students in a movement exercise that will allow them to learn about and explore levels in dance.
  • Play music with a steady beat. Help students find the beat by tapping their toes on the ground or patting their legs. 
  • Bring students’ attention to levels (high, middle, low) with movements such as stretching up high and moving on tiptoes, crouching in a small ball close to the floor, and bouncing in place at a middle level.
  • Tell students that they will play a movement game in which they should make a movement that corresponds to the word that they hear.
    • Demonstrate using the word “mountain”. Start by standing tall and straight with arms by your sides. Then, slowly lift your arms away from your body, away from your sides, until they meet above your head in a point.
      • Ask students how you showed the idea of a mountain using your body. 
      • Now, crouch down low and bring your hands together into a point just above your head. Ask students if this movement is the same. They should say that in one you stood tall and in one you crouched low. Ask them which is a better movement for “mountain”. 
      • Tell students that dancers use levels to communicate meaning just like standing tall for “mountain”.
    • Allow students time to explore movement using levels by saying different nature-related words and allowing students time to respond with movement.

LEARN ABOUT HAIKU

  • Share the origin of haiku poetry and read an example.
    • As students listen to the poem, invite them to close their eyes and visualize the images in their mind.
      • Ask them what images come to mind. Discuss as a class.
    • Draw student’s attention to the structure of haiku poetry. Help students count the syllables in each line of the haiku. 
    • Conduct the same process with another example. Ask students if they notice any patterns emerging. 
    • Discuss how all haikus follow a 5-7-5 syllable structure.
  • Discuss how dancers/choreographers can use poetry structure as a base for choreography. 
  • Display a haiku poem for students to see. Ask students, “If a dance followed haiku structure, how many beats would be in the beginning, middle, and end?”.
    • Students should arrive at 5-7-5.

 

CHOREOGRAPHING DANCE

  • Select a haiku to read as a class.
    • Ask the students to identify the images that come to mind in each line. 
    • Count the syllables in each line.
  • Tell students that they will be choreographing a dance that follows the structure of the haiku and that shows the images that the haiku conveys. Encourage students to think about how they could use levels to help them show the images in the poem. 
  • Divide students into groups of two or three students. Assign each group a line of the poem. Each group will choreograph a movement phrase for their line of the poem. 
  • Once students have finished their choreography, put three groups together so that all lines are represented. Allow time for groups to practice their sequence.
  • Pause students in their practice. Tell students that now they will practice counting with their movements. Demonstrate by counting to five completing a movement phrase for the first line, counting to seven completing a movement phrase for the second line, and counting to five again completing a movement phrase for the third line.
    • Provide time for students to practice performing to the count.

Closing Reflection

  • Students will perform their choreography for the class. Have the class practice counting the 5-7-5 structure before each performance starts. Then, have groups perform each movement phrase while the class counts together.
    • Ask the audience members how the movements and levels demonstrated the images portrayed in the haiku.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teacher will assess students by asking students about their choreographic choices and how they aid in the audience’s understanding of the structure and images in the haiku.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

  • Students can identify the structure and images in a haiku poem.
  • Dance assessment:
    • Choreography:
      • Students can create a choreography that has a beginning, middle, and end. 
      • Students can create a choreography that demonstrates the structure and images in a haiku poem.
    • Audience:
      • Students can discuss the performances of the other groups and identify how movements demonstrate the structure and images in a haiku poem.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Accelerated: 

  • Have advanced students create choreography for the entire haiku instead of only one line.
  • Add additional Elements of Dance, such as Energy, for students to incorporate into their choreography.

Remedial: 

  • Create choreography for a haiku together as a class before (or instead of) having individual groups choreograph independently. 
  • Focus on haiku structure or images instead of both in the lesson.

 

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

 

*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 Joy. Updated by: Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright:  July 2024 @ ArtsNOW

 

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Dancing Sentences

DANCING SENTENCES

Dancing Sentences

Learning Description

In this lesson, students will explore punctuation and capitalization through movement and choreography.

 

Learning Targets

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

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can demonstrate my understanding of ending punctuation marks by matching energy quality to punctuation.
  • I can demonstrate my understanding that every sentence should begin with an uppercase letter through movement.

Essential Questions

  • How can I use movement and choreography to show my understanding of the conventions of the standard English language?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

ELAGSEKL1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a. Print many upper- and lowercase letters. d. Understand and use question words (interrogatives) (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how). f. Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities. 

ELAGSEKL2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a.  Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I.  b.  Recognize and name end punctuation.

Grade 1:

ELAGSE1L1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a.  Print all upper- and lowercase letters. j.  Produce and expand complete simple and compound sentences in response to questions and prompts (declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory). k.  Print with appropriate spacing between words and sentences. 

ELAGSE1L2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. b.  Use end punctuation for sentences.

Arts Standards

Kindergarten:

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

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

ESDK.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology in 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.RE.1 Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in dance.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 1:

1.NSBT.1.c. Read, write and represent numbers to 100 using concrete models, standard form, and equations in expanded form1.NSBT.4 Add through 99 using concrete models, drawings, and strategies based on place value to: a. add a two-digit number and a one-digit number, understanding that sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten (regroup)

Arts Standards

Grade 1:

Anchor Standard 3: I can act in improvised scenes and written scripts.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

Place Value - The value of where the digit is in the number, such as units, tens, hundreds, etc.

Arts Vocabulary

Statue (Statues) - An actor frozen in a pose.

Tableau (Tableaux) - A group of actors frozen to create a picture.

 

Materials

Plus (+) and equal (=) sign placards that can stand on the floor (one possibility – written with marker on an inverted file folder - or part thereof – and capable of standing like a tent).

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Letter Statues
Introduce or review what a statue is – an actor in a frozen pose. Explain that the students will make letter statues with their bodies. Call out one letter at a time and have them make the letters. Use a drum, another percussion instrument, or clapping to cue the statues. Encourage students to be creative, using full body, limbs, fingers, etc., and exploring the possibilities of standing, kneeling, sitting, lying down, etc., as appropriate for the classroom space. Use observational language to comment on the different ways in which students use their bodies to create the statues.

 

Work Session

Number Statues

  • Repeat the process with numbers (single digits). After exploring multiple possibilities, inform students that they will focus on making number statues that use their whole bodies, and for which they will remain standing. Practice standing number statues.
  • Ask students how they would make a statue of a number up to 100. Elicit from them, or guide them to, the idea of working in pairs or trios.
  • Introduce or review what a tableau is – a group of actors frozen in a picture. Explain that tableaux often create pictures with characters and settings, but the tableaux today will be of numbers and number sentences.
  • Invite two, and then three, volunteers to model creating a tableaux up to 100. Ask students what each digit in a multiple-digit number represents. Introduce or review the concept of place value. Ensure that students understand that the digit to the left represents a higher place value than the digit to the right, and identify the units: ones, tens, and hundreds places.
  • Have students work in pairs to create a 2-digit number tableau (full-body, standing). Have them work together to say the name of the number together out loud. After creating a number, have them switch positions and say the name of the number with the digits switched. Move among the pairs to confirm that they are expressing each number correctly.
  • If students have grasped the 2-digit numbers and are ready for 3-digit numbers, have them repeat the process in trios. Each trio can explore all the possibilities with their three digits (if the digits are all different, e.g., 1, 2, and 3, there will be six permutations: 123, 132, 213, 231, 312, 321.)
  • Introduce the idea of moving from number tableaux to addition sentence tableaux.
  • Invite three students to model a simple addition sentence tableau, e.g., 3 + 4 = 7. Have the students assume their positions, and then have them speak the sentence together. (Note: this is an opportunity, if relevant, to introduce or reinforce the Commutative Property of addition by having the addends switch places.)
  • Provide plus and equal sign tent cards and have students work in trios to create addition sentence tableaux.
  • Use the same process, first modeling and then having the students work in small groups, to move into more complex addition sentences: adding two 1-digit numbers that result in a 2-digit sum (e.g., 5 + 7 = 12), adding a 1- and a 2- digit number together, without and then with sums that require making a new ten (e.g., 31 + 7 = 38, and then 29 + 3 = 32), and then adding two 2-digit numbers, without and then with sums that require carrying to the tens and hundreds places (e.g., 45 + 12 = 57, then 24 + 19 = 43, then 74 + 38 = 112).

Teaching Tips:

  • As appropriate to the class, use established addition strategies (counting on, making ten, etc.) to calculate sums, and advance only as far in the sequence of complexity as the class can manage.
  • This may be a lesson that is done over time. The first step may best be suited for when single digit addition is taught, then adding 2-digit addition as the concept is taught, and so on.

 

Closing Reflection

Ask students: How did you use your bodies to create letter and number statues and addition sentence tableaux? Which were more challenging, letter statues or number statues? How do we determine the name and value of a 2- or 3-digit number? How did you determine your place or role in the number sentence?

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Students should be able to calculate answers to the mathematical problems.
  • Students should accurately represent the numbers with their bodies.

 

Summative

Assign various addition problems to the students at the level reflected in the lesson, and gauge their ability to visualize and complete the problems.

 

Differentiation

Acceleration: Acceleration and remediation are built into the lesson in terms of how far into the sequence of complexity the lesson goes, and how much students are asked to create and calculate the numbers and addition sentences on their own. For acceleration, there should be greater complexity and more independent (unguided, in pairs, trios, quads, and more) work.

Remediation: Acceleration and remediation are built into the lesson in terms of how far into the sequence of complexity the lesson goes, and how much students are asked to create and calculate the numbers and addition sentences on their own. For remediation, there should be less complexity, more modeling, and more full-class, guided work.

*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: Mary Gagliardi and updated by Barry Stewart Mann

Revised and copyright: August 2022 @ ArtsNOW

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Character Choreography

CHARACTER CHOREOGRAPHY

CHARACTER CHOREOGRAPHY

Learning Description

Working through the choreographic process, students will create a short choreographic work demonstrating the traits of a character and dance elements.

 

Learning Targets

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

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can demonstrate traits of characters in a story through choreography.
  • I can use the elements of dance to express ideas about character traits.
  • I can create a complete dance with a beginning, middle and end.

Essential Questions

  • How can the elements of dance be used to demonstrate the understanding of a character in a story?
  • How is the choreographic process similar to the writing process?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

ELAGSEKRL3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story

ELAGSEKRL9 With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.

ELAGSEKW2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic. 

ELAGSEKW3 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened. 

ELAGSEKW5 With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed. 

ELAGSEKW6 With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of tools to produce and publish writing, including digital tools in collaboration with peers.

Grade 1:

ELAGSE1RL3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

ELAGSE1RL7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events. 

ELAGSE1RL9 Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories. 

ELAGSE1W2 Write informative/ explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure. 

ELAGSE1W3 Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure

ELAGSE1W5 With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed. a. May include oral or written prewriting (graphic organizers). 

ELAGSE1W6 With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of tools to produce and publish writing, including digital tools and collaboration with peers.

Arts Standards

Kindergarten:

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

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

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

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

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

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

ESDK.CN.3 Identify connections between dance and other areas of knowledge

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.

ESD2.CN.3 Identify connections between dance and other areas of knowledge.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

K.RL.MC.8.1 With guidance and support, read or listen closely to: describe characters and their actions;

K.W.MCC.3.1 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, to tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and to provide a reaction to what happened. 

K.C.MC.1.4 Participate in conversations with varied partners about focused grade level topics and texts in small and large groups.

Grade 1:

1.RL.MC.8.1 Read or listen closely to: a. describe characters’ actions and feelings; 

1.W.MCC.3.2 Plan, revise, and edit building on personal ideas and the ideas of others to strengthen writing. 

1.C.MC.3.1 Explore and compare how ideas and topics are depicted in a variety of media and formats.

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

Beginning - The starting point of a story, including the introduction of who, where, what, why, and when.

Middle - The phase in which a story line develops, introducing conflict. 

End - The ultimate resolution or conclusion to conflict signaling that a story is stopping.

Transition - A word or phrase that connects two ideas.

Writing process - A cycle of activities, including brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, and presentation, that are used to turn ideas into a literary work.

Emotion - A mental state that occurs depending on circumstances, mood, or relationships with others.

Arts Vocabulary

Level - The height of a movement in relationship to the floor (i.e., high, middle, low).

Locomotor - Movement that travels from one location to another in a pathway through space.

Non Locomotor - Movement that occurs without the body traveling from one point to another point.

Tempo - The speed of the beats of the movements that dancers perform.

Energy Qualities - A group of actors frozen to create a picture.

  • Swinging - Oscillatory (not swing dance, a genre of dance)
  • Sustained - Smooth, continuous, even, without pause or stopping and possibly with a long duration
  • Percussive - Short, sharp, sudden, forceful
  • Vibratory - Repeating and often small and short
  • Suspended - Holding, as in pausing, at a certain point of a movement

Beginning/Middle/End - The phases of a choreography in which movement is used to communicate a starting point (beginning), the development of ideas, including complexity and conflict as necessary (middle), and a tying up or completion of ideas (end).

Choreographic Process - The steps taken to create movement sequences for dancers, which include testing, revising, and editing work.

 

Materials

  • A variety of music selections
  • Music source and speakers

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Letter Statues

    • In groups, have students select and practice one movement of their choice.
    • Guide students through exploring that movement with different elements of dance.
      • Practice the movement at different levels.
      • Practice the movement with different tempos.
      • Practice the movement in a locomotor and non-locomotor way.
      • Practice the movement using different energy qualities.
        • swinging
        • sustained
        • percussive
        • vibratory
        • suspended

 

Work Session

PART 1 - Explore Movement

  • Have students name a literary character to portray.
  • Instruct students to create a movement to represent something important about that character, which could be an action, emotion, or personality trait of the character.
  • Ask students to demonstrate their movement to the class.
  • Ask classmates to identify the artistic intent conveyed by the group; the presenting group identifies the correct peer answer or explains their artistic intent.

PART 2 - Add new movements to set an order

  • Have students create two more movements to communicate two more important things about their character. There will be three total movements, including the initial movement (part 1) and these two movements. These three movements can be referred to as the beginning, middle and end of the choreography.
  • Ask students to try their movements in different orders and then decide on the sequence that they feel best tells the audience about their character.

PART 3 - Choreograph and revise

  • Lead students through the choreographic process to revise and edit their choreography. Just as with the writing process, the intent of leading students through the process is to add “details” to make the choreography more exciting or interesting.
  • Ask students to add levels to their choreography.  Remind them to think of their character and where and why they would use different levels.  
  • Ask students to add tempos to their choreography.  Would their character move fast or slow?  When or why might that character's tempos vary?
  • Ask students to add energy qualities to their choreography. For example, if the character is excited a vibratory energy quality might be used. If the character is angry a percussive energy quality might be used.
  • Give students time to practice the revised version of their choreography.

PART 4 - Choreograph and revise

  • Once students have revised and edited their choreography, ask them to present their character choreography to the class. Option to choose music for each dance.

 

Closing Reflection

Ask students to reflect on how their dance evolved through the choreographic process.  How did adding level, tempo, and energy qualities make the choreography more interesting? 

Discuss the similarities of the choreographic process to the writing process.

 

Assessments

Formative

Visually observe the students' choreography evolving as they work through the choreographic process.

  • Teacher observes students adding the elements of dance to their choreography as queued: levels, tempo, energy qualities.
  • Teacher observes students using vocabulary of the elements of dance as they work.

 

Summative

CHARACTER CHOREOGRAPHY CHECKLIST

  • The choreography contains a clear beginning, middle, end.
  • The choreography contains levels.
  • The choreography contains varying tempos.
  • The choreography effectively uses dance to communicate ideas about the chosen character.

 

Differentiation

Acceleration: 

  • Have students work in partners to evolve work for a single person into a duet showing how two characters would relate to one another.
  • Compare and contrast two-character choreography works.

Remediation: 

Work through the process as a large group working on one character.

Additional Resources

While part of the standards discussion but not standards themselves, the statements below reflect the connection between the choreographic process and the writing process and are interesting to consider while implementing this lesson.

Fundamentals of Writing  

Employ a recursive writing process that includes planning, drafting, revising, editing, rewriting, publishing, and reflecting.  

Interact and collaborate with peers and adults to develop and strengthen writing.  

Produce writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, discipline, and audience. 

Fundamentals of Communication  

Employ a reciprocal communication process that includes planning, drafting, revising, editing, reviewing, presenting, and reflecting.  

Communicate using style, language, and nonverbal cues appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.  

Use active and attentive communication skills, building on other’s ideas to explore, learn, enjoy, argue, and exchange information.  

Monitor delivery and reception throughout the communication process and adjust approach and strategies as needed.

 

 

*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

Revised and copyright: August 2022 @ ArtsNOW

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Dance Across Landforms K-1

DANCE ACROSS LANDFORMS

DANCE ACROSS LANDFORMS

Learning Description

In this lesson, students will become explorers encountering a variety of landforms. Students will create a fictional narrative about their journey and then create choreography to match the sequence generated in the story.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: K-1
CONTENT FOCUS: DANCE, SOCIAL STUDIES, ELA
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can describe and identify the different types of landforms.

  • I can use movement to represent the different types of landforms.

  • I can write narratives with a beginning, middle and end.

Essential Questions

  • How can we use movement to represent different types of landforms?

  • What are the similarities and differences between different types of landforms?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

ELA

ELAGSEKW3 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

 

Grade 1:

ELA

ELAGSE1W3 Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure. 

 

Social Studies

SS1G3 Locate major topographical features of the earth’s surface. a. Locate all of the continents: North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Antarctica, and Australia. b. Locate the major oceans: Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific, Southern, and Indian. c. Identify and describe landforms (mountains, deserts, valleys, and coasts).

Arts Standards

Kindergarten: 

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

 

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

 

ESDK.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology in 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.RE.1 Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in dance.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

ELA

WRITING - Meaning, Context, and Craft

Standard 3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

3.1 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, to tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and to provide a reaction to what happened.

 

Grade 1: 

ELA 

WRITING - Meaning, Context, and Craft

Standard 3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

3.1 Explore multiple texts to write narratives that recount two or more sequenced events, include details, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure. 

 

Social Studies

1.G.4 Describe and compare various landforms within South Carolina through the use of primary and secondary sources.

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

  • Landforms - A specific geomorphic feature on the surface of the earth, ranging from large-scale features such as plains, plateaus, and mountains to minor features such as hills, valleys, and alluvial fans

  • Mountain - A natural elevation of the earth's surface rising more or less abruptly to a summit, and attaining an altitude greater than that of a hill, usually greater than 2000 feet

  • Valley - An elongated depression between uplands, hills, or mountains, especially one following the course of a stream

  • Desert - A region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all

  • Plateau - A land area having a relatively level surface considerably raised above adjoining land on at least one side, and often cut by deep canyons

  • Coast - The land next to the sea
  • Plain - An area of land not significantly higher than adjacent areas and with relatively minor differences in elevation, commonly less than 500 ft. (150 m), within the area

Arts Vocabulary

  • Sequence - Order of succession

  • Movement phrase - A series of movements linked together to make a distinctive pattern

  • 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
  • Cards with landforms written on them
  • Anchor chart/poster paper
  • Markers

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • Begin 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.). Then, ask them to make different shapes with their bodies.
    • Bring students’ attention to levels (high, middle, low) with movements such as stretching up high and moving on tiptoes, crouching in a small ball close to the floor, and bouncing in place at a middle level.
    • Have students practice what they just learned by saying words such as “high level” and have students create a spontaneous high level movement.
    • Have students return to their seats or the carpet.

 

Work Session

  • Project photos of the six main types of landforms (mountains, valleys, plains, plateaus, coasts, and deserts).  
  • As a class, describe each of these landforms. 
    • First, have students describe their height in terms of high, middle and low.
    • Next, have students describe what shapes they see in the images. 
    • Finally, discuss how the landforms are similar and how they are different.
    • Add descriptions of each landform to an anchor chart to post in the room.
  • Show students a map of a region being studied and where the landforms are located. Ask students to imagine that they are going on a journey and that they will encounter these different landforms along the way. 
  • Divide students into small groups or partners. Assign each group several landforms from the region being studied.
  • In their groups, students will write a story with words and/or pictures depending on grade and ability level about their journey across the region and the landforms they encountered. 
    • Remind students that their setting will be the landforms they encounter, so they should use descriptive details to help the reader visualize the setting.
    • Remind students that their stories should have a beginning, middle, and end.
    • Remind students to use temporal language to assist with communicating sequence.
    • Circulate and conference with students throughout the writing process.
  • Tell students that they will create a movement phrase to represent their journey.
    • Demonstrate how to create a movement to represent a landform with a different type of physical feature such as a river. 
      • Brainstorm with students a movement they could use to represent a river. Ask them to consider if the river movement should be high, middle or low and what shape it should be.
      • Allow students to practice the movement as a class.
    • Allow students to begin choreographing their dances. 
      • Their dances should tell their story, so the movements in their dances should be in the same sequence as they are in their narratives. 
      • Students should create a unique movement or movement phrase for each landform. Students should then connect the movements to create a whole dance.

 

Closing Reflection

  • Students will perform their dances for their classmates. Discuss appropriate audience participation and etiquette prior to performances.
  • After each performance, the audience will determine which landforms the group represented and what from their dance indicated that.
  • Optional: Allow groups to share their narratives either before or after their performances.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, ability to describe and identify landforms, ability to collaborate with their classmates to choreograph a movement phrase that represents a journey through their assigned landforms, and conferencing with students during the writing process.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

  • Students can describe and identify the different landforms.
  • Students can use movement to represent the different landforms.
  • Students can write narratives with a beginning, middle and end.
  • Students can use temporal language to communicate the sequence of events in their narratives (first grade).

 

Differentiation

Acceleration: 

  • Challenge students by asking them to structure their dances like the story. It should have a beginning pose/shape, movement phrases, transitions between movements, and an ending pose/shape.
  • Challenge students to create not only individual movements, but movements and shapes that they make together to create a formation (i.e., how could all dancers’ bodies be used to create one mountain?).

Remediation: Write a narrative as a class; then have groups choreograph their dances to represent the class narrative.

 

 

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

Revised and copyright:  August 2024 @ ArtsNOW

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Dance Graphs

DANCE GRAPHS

DANCE GRAPHS

Learning Description

Students will interpret data on graphs and use the information to explore dance composition, form, and order of choreography.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: K-1
CONTENT FOCUS: Dance & Math
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can group and interpret data.
  • I can recognize different types of graphs.
  • I can interpret data in a graph to create choreography.

Essential Questions

  • How can dance and movement be used to demonstrate understanding of graphs and data interpretation?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

MGSE2.MD.10 Draw a picture graph and a bar graph (with single-unit scale) to represent a data set with up to four categories. Solve simple put-together, take-apart, and compare problems using information presented in a bar graph.Grade 1:

MGSE3.MD.3 Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step “how many more” and “how many less” problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs. For example, draw a bar graph in which each square in the bar graph might represent 5 pets.

Arts Standards

Kindergarten:

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

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

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

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

ESDK.CN.3 Identify connections between dance and other areas of knowledge

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.

ESD2.CN.3 Identify connections between dance and other areas of knowledge.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

K.MDA.3 Sort and classify data into 2 or 3 categories with data not to exceed 20 items in each category.

K.MDA.4 Represent data using object and picture graphs and draw conclusions from the graphs.

Grade 1:

1.MDA.4 Collect, organize, and represent data with up to three categories using object graphs, picture graphs, t-charts and tallies.

1.MDA.5 Draw conclusions from given object graphs, picture graphs, t-charts, tallies, and bar graphs.

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.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

Graph - A diagram that shows the relationship between two or more things.

Data - A collection of individual facts or statistics.

Analyze - Examine a subject methodically and in detail, typically in order to explain and interpret it.

Arts Vocabulary

Choreography - The art of composing dances and planning and arranging the movements, steps, and patterns of dancers.

Choreographer - A person who creates dances.

Level - The vertical distance from the floor that a dancer occupies during a movement

Plane - An imaginary flat surface running through the body.

 

Materials

  • Music source and speakers
  • Graphs/Data, printed or projected

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Teacher tallies the number of students born each month. Students group birthdays into seasons.

As a group, lead students in a warm up that includes these dance elements:

  • Levels, body shapes, plane
  • Locomotor and non-locomotor movements
  • Identify these dance elements so that students learn dance vocabulary.

 

Work Session

Movement Discovery
Look at a variety of types of graphs and discuss:

  • The basic, overall shapes of each graph, i.e., a bar graph may be described as rectangular while a pie chart may be called a circle
  • Looking inside the graphs, how different shapes and symbols express data in each example, i.e., a pie chart contains angles while a picture graph may contain hearts and stars.

Collaboration:

  • Divide the class into small groups and assign either a picture or a bar graph to each group, using various examples of graphs.
  • Students describe the graph form (overall form and form of value symbols) using the dance vocabulary and concepts from warm-up
  • Students assign dance movements to the visual expression of the form of the graph, i.e., bars on a bar graph may be jumps; stars on a picture graph may be spins.

Choreographic Process:

  • Students analyze the data that the teacher gathered at the beginning of class: How many students have birthdays in each season?
  • Students draw the data in their assigned graph.
  • Create a graph dance by sequencing the movements from the previous step so that they reflect the data, i.e., a bar graph with data of 5 and 2 may include a person standing on their toes and extending their arms overhead 5 times and another person repeating the movement 2 times.
  • Students decide how to order the data, such as least to most or progression of seasons in the calendar year.
  • Students decide how to demonstrate the type of graph, as well as data.

Performance and discussion:

  • Perform each group dance.
  • The audience identifies which type of graph the peer group is presenting.
  • The teacher asks questions about the data represented in each graph dance (How many? How many more? How many fewer? Which season had more birthdays? the most? fewer? the least?).

 

Closing Reflection

The audience explains how movement observed represents the form of the graph, as well as the data.

Groups explain why they chose certain movements to express the data and form of their graph.

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Students engage in a collaborative discussion about movement choices, graph form, and data.
  • Students correctly use dance vocabulary during the discussion.

 

Summative

  • Students correctly interpret their assigned data.
  • Students present choreography that accurately portrays their assigned data.
  • Students/audience will accurately identify and interpret the data expressed in peer choreography.

 

Differentiation

Acceleration: Show dance photos that contain multiple dancers; count the dancers and then express the data in scaled picture or bar graphs. Suggested photos in Additional Resources, below.

Remediation: Analyze data and draw it in different types of graphs as a whole class and then divide into small groups to create choreographies.

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

Suggested dance photos for first grade acceleration:

Two dancers:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MX_MM_BALLET_FOLKL%C3%93RICO_DE_M%C3%89XICO_-_40289925045.jpg

Four dancers
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballet_Flamenco_de_Andaluc%C3%ADa19_(48628989227).jpg

Six dancers
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opening_Performance_and_Address_(52146422509).jpg

Eight dancers
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dance_Ensemble_Sofia_6_Women.jpg

Ten dancers
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NIGERIA_Group_Dance1.jpg

Remediation: Analyze data and draw it in different types of graphs as a whole class and then divide into small groups to create choreographies.

*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: Julie Galle Baggenstoss and Melissa Dittmar-Joy

Revised and copyright: August 2022 @ ArtsNOW

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