Dance of Light
Year: 1-2 Session Time: 50 minutes
This lesson accompanies a Light Inquiry unit where the students will experience different learning experiences and experiments exploring natural light and artificial light. Natural light sources may be the sun, stars, moon, northern lights, ultra violet rays and items that have biofluorescence and bioluminescence, such as insects or plants. Student will become these light sources by utilising artificial light sources to accompany their dance or pretend that they are being influenced by these occurrences in the way they choose to move and dance.
Curriculum Connections
Explore and Express Idea: Use safe dance practice, fundamental locomotor and non-locomotor movements, body parts, bases and zones to explore, improvise and structure movement ideas for dance
Present and Perform: Use simple technical and expressive skills when presenting dance that communicates ideas about themselves and their world to an audience
Physical Science
Light and sound are produced by a range of sources and can be sensed
Planning and Conducting: Participate in guided investigations, including making observations using the senses, to explore and answer questions
Communicating: Represent and communicate observations and ideas about changes in objects and events in a variety of ways
High Impact Teaching Strategies utilised:
Setting Goals: The learning Intention and Success Criteria is introduced at the beginning of the lesson and is an important part of the overall Lesson Structure.
Lesson Structure: Start with setting goals, then there is a warm up, followed by Tuning in where the teacher provides a brief overview and Explicit teaching of the dance elements student will be exploring as well as the guiding story. The main lesson ending in cool down.
Feedback: The lesson concludes with recap and specific feedback is given to students, and is linked back to the original Success Criteria.
Differentiation: Student are all support to succeed. If there are specific adjustments that need such as some students thrive with choice and other students need explicit guidance.
Elements:
Space
Time
You will need:
The Space: A large space preferably with a curtain or material to block out light
Different kinds of light sources- flash lights, tea lights,
Material- scarfs, pieces of materials
Balls for planets or the moon
Rocks and sticks to make a fire
Spots made out of material, enough for every student,
A pinch of fearlessness and an active imagination
Warm-up:
Musical Statues- this is a popular well-known game designed to warm up the body and get students engaged. Introduce some of the movement that will be used in todays session. Imagine there is a bubble around your body as you through the space. Imagine you are an insect or a bird. How will you move?
Simon Says- The teacher passes out material spots and students take them around the room and find a safe spot where they will not be touching anyone and the spots are evenly spread out around the room. These spots will be used throughout the lesson as spaces to come back to. Then the teacher plays a version of Simon says with stretches.
Learning Intention: We are learning to movie our body to music.
Success Criteria:
- I can use the space and demonstrate different movement styles.
- My movement and dance matches the tempo of the music.
- I reflect on how my prior knowledge about the topic of light influenced how I moved my body.
- I can use a prop.
Tuning in:
Student sit on a carpet or designated gather space. The teachers introduce the props that will be used to today and tune the students in to the story that will play out through the dance. Then student will be in invited to look at today’s props.
Teacher: In todays lesson we will be using the knowledge we have acquired so far in our Light Inquiry.The story or dance takes place in a 24 hour period here on earth. Today’s dance will use artificial light to mimic natural light sources. The music has been selected to represent different parts of the day, (day time, dusk, night time and sun rise) What can we see in the day and then the night? What will you become? How will your dance demonstrate what you know?
Lesson Sequence
Song 1: Day time- excited movement, faster passed music, skipping, swaying, students may use a scarf or a piece of material to turn into a creature that comes out in the day- bird, insect, etc. Some st
When the song finishes everyone goes to the nearest spot. The teacher slowly closes the curtain. Some students will be invited to be invited to build a pretend camp fire with the sticks (This is a good job for reluctant dancers) and the rest will go to sleep as their spot darkens when the curtain closes. When the next song starts these students may choose a prop such as light for a star.
Song 2: Slower paced whimsical (students may choose a light and become stars, or other night-time creatures that light up) As you the students move around the class encourage them to maintain their bubble. Some student may roast marshmallow by the fire while others, dance around like shining stars How will the planets or moon move through the sky (slowly).
Song3: The night is alive. Faster passed. The night comes to life and student are encouraged to dance and move like glowing insects, maybe they are shooting star. Maybe they use a scarf over their light and shimmer like the southern lights.
As the music finishes, the sun comes up as the curtain closes the lights are all put back in the basket while everyone grabs a blanket and falls to sleep.?
Song 4: Sunrise: Good morning: slowly our friends rise as the light hits them. They may turn back into day time creatures or sleepy children.
Recap
Give specific feedback to some students connecting it back to the Learning Intention and Success Criteria, so it is specific and relevant.
- What happened in our dance story today?
- How did you move your body? (fast, slow, wavy)
- How did the different pieces of music influence how you moved?
- What were the different props you used?
Cool Down
Sitting in circle stretching our body head to toe then relax for 5 minutes. Getting our body and mind prepared for the rest of our day and calmly transition into the next lesson.
Assessment: Connect to the Success Criteria in the session is formative, taking note on how students moved to the different music, moments of stillness and how they utilised the props
Mindful Storytelling with Cathy Koman 