Well it's been a while since I've been on these boards but I'm back!

I am teaching again this year and I'm teaching creative movement to ages 3-5. The problem is my studio just treats creative movement as beginners ballet. But I would rather teach what the title suggests .... creative movement. Any suggestions on cirriculum? It's only a 30 minute class.

How old are the children? Sometimes, because most people have not clue and want their little 3 yr old on pointe(lol) some ballet type steps have to be presented so the parents see the "ballet" component.

For instance, gallops with a curtsey at the end.
I do knee bends in parallel. But I'll have them open their feet very slightly to do plies. I say, make an umbrella for your toes, so the kids see to keep their knees over their toes.

I'll do first pos. arms, saying we've got to make some spaghetti. "more friends are coming over for dinner so let's make more spaghetti" then we open our arms to 2nd.

By throwing 'ballet' type of arms and such, you can blend creative movement of "let's go apple picking" reach up to the trees to pick some apples. Now bend over to put them in the basket. now we have to carry the basket to another tree, (have kids gallops holding a pretend basket) "let's jump over the apples (you can have cut out apple shapes) and have them do jumps (two feet), leaps (one foot to the other)

Heather

I do a lot of different things with my creative movement class! We always incorporate ballet concepts as well. We usually start with some fun stretches. I have all girls so we "Become Princesses!" by sitting in a circle with legs in a straddle, we open up our "jewelry boxes" and put on our pretty slippers by pretending to put shoes on (stretching to each side) we put on our necklaces and earrings (stretch head side to side). Each time, reaching to the center to get the things out of our pretend boxes. We stand up and put our dresses on (touch toes)-you get the idea! And then it just depends! Sometimes I read them a book with lots of movement words in it. I usually read it once with them sitting, and then they stand up and "dance it." We move like different animals or leaves or snow or something seasonally related. I have movement words on big cards and my kids do what the word says such as 'wiggle,' 'spin,' 'shake,' etc. We focus on elements of dance such as speed (fast,slow) levels or space (high, middle, low) energy/force (soft, forceful). We do silly dance contests too, which the kids love! We also work on ballet walks, skipping, gallops, balance, and feet/arm positions for ballet. We talk about ballet and sometimes practice plies and things, as the girls know that next year they will be in ballet. I think you can do both creative movement and ballet, by blending them together. I think there's a balance that (hopefully) everyone can be happy with. Hope this helps! Let us know how it goes!