Dance teachers have long acknowledged the power of dance to develop physical skills, promote creativity and develop children’s ideas about their place in the world. Learning through the body is intuitively part of how children play, as they jump, climb,
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Feedback about what children understand is central to teaching in the Primary dance classroom. In this article we explore why it is important and simple and practical ways of finding how children are experiencing the content of your dance lessons.
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Whether you’re a dance teacher, a classroom teacher teaching dance or a home schooling parent there are often circumstances that require you to teach outdoors. This may be a welcome change to the four walls of the classroom or learning
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Observation of dance needs to be carefully planned to have the best learning outcomes for children. Taking a few simple steps to structure a dance observation activity, can support the development of many important reflective skills. Having a list of
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Dance improvisation is creating movement without preparation. This spontaneous movement is an important part of using dance in the Primary classroom. The use of improvisation in dance is common practice. It is used in almost all genres of dance including
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One of the hardest things about teaching the Arts in Primary schools is balancing the ‘tried and true’ lesson plans with exploring something risky and new. As most teachers will attest to, the first time you do a lesson with
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In today’s ever changing world, teachers and students need to be able to adapt and change how they give and receive learning. The pandemic has shown us more than ever before that dance teachers in Primary schools are able to
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Dance has the potential to provide support for teaching sustainability as a cross curriculum priority. It offers thought-provoking ways for children to learn about ecological and human systems and creative ways to question their views about the natural world and
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Planning for creative dance for Kindergarten children it is often in two different forms. One is a ‘follow me’ kind of dance activity and the other is improvising movement to a theme or in response to a teacher-led narrative. Both
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The dance classroom is an incubator of creative thinking and artistic action taking. At it’s best, it nurtures students creatively and supports students’ personal energetic engagement in asking questions and finding answers to them. Safe dance practice is crucial to
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