Lesson 2 - Body, Space, Pattern // Corps, Espace, Motif

Whole Class > Swing Warm-up

Ask students to swing to the left (arms reach sideways and across the body, opposite leg extends), swing to the right, swing back to the left, allow arms to swing overhead into a gallop and recover with a swing to the left, reverse, repeat. Use 8 counts to change places, find the person closest to you, repeat several times facing them. Prompt: Now, what words would you use to describe the shapes we were making with our bodies when we were doing our swinging warm-up?

Déclencheur : Maintenant, quels mots utilises-tu pour décrire les formes que nous avons faites avec nos corps lorsque nous nous sommes échauffés pour nous balancer ?

Record responses on the chalkboard/whiteboard.

Prompt: What other kinds of shapes might we make with our bodies? (e.g.: CURVED, STRAIGHT, TWISTED, BENDY, STRETCHED, ANGULAR, ETC…)

Déclencheur : Quels autres types de formes pourrions-nous faire avec notre corps ? (par exemple : courbé, droit, tordu, plié, étiré, anguleux, etc...) ?

Ask students to experiment with making these shapes with their bodies. Encourage them to use all of the body parts discussed and used in the previous lesson. Encourage them to move throughout general space. (See PDF #2) 

Assessment for Learning (AfL)

Side-coach and provide feedback as children are dancing
Providing feedback to other groups after their performance

Assessment as Learning (AaL)

Creation of success criteria for dance phrase
Individual and group self-assessment during creation of movement response using success criteria
Group discussion of the impact of adding the ABA form to dance phrase
Reflective journaling after performance

Differentiation (DI)

Students self-select the shapes they are able and interested in exploring. Those with limited voluntary movement will be able to participate fully in this way. For those with extremely limited voluntary movement, teachers may want to use or create a tool like the Simpson Board that will allow them to direct the movement of others. 

Anchor charts should be available for students to refer to during the lesson.

Quick Tip

Comments should focus on describing and highlighting students' efforts without passing judgment or suggesting that one response is better than another.

Link and Layer

Language: Oral communication,  journaling

Music: 3/4 time signature

Mathematics: ABA patterns

Visual Art: negative space 

Dance: general and personal space, body parts 

Whole Class > Shape Library

Ask students to spread out in the room, ensuring enough personal space to move. Instruct everyone to make a different curved shape while moving in general space. On a signal, call out a student's name and everyone borrows that dancer’s shape, trying to accurately imitate it. Repeat using different shaping words (e.g., straight, twisted, bendy, stretched, angular etc.)

Pairs > Sculptor and Clay

Invite half of the students to be sculptors while the other half will be lumps of modeling clay. Based on a shaping theme (curved, angular, etc.), the sculptors will dance around the clay lumps, stopping to mold them into shapes that follows the same theme. When the music stops, the sculptors will walk around the shape gallery looking at their (curvy, angular, twisted) creations. Switch roles so the clay will become sculptors and the sculptors will become clay.

Pairs > Puzzle Pieces 

Possible read-alouds to accompany this activity: The Missing Piece and the Big O by Shel Silverstein.

Ask students to find a partner and label themselves A and B. Explain that A will make a shape with lots of empty space between their body parts. This is called negative space. B will then make a shape that fits into A's shape, filling up some of the space, the way a puzzle piece would. Ask B's to stay frozen in their shape and A's to dance away and find another puzzle piece to fit themselves into. Repeat several times, alternating which partner stays frozen and which one moves around the space.

Small Group > Card Dance

Divide the students into small groups. Give each group a set of 4 cards, each with a drawing of a shape (this may be a closed or open shape, it will not be one of the traditional "geometric shapes", i.e. circle, square, rectangle, etc.) The students will then decide in which order they will place their shapes and will create group shapes with their bodies that correspond with each shape on the cards. 

Once students have had a chance to explore their shapes, co-create success criteria with the students so that they can self-assess and provide feedback. Have students present these shapes, with smooth transitions between each shape, to their peers and will receive feedback. This can be done either by pairing groups up and having them present to one another, or by having groups present one at a time to the class. Ask the students to then return to their groups and to choose one shape that they will repeat at the beginning and end of their shapes dance, thereby creating an ABA form. Groups will continue to work on their dance phrases, adjusting them to accommodate the ABA structure.

Small Group > Sharing Dance Pieces

Students will present their movement phrases a second time, both with and without ABA structure and will discuss, using the success criteria, how the phrase changed when they modified the structure.

Key Questions for Discussion:

Did using ABA structure make the piece more interesting/effective?
Can you think of other ways that we might use repetition to make dance pieces?  

L'utilisation de la structure ABA a-t-elle rendu la pièce plus intéressante/efficace ?  
Peux-tu imaginer d'autres façons d'utiliser la répétition pour créer des pièces de danse ?

Individual > Reflection

Students write a journal entry reflecting on their successes in this lesson and where they feel they can improve. Students can also reflect on how well they worked together with their group members.