1. Play the rain game. Seat students in a circle on the floor. Do not tell them what they will be doing. Wait until everyone is completely silent. Start by quietly tapping your fingertips together slowly. Signal to the students to do what you’re doing. Slowly increase the frequency and intensity of the finger tapping. Clap your whole hands together. Become louder. Move the clapping to floor slapping. Get as loud and “thunderous” as you can. Reverse the process slowly, returning to an occasional finger tap. (You have simulated a rainstorm starting with a few drops and moving into a downpour and then diminishing.) 2. Discuss student observations of the rain game. Ask students:
What did this remind you of?
What sense(s) did you use to experience this?
(If they are unable to guess rain, start the exercise again. This time, start with a few “real” raindrops falling into a bowl, and then move into the sensory activity.)
3. Discuss the importance of rain. Ask students:
Why do we need rain?
What would happen if it did not rain?
What other forms of weather provide water to the earth?
How is rain made?
4. Make rain. Bring water to a boil over a heat source. Once steam is rising (evaporating), place a plate with ice cubes over the rising steam. Ask students to observe what happens on the underside of the plate. (Condensation will form and droplets of water will begin to fall.) Explain to them that this is what happens with clouds to create rainfall. Show them the water cycle located under 'Resources in Reach'.
BUILD KNOWLEDGE
1. Read Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain. (Or show the PBS Reading Rainbow episodeBringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain.) Locate Kenya on a map. 2. Discuss and have students retell parts of the book. Ask students:
What kinds of animals live on Kapiti Plain?
Which animals are wild?
Which animals are domesticated? (the cattle)
Why is Ki-pat concerned about the cattle? (He and his people depend upon cattle for milk, meat, leather, etc.)
Did the bow and arrow make the rain come?
How do we know what the weather may be? (weather forecasters, looking at the sky, feeling it in our bodies, etc.)
How did the plain changes after the rains come?
How did Ki-pat feel about this?
(You may want to read the book again, this time assigning repetitive phrases to student groups to say at the appropriate times.) 3. Talk about “rain makers.” In Kapiti Plain, the rain maker was the bow and arrow. Share with students that some cultures dance to make the rain come. Others sing and chant. Some people pray to a rain god. And other cultures make “instruments” that sound like rain to encourage the rain to come. 4. Read and discuss “Where is the Rain?” Ask students:
What animals were mentioned in the poem?
Can ants really fly? (Yes, they can. They are present in the US as well as around the world. In the poem, they are a sign that it is going to rain.)
What animals do we sometimes watch to see if it is going to rain? (cows lying down – which really isn’t a good indicator!)
What senses are used in the poem?
5. Chant “Rain Song” in echo format. The teacher should say a phrase and have the students repeat it. Share the translation of the song with students. Introduce onomatopoeia (words that sound like the sound they represent). Explain that the African words – chapha and Gqum – are to sound like rain and thunder, respectively. Ask students to list examples of onomatopoeia. (There is an alphabetical listing on the onomatopoeia site. Look at the top of the web page: A-F. G-M, etc.)
APPLY
1. Introduce the rainstick. Show students where Chile is on the map. Explain to them that Chileans use rainsticks to encourage rain to fall. Show them your home-made rainstick. Tell them that real rainsticks are made from the cactus plant. (Show them a real rainstick if you’re lucky enough to have one or use our photos of rainsticks provided in the resource carousel.) 2. Make rainsticks. Rainsticks can be made a variety of ways. Here are directions to make a simple rainstick:
Recruit parent helpers, if possible!
Draw a spiral down the length of a cardboard tube, starting at one end of the tube and ending at the other. Do not follow the natural seam.
Along the spiral, insert straight pins or small nails. The length of the nails or pins should be slightly less than the diameter of the cardboard tube.
Cover the cardboard tube (and pin or nail heads) with contact paper.
Close off one end of the tube with cardboard or a cap. Seal it in place with clear packing tape.
Put dried beans, rice, and/or unpopped popcorn into the tube.
Holding your hand over the open end of the tube, listen for the rain. Add or remove dried materials, as necessary.
Seal the other end of the tube with cardboard/cap and tape.
Decorate the rainstick with paints and permanent markers, if desired.
REFLECT
1. Perform a rain poem . Read the rain poem you selected, encouraging students to respond to each line or phrase with the sound of their rainsticks. (Turn the rainsticks upside down and allow the rain to fall.) 2. Have each student write a short rain poem. Ask them to use their senses to capture the feeling of rain in 10 lines or less. (Depending on the age and writing ability of the child, this poem could be very short. You may want to use a writing prompt, such as “When it rains, I …”) 3. Have each student perform his or her poem. Add the instrumentation of the rainstick, where appropriate.
NATIONAL STANDARDS for DANCE
from 1994 link here Content Standard: 1: Identifying and demonstrating movement elements and skills in performing dance Content Standard: 2: Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and structures Content Standard: 3: Understanding dance as a way to create and communicate meaning Content Standard: 4: Applying and demonstrating critical and creative thinking skills in dance Content Standard: 5: Demonstrating and understanding dance in various cultures and historical periods Content Standard: 6: Making connections between dance and healthful living Content Standard: 7: Making connections between dance and other disciplines
Students create a sequence with a beginning, middle, and end, both with and without a rhythmic accompaniment; identify each of these parts of the sequence
Students improvise, create, and perform dances based on their own ideas and concepts from other sources
Students use improvisation to discover and invent movement and to solve movement problems
Students create a dance phrase, accurately repeat it, and then vary it (making changes in the time, space, and/or force/energy)
Students demonstrate the ability to work effectively alone and with a partner
Students demonstrate the following partner skills: copying, leading and following, mirroring
Dance Achievement Standard 3
Students observe and discuss how dance is different from other forms of human movement (such as sports, everyday gestures)
Students take an active role in a class discussion about interpretations of and reactions to a dance
Students present their own dances to peers and discuss their meanings with competence and confidence
Dance Achievement Standard 4
Students explore, discover, and realize multiple solutions to a given movement problem; choose their favorite solution and discuss the reasons for that choice
Students observe two dances and discuss how they are similar and different in terms of one of the elements of dance by observing body shapes, levels, pathways
Dance Achievement Standard 5
Students perform folk dances from various cultures with competence and confidence
Students learn and effectively share a dance from a resource in their own community; describe the cultural and/or historical context
Students accurately answer questions about dance in a particular culture and time period (for example: In colonial America, why and in what settings did people dance? What did the dances look like?)
Dance Achievement Standard Standard 6
Students identify at least three personal goals to improve themselves as dancers
Students explain how healthy practices (such as nutrition, safety) enhance their ability to dance, citing multiple examples
Dance Achievement Standard 7
Students create a dance project that reveals understanding of a concept or idea from another discipline (such as pattern in dance and science)
Students respond to a dance using another art form; explain the connections between the dance and their response to it (such as stating how their paintings reflect the dance they saw)
Dance of the Butterfly Lesson Plan
ENGAGE
1. Project the image of the monarch butterfly shown in the first slide in the ENGAGE section of the media player above. 2. Discuss the butterfly. Ask the students questions:
Have you ever seen a butterfly?
Have you ever seen a monarch butterfly, like this one?
How would you describe this monarch butterfly?
Using the Life Cycle Diagram, explain that some animals, like cats, are born small and get bigger, but keep just about the same shape. Others, like butterflies, grow through metamorphosis, a process of changing from one form to another. 3. Read Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillaraloud to the class, showing the illustrations. This book can usually be found in your public or school library. 4. Review the life cycle of the butterfly as described in the book: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly. Optionally, display the image of the four stages of the monarch butterfly life cycle. Discuss with the class that the book uses the word “cocoon,” when monarch butterflies actually have a chrysalis and not a cocoon. Read Eric Carle’s explanation to the class; it’ll help them remember the correct use of the terms. 5. If you like, share the images of each stage of the life Cycle (available in the Butterfly Life Stages slideshow above.) Remind students to use their skills of observation, just as scientists do. 6. Invite students to share comments, questions, and observations about what they see as you visit each screen. For example, you may explain vocabulary terms, such as the word “chrysalis,” which is the enclosing case or covering of a pupa; ask the students to describe some physical features; or ask questions about the colors they see. Encourage the class to make observations and ask questions, an important part of scientific learning.
BUILD KNOWLEDGE
1. Share information about the life of the monarch butterfly. Monarch butterflies are very unusual. They migrate, like birds. There are no other butterflies that do this. Butterflies don’t live as long as birds, so the butterflies that fly south for the winter are not the same butterflies that return to their homes as far north as Canada. 2. Watch the short video (in the BUILD tab above) about the life and travels of the Monarch Butterfly. As they watch the video, they should use their observation skills as they look for the stages of the life cycle, as well as how adult butterflies behave. 3. Tell students that like scientists, artists use their skills of observation and analysis. Many artists observe their natural surroundings and use what they see to give them ideas and inspiration for their pictures, dances and music. Artists also use their imaginations to take what they see and make it different from what it might seem to be. 4. Tell students they are going to create, or choreograph, a dance that gets its ideas, or tells the story of, the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly. To do this, they will need to think about the movements a Monarch butterfly makes throughout its life cycle. They will also need to know the basic building blocks, or elements of dance. 5. Introduce the basic elements of dance. Dance is a form of communication. It is an art form in which a dancer moves their body through space and time with energy. This can be broken down with simple demonstration by the teacher or a student volunteer, who can move as you explain Who? (the dancer) does what? (moves) where? (through space) when? (and time) how? (withenergy.) 6. Connect the movements of a Monarch butterfly to those of a dancer. Do butterflies “dance”? Tell students that there are specific things to look for in a dance. Dancers:
make patterns and shapes with the parts of their bodies.
perform specific actions or movements (either non-locomotor, like stretching, bending, shaking, or traveling (locomotor) movements, like sliding, skipping, crawling.)
change how they occupy and where they are in space, though changes in direction, size, levels, and their relationships to their environment or others.
act in time, whether metered (in beats or pulses, along with musical tempos, etc), in clock-time or in free-time, and in relationship to others (before, after, in unison, etc)
use varying qualities and types of energy-- sharp, smooth, sudden, flowing, tight, light, etc.
Here is a “cheat sheet” for discussing the qualities of the elements:
There are also many words that can be used to kick off butterfly movement-related brainstorming: gliding, pulsing, flowing, sailing, wiggling, still, squirming, etc.
7. Watch (or simply lead a discussion around) the individual videos of each of the stages of the Monarch’s metamorphosis: coming out of the egg; the walking caterpillar; emerging from the chrysalis; eating and gently flapping; flying from flower to flower.Encourage students to observe and use describing words for the movements they see, as well as use their imaginations to “fill in the blanks” of what they might not have seen. Remind them they will be using the movements of the butterfly as the basis of their own dance expressing the life cycle of the butterfly.
APPLY
1.Refocus by telling students they will work together in small groups to create, orchoreograph, a dance focusing on the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly. Students will use the information they’ve learned to develop their dances. 2. Have students brainstorm ideas about how to create a butterfly dance. Remind them that dance is a form of communication, and that they will express the life cycle stages of the monarch butterfly in their dances. Using the questions below, brainstorm ideas about how each stage of the life cycle might be expressed:
Is the Monarch moving or still? (eggs are still, caterpillars move, the chrysalis is still until it’s time for the butterfly to emerge, the butterfly moves)
Will your dance be fast or slow?
Will it change levels-- be close to the ground, at “regular” height, or have jumps to take it to the air?
Will you sit? If you sit, will you be low to the ground, or stretch your body to the sky?
How will you move? Will you spin? Will you wiggle?
What will your arms do? How will you move your head?
Will the dancers in your group all do the same things, or different things?
Will each member of the group dance all the lifecycle stages?
When will different things happen?
3. Give each group a copy of the How to Create Your Dance handout to use to record their dance. Optionally, display the slide as they work to help keep them on track. Encourage students to experiment with different kinds of movements that could show the four stages of the butterfly’s life cycle. (Remember to explicitly tell students your expectations for behavior, whether they can move from their desks as they brainstorm, etc.) Tell students that each segment should be about 20-60 seconds long. Once students have tried out a variety of options, they should write their favorites on their handouts. Walk around the groups as they are trying out different steps and movements, assisting as needed. 4. Share and review the ways each group’s dance will be assessed. Review each of the rubric’s elements so that students understand how they will be assessed, individually and as a group. 5. Give students time to plan and rehearse their dances.
REFLECT
1. Allow time for each group to present its dance to the class. Invite the class to provide positive comments and suggestions. 2. Stage a performance of the students’ dances. Invite others in the school and community to view the students’ performances. 3. Discuss the process of working together as a class. This lesson requires lots of collaboration. Discuss with students the things that worked and the things that need work in their collaborative process.Compile a class list of suggestions for how to work effectively together on a collaborative project. Post this list as a shared classroom resource.
Math and Music
ELS and Music
PA Music Standards
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
Making it Rain
ENGAGE
1. Play the rain game. Seat students in a circle on the floor. Do not tell them what they will be doing. Wait until everyone is completely silent. Start by quietly tapping your fingertips together slowly. Signal to the students to do what you’re doing. Slowly increase the frequency and intensity of the finger tapping. Clap your whole hands together. Become louder. Move the clapping to floor slapping. Get as loud and “thunderous” as you can. Reverse the process slowly, returning to an occasional finger tap. (You have simulated a rainstorm starting with a few drops and moving into a downpour and then diminishing.)2. Discuss student observations of the rain game. Ask students:
- What did this remind you of?
- What sense(s) did you use to experience this?
- (If they are unable to guess rain, start the exercise again. This time, start with a few “real” raindrops falling into a bowl, and then move into the sensory activity.)
3. Discuss the importance of rain. Ask students:- Why do we need rain?
- What would happen if it did not rain?
- What other forms of weather provide water to the earth?
- How is rain made?
4. Make rain. Bring water to a boil over a heat source. Once steam is rising (evaporating), place a plate with ice cubes over the rising steam. Ask students to observe what happens on the underside of the plate. (Condensation will form and droplets of water will begin to fall.) Explain to them that this is what happens with clouds to create rainfall. Show them the water cycle located under 'Resources in Reach'.BUILD KNOWLEDGE
1. Read Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain. (Or show the PBS Reading Rainbow episodeBringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain.) Locate Kenya on a map.2. Discuss and have students retell parts of the book. Ask students:
- What kinds of animals live on Kapiti Plain?
- Which animals are wild?
- Which animals are domesticated? (the cattle)
- Why is Ki-pat concerned about the cattle? (He and his people depend upon cattle for milk, meat, leather, etc.)
- Did the bow and arrow make the rain come?
- How do we know what the weather may be? (weather forecasters, looking at the sky, feeling it in our bodies, etc.)
- How did the plain changes after the rains come?
- How did Ki-pat feel about this?
(You may want to read the book again, this time assigning repetitive phrases to student groups to say at the appropriate times.)3. Talk about “rain makers.” In Kapiti Plain, the rain maker was the bow and arrow. Share with students that some cultures dance to make the rain come. Others sing and chant. Some people pray to a rain god. And other cultures make “instruments” that sound like rain to encourage the rain to come.
4. Read and discuss “Where is the Rain?” Ask students:
- What animals were mentioned in the poem?
- Can ants really fly? (Yes, they can. They are present in the US as well as around the world. In the poem, they are a sign that it is going to rain.)
- What animals do we sometimes watch to see if it is going to rain? (cows lying down – which really isn’t a good indicator!)
- What senses are used in the poem?
5. Chant “Rain Song” in echo format. The teacher should say a phrase and have the students repeat it. Share the translation of the song with students. Introduce onomatopoeia (words that sound like the sound they represent). Explain that the African words – chapha and Gqum – are to sound like rain and thunder, respectively. Ask students to list examples of onomatopoeia. (There is an alphabetical listing on the onomatopoeia site. Look at the top of the web page: A-F. G-M, etc.)APPLY
1. Introduce the rainstick. Show students where Chile is on the map. Explain to them that Chileans use rainsticks to encourage rain to fall. Show them your home-made rainstick. Tell them that real rainsticks are made from the cactus plant. (Show them a real rainstick if you’re lucky enough to have one or use our photos of rainsticks provided in the resource carousel.)2. Make rainsticks. Rainsticks can be made a variety of ways. Here are directions to make a simple rainstick:
REFLECT
1. Perform a rain poem . Read the rain poem you selected, encouraging students to respond to each line or phrase with the sound of their rainsticks. (Turn the rainsticks upside down and allow the rain to fall.)2. Have each student write a short rain poem. Ask them to use their senses to capture the feeling of rain in 10 lines or less. (Depending on the age and writing ability of the child, this poem could be very short. You may want to use a writing prompt, such as “When it rains, I …”)
3. Have each student perform his or her poem. Add the instrumentation of the rainstick, where appropriate.
NATIONAL STANDARDS for DANCE
from 1994 link hereContent Standard: 1: Identifying and demonstrating movement elements and skills in performing dance
Content Standard: 2: Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and structures
Content Standard: 3: Understanding dance as a way to create and communicate meaning
Content Standard: 4: Applying and demonstrating critical and creative thinking skills in dance
Content Standard: 5: Demonstrating and understanding dance in various cultures and historical periods
Content Standard: 6: Making connections between dance and healthful living
Content Standard: 7: Making connections between dance and other disciplines
Artsedge Dance Standards K-4
Dance Achievement Standard 2===- Students create a sequence with a beginning, middle, and end, both with and without a rhythmic accompaniment; identify each of these parts of the sequence
- Students improvise, create, and perform dances based on their own ideas and concepts from other sources
- Students use improvisation to discover and invent movement and to solve movement problems
- Students create a dance phrase, accurately repeat it, and then vary it (making changes in the time, space, and/or force/energy)
- Students demonstrate the ability to work effectively alone and with a partner
- Students demonstrate the following partner skills: copying, leading and following, mirroring
- Students observe and discuss how dance is different from other forms of human movement (such as sports, everyday gestures)
- Students take an active role in a class discussion about interpretations of and reactions to a dance
- Students present their own dances to peers and discuss their meanings with competence and confidence
- Students explore, discover, and realize multiple solutions to a given movement problem; choose their favorite solution and discuss the reasons for that choice
- Students observe two dances and discuss how they are similar and different in terms of one of the elements of dance by observing body shapes, levels, pathways
- Students perform folk dances from various cultures with competence and confidence
- Students learn and effectively share a dance from a resource in their own community; describe the cultural and/or historical context
- Students accurately answer questions about dance in a particular culture and time period (for example: In colonial America, why and in what settings did people dance? What did the dances look like?)
- Students identify at least three personal goals to improve themselves as dancers
- Students explain how healthy practices (such as nutrition, safety) enhance their ability to dance, citing multiple examples
- Students create a dance project that reveals understanding of a concept or idea from another discipline (such as pattern in dance and science)
- Students respond to a dance using another art form; explain the connections between the dance and their response to it (such as stating how their paintings reflect the dance they saw)
- make patterns and shapes with the parts of their bodies.
- perform specific actions or movements (either non-locomotor, like stretching, bending, shaking, or traveling (locomotor) movements, like sliding, skipping, crawling.)
- change how they occupy and where they are in space, though changes in direction, size, levels, and their relationships to their environment or others.
- act in time, whether metered (in beats or pulses, along with musical tempos, etc), in clock-time or in free-time, and in relationship to others (before, after, in unison, etc)
- use varying qualities and types of energy-- sharp, smooth, sudden, flowing, tight, light, etc.
Dance Achievement Standard 3
Dance Achievement Standard 4
Dance Achievement Standard 5
Dance Achievement Standard Standard 6
Dance Achievement Standard 7
Dance of the Butterfly Lesson Plan
ENGAGE
1. Project the image of the monarch butterfly shown in the first slide in the ENGAGE section of the media player above.2. Discuss the butterfly. Ask the students questions:
- Have you ever seen a butterfly?
- Have you ever seen a monarch butterfly, like this one?
- How would you describe this monarch butterfly?
Using the Life Cycle Diagram, explain that some animals, like cats, are born small and get bigger, but keep just about the same shape. Others, like butterflies, grow through metamorphosis, a process of changing from one form to another.3. Read Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillaraloud to the class, showing the illustrations. This book can usually be found in your public or school library.
4. Review the life cycle of the butterfly as described in the book: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly. Optionally, display the image of the four stages of the monarch butterfly life cycle. Discuss with the class that the book uses the word “cocoon,” when monarch butterflies actually have a chrysalis and not a cocoon. Read Eric Carle’s explanation to the class; it’ll help them remember the correct use of the terms.
5. If you like, share the images of each stage of the life Cycle (available in the Butterfly Life Stages slideshow above.) Remind students to use their skills of observation, just as scientists do.
6. Invite students to share comments, questions, and observations about what they see as you visit each screen. For example, you may explain vocabulary terms, such as the word “chrysalis,” which is the enclosing case or covering of a pupa; ask the students to describe some physical features; or ask questions about the colors they see. Encourage the class to make observations and ask questions, an important part of scientific learning.
BUILD KNOWLEDGE
1. Share information about the life of the monarch butterfly. Monarch butterflies are very unusual. They migrate, like birds. There are no other butterflies that do this. Butterflies don’t live as long as birds, so the butterflies that fly south for the winter are not the same butterflies that return to their homes as far north as Canada.2. Watch the short video (in the BUILD tab above) about the life and travels of the Monarch Butterfly. As they watch the video, they should use their observation skills as they look for the stages of the life cycle, as well as how adult butterflies behave.
3. Tell students that like scientists, artists use their skills of observation and analysis. Many artists observe their natural surroundings and use what they see to give them ideas and inspiration for their pictures, dances and music. Artists also use their imaginations to take what they see and make it different from what it might seem to be.
4. Tell students they are going to create, or choreograph, a dance that gets its ideas, or tells the story of, the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly. To do this, they will need to think about the movements a Monarch butterfly makes throughout its life cycle. They will also need to know the basic building blocks, or elements of dance.
5. Introduce the basic elements of dance. Dance is a form of communication. It is an art form in which a dancer moves their body through space and time with energy. This can be broken down with simple demonstration by the teacher or a student volunteer, who can move as you explain Who? (the dancer) does what? (moves) where? (through space) when? (and time) how? (withenergy.)
6. Connect the movements of a Monarch butterfly to those of a dancer. Do butterflies “dance”? Tell students that there are specific things to look for in a dance.
Dancers:
Here is a “cheat sheet” for discussing the qualities of the elements:
- Size: large/small narrow/wide
- Level: high / medium / low
- Direction: forward/backward, sideways, diagonal, right/left
- Pathway: curved, straight, zig-zag random
- Relationships: in front/beside/behind over/under alone/connected near/far
- Time: fast, slow, random, in-time; before/after/together
- Energy: quick, slow,
There are also many words that can be used to kick off butterfly movement-related brainstorming: gliding, pulsing, flowing, sailing, wiggling, still, squirming, etc.7. Watch (or simply lead a discussion around) the individual videos of each of the stages of the Monarch’s metamorphosis: coming out of the egg; the walking caterpillar; emerging from the chrysalis; eating and gently flapping; flying from flower to flower.Encourage students to observe and use describing words for the movements they see, as well as use their imaginations to “fill in the blanks” of what they might not have seen. Remind them they will be using the movements of the butterfly as the basis of their own dance expressing the life cycle of the butterfly.
APPLY
1. Refocus by telling students they will work together in small groups to create, orchoreograph, a dance focusing on the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly. Students will use the information they’ve learned to develop their dances.2. Have students brainstorm ideas about how to create a butterfly dance. Remind them that dance is a form of communication, and that they will express the life cycle stages of the monarch butterfly in their dances.
Using the questions below, brainstorm ideas about how each stage of the life cycle might be expressed:
- Is the Monarch moving or still? (eggs are still, caterpillars move, the chrysalis is still until it’s time for the butterfly to emerge, the butterfly moves)
- Will your dance be fast or slow?
- Will it change levels-- be close to the ground, at “regular” height, or have jumps to take it to the air?
- Will you sit? If you sit, will you be low to the ground, or stretch your body to the sky?
- How will you move? Will you spin? Will you wiggle?
- What will your arms do? How will you move your head?
- Will the dancers in your group all do the same things, or different things?
- Will each member of the group dance all the lifecycle stages?
- When will different things happen?
3. Give each group a copy of the How to Create Your Dance handout to use to record their dance. Optionally, display the slide as they work to help keep them on track. Encourage students to experiment with different kinds of movements that could show the four stages of the butterfly’s life cycle. (Remember to explicitly tell students your expectations for behavior, whether they can move from their desks as they brainstorm, etc.) Tell students that each segment should be about 20-60 seconds long. Once students have tried out a variety of options, they should write their favorites on their handouts. Walk around the groups as they are trying out different steps and movements, assisting as needed.4. Share and review the ways each group’s dance will be assessed. Review each of the rubric’s elements so that students understand how they will be assessed, individually and as a group.
5. Give students time to plan and rehearse their dances.
REFLECT
1. Allow time for each group to present its dance to the class. Invite the class to provide positive comments and suggestions.2. Stage a performance of the students’ dances. Invite others in the school and community to view the students’ performances.
3. Discuss the process of working together as a class. This lesson requires lots of collaboration. Discuss with students the things that worked and the things that need work in their collaborative process.Compile a class list of suggestions for how to work effectively together on a collaborative project. Post this list as a shared classroom resource.
Source:
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons/grade-k-2/Butterfly_Dance#Instruction