Fractions and Decimals

We decided to extend Halloween just a few more days this year. Mrs. Segura's students are working on awesome projects where the third grade students are opening a toy store, the fourth grade students are opening a donut shop, and the fifth grade students are planning a holiday party. This allows each of the grades to work with decimals when they deal with money and budget. In order to connect two ideas, I started our lesson with fractions and then tied it into decimals. Some of the concepts found in this lesson I got from Jana Shumway's Fraction Lesson.

I first assigned each student to either a witch, zombie, ghost, or werewolf group. Then I would yell out commands such as, "All the witches create a low shape." After the witches went to the middle and hit their low shape I would ask the class, "What fraction of the class is in a low shape?" and allowed the students to answer. We did this activity for a while as the fractions got increasingly harder. Then I switched places with a student and allowed them to decide what fraction of the class did what movement.

After the students got the hang of activity we went to the whiteboard to convert common fractions into their decimal form. I especially tried to emphasize the decimals that would relate to money like 1/4 = 0.25 which is equivalent to a quarter. After we converted a few fractions, we went back into the space and did the same activity we did with fractions, but this time the class had to answer me with the decimal value. The 5th graders did great with using the proper place values and saying 0.25 as twenty-five hundredths.

Then I gave each group a paper with a dance already choreographed for them. However, the choreography included both fractions and decimals such as, "0.25 of the dancers do sustained movement in a high level while 0.75 of the dancers collapse and roll to the side of the room." or "1/8 of the dancers freeze in a medium level shape while 7/8 form a low, twisted shape around the frozen dancers." Each paper had quite a few commands and I told them to memorize the dance. I was very impressed with the students memorization and the dance turned out wonderfully. I had never seen the students perform so quietly!

We then were able to talk about what other fractions and decimals we deal with in the world. We were able to connect with money, and the students figured out what fraction of their family was male or female. When we first started this lesson the third graders were not too thrilled to be doing math. However, once they began moving and were able to create their dance they were having fun, and I think they really enjoyed it. We'll see how they like doing a different lesson this week involving even more math!

Action shots of the student's choreography:

Mythology...What If?

With reflections approaching this school year, we decided to tie in reading literature standards with the reflections theme of "Within Reach." Reflections is a PTA Student Arts Awards that allows the students to explore their ideas while learning through the arts. We started this lesson by reviewing past dance qualities we have learned including locomotor movement and energy qualities. Then we experimented to see what we could combine. What if we did sustained skipping? What if we did a percussive gallop? The students were able to explore the different concepts in a new way.

Then we pulled out pieces of paper from two bowls, one containing the locomotor steps, and the other with energy qualities. The students had so much fun pulling out a piece of paper from each bowl and having to create that movement. In fifth grade we experimented how different adjectives might affect our movement. We played a game where two students would be given an adjective to perform their energy quality and locomotor movement in, and the others had to guess what adjective they were assigned. We could have played this game all class period!

Next, we read the Korean myth "The Ungrateful Tiger" and did specific movement for each of the characters found within the myth. After performing this small dance, we decided to change some aspects of the myth. For example, what if the ox in the myth had long, skinny legs instead of short, strong legs? What if the hare could not pick up its feet when it moved? What if the trees could see? We went through the poem like this and changed different aspects to show that if we have a creative imagination, anything can be within reach.

The students then split into groups where they pulled pieces of paper from the bowls and choreographed a dance using the movement they selected from the bowls. It was great to see the creativity of the students and how they combined the dance energy qualities with the locomotor movement. Then we were able to talk about all the different things we are capable of doing, and everything that is within our reach. We were also able to pick out the main theme, or lesson found within the myth.

These students blow me away with their creativity each week. I learn so much watching them create movement and choreograph with their classmates.

Students percussively walking through the room.     One student helps another jump while collapsing.

Students work together to create movement.

Jabberwocky

These students are amazing! For the past couple of weeks Mrs. Segura's students have been studying a specific poem or book. The 5th grade class has been studying Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" poem. We took two weeks to explore all of the different aspects of the poem through movement. I wanted the students to be able to critically think about the different characters found within the poem to see how they might act and move through space.

The first week we explored the 8 basic locomotor steps of walking, running, leaping, jumping, hopping, galloping, skipping and sliding as well as different body shapes including symmetrical/asymmetrical movement and using positive/negative space. We explored moving through the space with locomotor movement and then freezing in a shape that I called out. We then split into groups where I assigned them a character found within the poem. From the movement explored, they then had to create a dance representing how they thought that character might move. These 5th graders were brilliant and creative! Some associated the word they were assigned with a similar sounding animal. For example, one group was assigned "'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves." They associated "tove" with "toad" and performed a whole dance in low levels, hoping and jumping around the room and over each other.

Students exploring symmetrical movement

The next week we explored Bartinieff's Developmental Patterns of breath, tactile, core-distal, head-tail, upper-lower, body half, cross-lateral, and vestibular. After experimenting with these movements for a while, I associated each character found within the poem with a developmental pattern and assigned it to 2 or 3 students. They then were able to create their own dance only using the assigned developmental pattern. We also all had group choreography to do when different words were spoken.

Bandersnatch: Upper-Lower                                       As a class: Jabberwock: core-distal

Borogove: Vestibular                                                                     Tumtum Tree: Breath

Jubjub bird: Body Half                                                                   Blade: Cross-Lateral 

Rath: Tactile

Tove: Head-Tail

Then we put the choreography with the poem. As I read the poem, I would pause at each character and that group would perform their dance to the words. After the students became comfortable with the flow of the exercise, we spread out in the room, turned on music and were able to perform the poem as a dance all together without any words being spoken. It was amazing to see these students interpret the different characters while using the different developmental patterns. Each week I am blown away by their creativity and willingness to explore the movement.

These students pick up on movement and ideas very quickly. I have found it has made me want to move my lessons along at a faster pace than I usually would. However, I think it is good for them to experiment even more and allow them to really understand the movement being taught. Exploration is key in creative dance and even though I love watching them create and grasp the concepts, I want to make sure they can completely comprehend the movement and try doing it in different ways on different body parts.

Qualities of Movement

For our first class we decided to focus on some of the basic elements of dance. We explored the six energy qualities of movement which include sustain, suspend, swing and sway, collapse, vibrate and percussive movement.

Before we started dancing we explored what we thought the different words meant. We were then able to explore all six of the qualities on different body parts. Some of their favorite movements were collapsing our whole body and swaying our heads. Next, the students got into groups of four and started to explore flocking. Flocking is when the students stand in a diamond shape all facing the same direction. Three of the four follow the movement of the person in front. As the movement changes directions, the leader will change depending on who's in the front of the diamond shape.

Then each student found a partner. One partner chose two energy qualities they wanted to dance while the other got a piece of paper and pencil. The student who was observing drew what they saw their partner dancing. It was a lot of fun, and the students ended up with some cool drawings. Here are just a few of the students drawings. 

To end the lesson the students got in groups of 3 or 4 to choreograph their own dances including the energy qualities we explored during the lesson. They had to choose at least three different qualities to show their peers. After the performances the audience had to say which qualities they saw during the performance. The dances were so much fun to watch, and the students really got into it. One dance included a fun "hey!" to enhance the percussive movement they were exploring. 

This was such an great way to start off the semester. I was blown away by the creativity of these students and am excited to see them each week. 

Introduction

Hi, I am Mady Messer and I am excited to be an ArtsBridge Scholar this semester! I will be teaching Mrs. Segura's Gifted and Talented 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes at JR Smith Elementary School. I grew up dancing in my moms creative dance studio and recently have loved finding ways to implement curriculum into creative dance. I grew up competing in clogging and taking various dance classes including ballet, jazz, hip hop and lyrical. In college I was introduced into the world of contemporary dance and fell in love. I spent spring of 2017 traveling to elementary schools throughout Utah Valley with BYU's Kinnect Dance Company performing and teaching children creative dance lesson plans based on Utah's core curriculum.  I am excited to spend time with and have fun dancing with these students at JR Smith Elementary!