K-1 Grade Vocabulary Through Movement Lesson

Essential Question:How can you portray the words you hear with your ears in movement?

OBJECTIVES:

Cognitive: The main goal of this lesson is to make students aware of the many movement words in the book that I am reading and have them understand the vocabulary of these words by experiencing these words through movement.

Affective: As we played with the movement the goal was to be collaborative and support other students ideas with movement choices. This helps to build community in the classroom as well as bring some students out of their shells that are otherwise very quiet.

Social: What collaborative, cooperative and/or interpersonal skills are you advocating?

Artistic: From an artistic standpoint the students will practice their ability to move in the different levels high, medium low. They will also experiment with different types of movement; soft and light; sharp and jagged etc.

Lesson:

Part 1

Read the story Where, Oh Where, Is Santa Claus by Lisa Wheeler. Book- Where Oh Where, Is Santa Claus? by Lisa Wheeler

In this first read through, student are seated on the carpet. As students are exposed to the story, they naturally see opportunities to make gestures to compliment the story. They also are introduced the rhythmic pattern of the story. By the end of the first reading, students are all repeating the common line in the story “Where, oh where, is Santa Claus?” Students are also encouraged to use their hands and upper bodies to move as they are hearing the story.

In the second reading of the story, I read the book to the students as they walked around the room. They used their own creative movement to interpret what they heard with their ears. (As the reader, your job is to intentionally help them create the opposites that can be used in dance by the tone of your voice. i.e. I read ziggy, zaggy with a very sharp staccato voice. I also played with my voice going high and low, fast and slow.) Then we would all come together and chant “Where, oh where is Santa Claus?”

Part 2

Now that the students are all warmed up and moving, enjoying the freedom of the story and the experience, we move into the second objective of the lesson and create a dance based on the premise of the book.

We use the common phrase and actions of Where, Oh where is Santa Claus?

Going through the book allow students to choose certain phrases that they want to perform as a circle. (At this point , I am using the terms, high,, medium and low)

We added a tune and repeated each phrase 2 times and then followed it up with the chant “Where, oh where is Santa Claus.”

Common Core Standards:
Reading Standards for Literature-1,2,4,10.
California State Standards:

Language Arts

1.1       Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.
1.2       Follow words from left to right and from top to bottom on the printed page.
2.2       Use pictures and context to make predictions about story content.
2.3       Connect to life experiences the information and events in texts.
2.4       Retell familiar stories.
2.5       Ask and answer questions about essential elements of a text.

2.2       Recite short poems, rhymes, and songs.


Dance

1.1  Build the range and capacity to move in a variety of ways.

1.2  Development of Dance Vocabulary 
1.4 Perform simple movements in response to oral instructions (e.g., walk, turn, reach).

1.3  2.2 Respond to a variety of stimuli (e.g., sounds, words, songs, props, and images) with original movements.

1.4  .1 Explain basic features that distinguish one kind of dance from another (e.g., speed, force/energy use, costume, setting, music).

1.5  2.3 Create a short movement sequence with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
2.4 Create shapes and movements at low, middle, and high levels.

1.6  2.5 Imitate simple movement patterns.

1.7  2.7 Perform improvised movement ideas for peers.