I teach creative movement classes everyday and I need some fresh new ideas. I have never really taught creative movement and just having a hard time coming up with good ideas. Keep in mind they are mostly 3 year olds and have very short attention spans...Please Help!!

Thank you in advance!!

I like to use props. Tamborines to help learn beats, to be in a parade, to learn counting. Bean bags for balancing, coordination, identifying body parts and finding muscles, work with a class mate. Scarves for being fairies, butterflies, birds, coordination. Balls for coordination, balancing, learning the difference between hard and soft muscles.
I also like to act out a story each class. Going to the beach, zoo, at the park, what flies in the sky?. Do the movements to match what you see; beach - waves, clouds, sand, crabs, fish, birds, zoo - animals, habitats, people, weather. Park - everything from swings - slide.
I use shapes, we try to make the shapes with our bodies, together and alone.
Have a game to help them learn to listen: look at ______, touch____ , stand next to______ and so on.
We have a feelings parade. They have to act out different feelings with their face and bodies.
Just try to be as creative as you can. Take an idea like apple picking and think of all the different things you can do with that, from colors, smells, movements, weather and so on.
I don't do any dance steps with my C.M.'s, they don't go on stage.
They do learn skipping, galloping, hopping on 1 and 2 feet, chasses, ballet walks but it's always in a story line. Not corner to corner. It makes it so much more fun for them and for me.
Hope this helps. Tamra

Tamra
Thank you so much for your help. I cant wait to get into class on Monday and try some of your ideas. If you ever need an idea please let me know.

Thank you again,
Tisha

I just came home from an amazing creative movement workshop at the National Ballet School in Toronto. I learned so much. One idea that I thought that you might like was using cheap party streamers. Not only can you get them to move the streamers to certain sounds, but we did things like throwing them up and catching them on you nose or toes ect. I have other things but my brain is so full right now it is hard to put them down. I will try to post some more tomorrow.

I would love to hear more about the workshop in Toronto. Do they hold it every year? Where can I get more info.
Thanks!

This is the first time that I have been to this workshop. I am not sure if she comes every year or not but she has certainly been before. I found out about because the NBS sent out info to our studio about workshops. It is also on their website I think. Definetly worth your time. Not only did she give us some great new ideas for activities and such but she also touches on dealing with behaviours in class and how to deal with parents who expect there child to be dancing Swan Lake at the age of 4.

Well I promised ages ago that I would put a few more of the ideas from the workshop down so here we go.

I started my class yesterday talking about snowflakes (we had a lot of snow here yesterday). I had the kids sitting in a circle and read a poem I had found about snow and then building a snowman and it melting. We started by having each child show me how their snowflake would fall with their hands and then we all had to copy her. I had drawn a picture of a snowman and had put the poem on the same page so I then had them take a crayon and draw the pattern that their snowflake made.

We then stood up and pretened that we were snowflakes falling, we pretended to roll the snow into snowballs to make a snowman. We stretched up high to put his hat on and then the snow came out and we melted. I had some instruments to make noises for each movement so I had half of the class be the orchestra and half be the dancers. After the first group had done it we switched. At the end of the class they took their pictures home and were told to show someone at home how their snowflake fell.

This same idea can be playing in the leaves (Running and jumping, twirling ect.)

Another good one is singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat and doing bum slides across the floor. It is good for the abdominal muscles.

You could also do the chant were going on a lion hunt. Going through the grass and mud can be great movements.

There is more but maybe I will post more again sometime. I hope that this is usefull.

Thank you SOOOOOO much for all the great ideas. I am very excited to use them. I tried the streamers in my class today and they thought they were great! If you ever get any more ideas I would love to hear them. Thank you so much!!!!

i teach a creative movement class on saturdays and my kids love for me to set up obstacle courses for them.. I use a trampoline and a balance beam and a small scooter that you sit on and the big theraballs and some funny hats or props...of course you have to walk through it with them because they are young but they absolutely LOVE it. Also we play the picnic game where everyone sits in a circle and we take turns doing pretty ballet walks over to the corner and back to pick up their "food" for the picnic (sometimes we use a real picnic basket) then when they get back they have to tell everyone what they brought and then we all eat it. Or sometimes we play being animals. We always sing...mostly songs they already know but occasionally i teach them a new one. Hope that helps

I also learned that doing bum slides is great for little ones to develope their tummy's. We have been doing rowing a boat across the room or as it is winter taboganing. They really have fun with that. They race to the other side of the room. Also being rockets by blasting off from the wall.

One of the favorite activities for my three and four year old classes is "Mermaids." We talk about mermaids and how they don't have legs or feet but a tail. Then we lie on our backs and stick out "tails" up. We swim through the ocean lifing our tails over each wave. Then we land on the beach and sit up straight with tail to one side. Then we act out the following: wash faces in the water, comb our hair to get all the seaweed out, reach into the water to find some pearls to make a ring, a necklace and a bracelet, acting out putting each of those on. Then last we reach into the water and find a crown made of seashells and pearls. We all put on our crowns and then something magic happens. Our mermaids become humans and their tails turn into legs. we slowly stand up and I have them test out their new legs by shaking them out one by one. Then I ask them: can your mermaid stand in first position, can she plie, can she skip around the room, etc.? The kids absolutely beg to do this at each class.

I currently teach 14 creative movement classes a week and am also always looking for new ideas. I hope something here works for you: I use scarves as props and have the children pretend to be butterflies. I have them use the scarves as wings and "fly" around the room. We move according to the commands Fast, Slow and Stop.

We also play musical hoops, similar to musical chairs, except there aren't any losers. Each time the music stops, there is one less hoop and instead of someone being out, they share a hoop with someone else, until everyone is squished into one hoop.
Another game we play is freeze dance where everyone dances until the music goes off, at which time everyone has to freeze. If you are still moving you are out and get to help the teacher look for other children that are moving after the music is off. The winner gets a round of applause or a sticker.

Best of Luck! Kathy

Thank you everyone for your wonderful ideas! One of my favorites for 3 to 5 year olds is what I call "day & night sky" We stand in a circle and pretend to have two giant trunks in the middle. First trunk has a daytime sky in it (sun,clouds,blue sky,rainbow) we all open the trunk and take things out one at a time and put things into the sky. I have them splash blue on the ceiling for sky, throw up puffy clouds, carefully put up the sun because it is hot and bright, then we put on our sunglasses and put up the rainbow last (I pretend it is folded up and I need their help to stretch it out). Then we put everything back into the trunk in order (good for their memory)and shut the trunk lid. Same thing for the nightime sky, except we put up darkness,stars and a really heavy moon that we spend a few seconds carrying around the room on our shoulders. They really love this game and ask to play it often. Hope you enjoy it too!

i like that idea! i will have to try it, and it may not be to hard to really get some of those things to use as props, make them outta paper even! thanks, always looking for more to do with the little ones!

Wow.....gotta love all these ideas. So many creative teachers!

I have many favourite games.....but this game I have been using quite a lot lately.

The kitty Cat Game....We all pretend to be sleeping cats....as we awake we begin to stretch....I ask them different questions about cats....like what they say, what they drink and how many paws they have ect. We than wag our tail (our legs) and stretch our backs...than we see if we can get our tail to touch our head. We crawl on all fours and stretch out each leg and arm. I than ask them if they "heard that noise too" and tell them that I heard mice hiding all around the room.....I than give them pretend mouse catching bags....and we look inside to see what we find......I ask the children....I usually hear responses like "a flashlight" or "a piece of cheese"....than we creep around looking for mice using different movements...like fast or slow.....or creeping low to the ground....ect (I usually use the pink panther music for this)....than I call them to a circle and I ask each child how many mice they found....We than decide to be nice cats.....and not eat the mice......instead we dance with them(I usually use something up beat like the hamster dance ect)....after I let the children dance a bit.....I call out "ok let the mice go and we will catch them again next week"....

Cheers
Goldfinger's Girl