Author School Visits -- Dancing Through the Alphabet

Hello!


       This past month, I have enjoyed visiting children in preschool, kindergarten, first, and second grades, in three different school systems around Ohio.  This is probably the most fun part of being an author and dance educator.  I have the opportunity to share my picture book with young children, librarians, and teachers, and I also have the chance to share my love of movement. 

Reading to a kindergarten class

        I wrote From A to Z with Energy! to inspire children to be healthy and active.  The book's unofficial subtitle, "26 Ways to Move and Play," is a good description of what I do while visiting with young children in their classrooms. 

       After I have read my book aloud, I spend the rest of the time tying movement to early literacy concepts. We dance about the letters in the alphabet. We might start out by thinking of action words that begin with different letters.  For example, the letter S is the first letter in the words Sit, Stand, Stretch, Squiggle, Stomp, Shake, Soar, and making Silly Shapes. I ask the children to first make the shape of an S in their bodies.  Then we try out the many action words that start with that letter.  We have the whole array of letters to choose from, and we move in many different ways as we dance through the alphabet.

       Another early literacy concept is recognizing rhyming words.  My book is a rhyming story, so I make sure to ask the children to listen for rhyming words as I read the story.  Then we play a game in which I create pairs of rhyming words, with one of the words being a movement. I might ask them, what action word rhymes with "ounce?" "Bounce!" Then we all do some bouncing movements together.  Other examples of rhyming pairs are bake-shake, pop-hop, arch-march, fun-run, and pants-dance. 

"March" rhymes with "Arch!"

       All of the above activities can be done in a large gym with the children moving away from and back to a home spot.  But if you only have a small space, don't worry!  Children can get an active workout even staying in one spot.  They can sit and stand, go up on tiptoe, stretch, squiggle, stomp, shake, balance, make silly shapes, run in place, march, turn, hop, jump, twist, and dance, all in one spot.  

       Another fun movement game is to practice the concept of opposites.  This is a vocabulary exercise as well.  A child might not be able to describe the meaning of the word "opposite," but he or she can learn and experience opposites kinesthetically.  Some of the movement opposites we explore are:
Happy/Sad, Straight/Twisty, Hot/Cold, Quiet/Loud, Tired/Energetic, Slow/Fast, Right/Left, Heavy/Light, Facing Forward/Facing Backward, Up/Down.  All of the above movements can be performed moving through a large space, or staying in a home spot. 

        I would love to visit your school or library!  For more information, please visit the School Visit Info page 
of my website www.movingislearning.com.

Keep on Dancin'!

Connie

MOVING IS LEARNING!

Reading and Dancing from A to Z!

March, 2019

Greetings. and Happy Spring!

One of my favorite ways to get children up and moving is to read a story, and then use ideas from the story as movement prompts.  Here are some of the benefits children can gain from a Read and Dance activity:

• Comprehension
• Sequencing
• Identifying with and understanding different characters in the story
• Exploring and learning about the setting
• Vocabulary acquisition
• Recognition of rhyme and rhythm 
• Alphabet knowledge/Letter recognition
• Fun and lively physical activity
• Social-Emotional Learning (SEL):  Group cooperation; creativity; problem solving; listening to, understanding and responding to instructions; self-expression; body awareness

Reading a story , , ,

Dancing the story!

I love to inspire young children to be active and to learn by exploring, playing, dancing, and moving in many differentI ways.  in this blog post, I am introducing From A to Z with Energy!, my new picture book, published by Free Spirit Publishing.

The book, geared toward children ages 3 to 6, along with parents, teachers, librarians, and caregivers, offers ideas for staying active while learning and reading about the alphabet. The book includes guidelines for 10 supplementary movement activities, along with a short summary of some of the many benefits of movement for young children.



Here are some suggestions (these are examples; the ideas are expanded upon in the book) for enjoying From A to Z with Energy! as a Read and Dance activity with young children:

Once you have read the story aloud:

• Read it again and as you read it, ask the children to clap the rhythm of the verse
• Ask them to sway side-to-side, march, or move freely as they clap.
• In the book, each letter introduces ideas about being active.  Read each stanza slowly.  Ask the children to imagine they are doing the activities described.  Show the colorful, lively illustrations by Gareth Llewhellin to further stimulate movement ideas.

There are several more playful movement activities to help children explore letter shapes kinesthetically, and ideas for supplementing early writing activities as well.

Making Letter Shapes!

Keep on Dancin',



Connie

www.movingislearning.com

MOVING IS LEARNING!

To order From A to Z with Energy!:Click here

Dancing from STEM to STEAM to STREAM!

Hello!

Dancing to stories is one of the main activities that young children have enjoyed in my creative movement classes over the years.  Reading a book or story, then using verbal prompts to encourage the children to relive the story through dance and music, is also a wonderful way to incorporate the all-important "A" for Arts and the "R" for Reading into STEM. 

STEM to STEAM to STREAM -- let's go!  

Recreating the story with movement helps children to understand the concepts in the book and learn about them kinesthetically.   This process also helps children identify with settings, characters, plot and themes of the story, and helps with sequencing, comprehension, and vocabulary.  Most of all, though, this activity makes story time lively and even more fun.

Here is a dance story that I have created based on Eric Carle's classic book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Along with instructions for presenting the dance story, I have included photos of a visit I made to a school in Nicaragua.  I had the Spanish version of the book, La Oruga Muy Hambrienta.  

I often supplement a dance story with props.  In this case, I used colorful scarves which become the wings when the caterpillar becomes a butterfly.  

The materials you will need for this activity are:

1.  The book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
2.  Colorful scarves or fabric scraps, about 12" square 
(2 per child)













3.  Two lively instrumental musical selections, one of which has a conga rhythm



Now you are ready to begin!  Gather the children together and read the story.

Explain the dance story, and tell the children that you will be giving them movement prompts so that they will be retelling the story with dance and music.  Make sure to give the children plenty of time to respond to each of your movement suggestions.

Play the music softly in the background.  

Begin:  

You are a little egg on a leaf, in the moonlight.

Pop out of your egg!

You are so hungry.  Where would you find some food?     Proceed through each day in the story as the caterpillar finds new things to eat.

Eat as much as you can and become a great big caterpillar!

Your tummy hurts! Eat a nice green leaf to make you feel better.

Now it is time to spin your cocoon! Turn, turn, spin, spin, spin!  Wait inside your cocoon while you make your amazing transformation.  

While the children are waiting, use a clothespin to attach a scarf to each of their shoulders.

Nibble a hole in your cocoon, and push your way out. Push hard.  Push with your feet, your wings, and look, you are a colorful butterfly! Your wings are still wet.  Try to flap them up and down, very gently.  Now, flap harder, and fly.  Fly around the room, beautiful butterflies!

Now we will finish our story by making a giant caterpillar! Form the children into a line, and put on the conga music.  

Play the conga music, stand at the front of the line and introduce the conga step:  one, two three, touch heel to one side (rhythm:  one, two, three + four), repeat to the other side, and continue all around the room.

Caterpillar Conga line.  One, two, three, and four!

Happy dancing -- 

from STEM to STEAM to STREAM!

Keep on dancin',

Connie

MOVING IS LEARNING!

Dance Energizers! Four Brain Break Movement Activities

Spring is here!  Doesn't it make you want to jump for joy and shake off those winter blahs? Here are four energizes for children -- short movement activities that can do double, and even triple duty.  They are brain breaks, they can get the heart and muscles revved up, and they can address developmental and academic benchmarks all in one fell swoop.

1.  FOUND OBJECTS

Materials:  Bag of found objects -- Place 8 or 10 small items that evoke movement, such as a top, a plastic grasshopper, a Koosh ball (pictured), a candle, a feather, a stretchy band, a spring, a pipe cleaner, a bouncy ball, a snow globe, etc.
Space:  This activity can be done in a large space or can be performed in place.
Concepts addressed include listening to and following directions, recognizing and incorporating different movement qualities into the body, age-appropriate motor skills, creativity, vocabulary

Activity:

Pull the first object (for example, the top) out of the bag.  Ask the students, What is this?  How does it move?  Watch while it spins.  Can you move like a top?  What does the top do when it stops spinning? Can you fall on your side like the top?  Pull out the next object, discuss its properties, ask the children to move like the object, and continue through your collection.  

Found Objects

To conclude the activity, ask each child to dance like the object that was their favorite.  Or, put on some lively music, and ask the children to do a free dance using movement ideas from all of the objects.

2. DANCE AND FREEZE

Materials:  A musical selection, or a tambourine or drum
Space:  This activity can be done in a large space, either indoors or outside, or can be performed in place

Concepts addressed include listening to and following directions, creativity, age-appropriate motor skills, body control

Activity:

The directions for this are very simple, but they can be expanded to make the activity more challenging.

Begin by asking the children to move any way they wish while the music is playing (or you are beating the tambourine or drum), but when the music stops, they must freeze.

Build on this activity by asking them to stop in different shapes:  The next time you freeze, balance on one foot!

Other suggestions include: freeze in  a twisty shape, a wide shape, a low shape, an upside down shape, a shape that has three body parts touching the floor, etc.  Finish the activity by asking the children to freeze in a silly shape while making a face.

Dance and Freeze

3.  DANCE AND STOP WITH PROPS

Materials:  Scarves or streamers of different colors; an upbeat musical selection
Space: This activity can be done in a large space or can be modified and performed in place, inside or outdoors
Concepts addressed include listening to and following directions, group interaction, creativity, age-appropriate motor skills, body control

Dance and Stop with Props

This activity is a further expansion of the previous one, Dance and Freeze.  

Activity:  

Each color streamer will represent a specific movement instruction.  For example:  

• Green:  March
• Red:  Skip (for five+ years old) or gallop 
• Blue:  Move in slow motion
• Yellow:  Move in the low space
• Purple:  Flowing, turning movement

Make sure that the children understand the instructions.  If the children are very young, choose two different colors/movements, and add more if the children are ready for this challenge.  

Pass out the streamers, and play the music.  When the music stops, the children freeze.  Repeat this several times, and then on the next freeze, ask the children to trade for a different color streamer, and they will then do the appropriate movement represented by the color of their new streamer. 

Other examples of movement ideas to expand the activity:

• Hop or jump
• Tiptoe
• Baby steps
• Giant steps
• Shake
• Axial movement (move as if on an axis -- turn, jump, go up and down, move limbs, but stay in one spot)
• Walk in an uneven rhythm
• Move like a robot
• Move like a rag doll
• Let the children think of more ideas!

4.  CONGA LINE

Materials:  Pom-Poms if available, music with a conga beat -- Examples: 1.  Do the Conga, TPH Productions,  Children's Party;  2.  Shakers, Debbie Clement, Debbie's Ditties 4 Come Dance S'More! (or the instrumental version, in the CD included with my book, One, Two, What Can I Do?  Dance and Music for the Whole Day)

Space: Enough space for the children to dance in a line, inside or outdoors

Concepts addressed include hearing rhythms and then translating them into movement, spatial and body awareness, motor skills, counting

Conga Line!

Activity:

Teach the conga rhythm:  
The conga rhythm is four counts, with the first three being soft, and the fourth accented:  soft, soft, soft, loud . . . soft, soft, soft, loud . . . soft, soft, soft, loud.

Try it with clapping:  three claps, and then a loud accent clap.

Try it with stomping:  Three quiet stomps and then a loud one.  

Now you can play with this rhythm.  Line the children up, and have them follow you in this rhythm, as you walk:  three quiet stomps and one loud, repeating it until they feel comfortable with this rhythm.

Now try different ideas to accent the fourth beat:  a small bent-leg kick on count 4, raising one or two arms on count 4, make a face on count 4, freeze on count 4, or freeze in a funny shape on count 4.

Try the above variations with music.  

Pass out the pom-poms, and try the above ideas using this prop.

Take your conga line down the hall for a fun transition to another activity, or outside for recess!

Happy Spring, and

Keep on Dancin'!

MOVING IS LEARNING!

Connie Bergstein Dow
www.movingislearning.com




©2014 Connie Bergstein Dow

CHILDREN, CLAY, AND SCULPTURE

It all started with a puppet named Eddie the Elephant.  My first thought years ago was, "this will be fun, and I think it will be a great way to teach children how to breathe deeply." Little did I know what Eddie would inspire.  Little did I know Eddie would become an ambassador for the Context Method®.

Eddie is an expert at teaching children many things, including:

• delayed gratification (he takes a while to come out of his hiding place)
• breathing (for slowing down his heart rate to improve his decision making)
• self-regulation (using the breathing to remind himself)

That's how Eddie started out…breathing… that was his thing.

Over the last 11 years, my non profit education organization, the F.A.M.E. Foundation has collaborated with the Child-Parent Centers Head Start program.  They do a fantastic job of find the interests of children and using that to connect to many areas of growth.  One of these recent areas of interest was clay.  Below you can read the teachers documentation of this.

Here are the basic parts of this equation:

• The children wanted to use clay.
• They all loved and knew Eddie the Elephant.
• Eddie the Elephants cousin, Ellie, came to visit one day.
• The children noticed Ellie had a missing ear.
• The children wanted to find the ear.
• They couldn't find the ear.
• They decided to make an ear…from clay!

Combining clay techniques, along with fine motor skills, critical thinking and lots of creativity, the children began to create, all the time being acknowledged and supported by their teachers.

The children used many techniques and seemed to focus on the missing ear.

Many things were learned, including persistence, one of the great lessons of life, which can be learned through the Arts.

The children were guided, that is to say, the teachers trusted in the process and in the creative abilities of the children.  This speaks to the building of life long learners and confident learners.

The children were allowed to get dirty, as part of their work with clay.  Time was allowed for an inventive nature to set in.

The children were immersed in a world of play, connected in context to shapes, numbers, vocabulary used related to what they were making, fine motor development, and approaches to learning.

• Build, revise, create…
• Shapes, parts and putting them together…
• Strive, strive, strive...

Roll, twist and think they did!

The vision of the children's version of an elephant's ear and entire elephant became to emerge.

What is it worth to our world when the learner understands that creating something of value takes time?  Priceless...

• Each elephant through the eyes of the child…
• Each elephant through the lens of the learner…
• Each elephant made in the hands of each artist...

But wait!  The children made connections to other objects they could make with clay?  They were allowed to venture off in new directions?  Yes and Yes!!!

All the things they could envision became all the things they could create.  Possibility everywhere!

Documenting the work and ideas of children goes beyond meeting a documentation standard or policy.  It is an empowering way to let the children know they matter.  Their work matters.  Their ideas matter.  Enjoy the following images which show a quote from the child, followed by what they made.

Some children were very gender specific about their elephant.

Wait one minute!  Some children chose to make hippos!  Sure they did and as this child points out he had prior knowledge with hippos.

This child below describes the challenges they had and why the ear did not stick.  What kinds of life lessons can you think of now?

Flowers became another object that some children made.  As you can see, acquisition of vocabulary and two languages was also a part of this contextual experience.

You knew it was coming…clay and wire… together in the same piece of Art.

From elephants to hippos to flowers….and now… a house!

Activating children's prior knowledge is a great way to engage them as learners and creators.

• From linear to abstract.
• From following rules to creating them.
• From being disciplines to self-regulating.

• When is the learner most engaged?  What prompts this engagement?
• When is the learner most connected to the inner energy of the activity?
• When does the learner build community and how?

Dr. Carroll Rinehart

What can children create?  A better question is what can they not create.  The teachers at this particular center of Child-Parent Centers (Sunnyside Center), are to be congratulated for being superb guides and allowing the process of learning to flourish.

It's not the clay that makes this special.  It's how the learners were supported in using the clay.  Ask your children, "What are you interested in" and take it from there.

Cheers,
Enrique Feldman
Founder and Director of Education, F.A.M.E. Foundation
Co-Founder, Context Method®
Co-Founder with Corey Ferrugia of MyTown Music