Is 45 minutes too long for a 2-3 year old Mommy and me creative movement without a tap segment? I've always taught it either as 30 minute creative movement or 45 minute pre ballet/tap but my new studio wants to offer a 45 min creative movement but doesn't believe in tap this young?! I plan to do my basic preschool ballet class which is about 25 minutes worth of material(Sautees, frog hops, releve walk/run, chasses in a circle, plies, tendu, passe, 1st and 2nd position,arabesque, glissades) but I need creative movement exercises to fill time! I'm thinking Hokey Pokey, Head Shoulders Knees and toes, Happy and you know it, animal imitations (snake, crab, duck etc...), 5 little monkeys, ring around rosie with parachute, wheels on bus with hula hoops...????Any other ideas

I don't believe in tap that young either, and our creative movement classes for 3 and 4 year olds are 45 minutes. Trust me, the time flies. In addition to what you already do, we have "magic carpets" which really are just spots on the floor to keep them in one place. We do our beginning warm ups on these spots and we'll also pretend to fly to wherever their hearts desire. We make "peanut butter &jelly sandwiches" which is just a variation of the butterfly stretch. Turning normal stretches and steps into activities keeps their attention and lengthens the class.

I used to do 45 minute mommy and me and I couldn't fill the time or keep their attention...I changed it to 30 minutes and it's been much better

It can work but you're going to need a lot of material, games and props.

Do some simple song and dance stuff at the beginning for a few mins, then some activities to help develop gross motor skills, balance hand-eye coordination etc. In between the more "technical or challenging" exercises put in a quick, simple game, finish with free dancing with ribbons or scarves.

Will you incorporate tumbling at all? If not, I second tons of props and individual turns with skills across the floor. No shame in repeating a step either. It builds muscle memory and memorization skills (in case the parents ask why you are doing chasses so many times).

I just wrote this on another thread, but I use the tracks from the Relax Kids in my little ones classes. They are improvisational songs about Princesses, Swans, etc...Just be careful when downloading them. On one of their CD's, the track numbers do not match up with the song titles, so listen to the whole snipit. I forget what CD it was though...I think it was the one with the Disney Princess tracks. When I got the song, it listed as something and then it was something else when I listened to it. Read the comments with it in iTunes. They may list it for you if I recall...

Maybe you can take advantage of the upcoming Holiday season and teach a short Holiday song? Sooooo many cute ones for that age!! I do it every year and it is good for 8-10 minutes of class once we mark through it, do it with music and then add on a few more steps. Just something to think about...I ask the parents to bring in a video camera to the last class before the Holiday and we put on our "show". Grandparents are invited too and they love it. It is only a 5 minute show, but they eat it up!!

It is doable but you are going to need an arsenal of activities, games, and structure to survive it. You should go through some of the posts on here regarding creative movement classes to stockpile ideas!

I schedule mine for 40 minutes, but I have 30 minutes of content and spend some time giving the class stickers at the end...but I do have a tap section.

I don't do so much "ballet" either other than a stretch. We work on gross motor skills like jumping over cones, kicking tambourines, walking on tippy toes down lines of tape, playing with a parachute, etc.

I'm not one of those teachers that says "I have sooo much content I run out of time!" Their attention spans wane after 30 minutes, so I like to end when they are beginning to drift.

As mentioned above, peruse old posts and make a giant list of options.

Thanks everyone! I will stockpile a ton of songs and props and mix it up alot, and if 45 minutes doesn't work out then I'll shorten the class to 30. I plan to start with some fun things then switch into ballet mode for a little then return to fun. I'll let you know how it goes-1st class tomorrow!

I do 30 min of basic ballet and silly songs and 30 min of Acro. Seems to work great!

I can't do acro as I have no experience in that area-I was always a dancer and never a gymnast! Taught the first class today and it went well. Began with hokey pokey, ring around rosie, then transitioned to across floor, chasses, then center work with plies/tendu/1st position/echeppe's then moved back into "fun" music again with Wheels on Bus (hula hoops) for formation practice and some rhythm exercises etc. Ended with a special "Name is special" song. I easily filled the time slot and the kids didn't want to leave at the end!

AWESOME!! Glad it went well Keep up the good work

I teach a 2-3 yr old class and ours is 30 minutes and just with that i feel as if it is way to long for them. They are so little and all they want to do is Play. SOmetimes it is even hard for me to get them to do any ballet. Tap may be a bit much.. at my studio they have a tiny dancers class that is mix of ballet and tap that may be the best but they are 4-5.

For this age I teach a 1/2 hr. class, and it seems perfect... a song they just love to do is the Wiggle Song from Dragon Tales.

I also only teach 1/2 classes when they are 3 yrs. My classes are mostly creative movement, not to many skills yet. I do lots of action songs and imagination stuff while stretching. I also incorporate singing simple songs like twinkle twinkle and row your boat. Let them work in partners and try to get them to work in circles and follow the leader activities. I like to use bean bags and scarves at this age. They like to pretend to be things like animals complete with sound effects, fairies, butterflies,

I used to do a 1-hr mommy and me class (no tap) and had dance, songs, activities, crafts) in the time we were there. I changed off some of the activity and crafts, each lesson, and other things were the same each week. Because it was a change of pace, throughout, it was fine, so I do not see 45 minutes as too long.

I so feel your pain on this one! I wish mine was 30 minutes but it is 50 (yikes)! Bringing home a baby bumblebee is a great song for young ones they love it and may ask to do it once or twice. Have mom and kids do together and then just kids. Also make them go to sleep and wake up as any animal and have mommy try to guess what they are or vice versa. Hope this helps good luck

Thanks for all the help everyone!-I use baby bumblebee now for releve walks with scarves as wings, and Bee-i-ee-i-ee for releve runs. It really does seem to be going fine- but Janet I like your idea of sometimes throwing a craft in there. I taught at a Y once that had a skip and color class that was 20 minutes of dance and then they went upstairs for 10 minutes to do a craft.

I do 1 hour with 3 - 5 year olds and I do ballet and tap. We follow the same routine each week but vary up the songs and games we include. The routine is good because they know exactly where to go to start.

Ballet is always first. We start in a circle and do creative stretches. Once we stand up, we stay in our circle and do our plies, tendus, and passes. Then we do a dance game to warm up like the Hokey Pokey or Shakeable You (imagination movers). I will then try to get at least one ballet step in there...either chasses or enboitees. Some weeks they just won't do an organized step, and that's ok. Then we will play another dance game. This EASILY fills 30 minutes.

We take 5 minutes to change shoes. They do not leave the room for this.

Tap is their favorite actually. We do steps in 8's in our circle like taps, heels, and toes. We have begun shuffles otherwise. We always incorporate a marching exercise (which is great fun because they get to be loud with their feet) and this is usually w tamborines or follow the leader or we will make a train. We have a couple of standard tap dance games we do also from Barney and Sesame Street music.

This EASILY fills the other 25 minutes. I do have to admit, that they are tired at the end of their hour though.

It's funny to me that people think tap is inappropriate for little ones - because we have nothing but success with it...and all of our baby classes perform tap in the recital!

I really think the time depends on the dynmaics of the kids and adults in your class. Some mommy and me classes I have taught in the past had the parents very engaged. I gave them scarves as well as the kids, had them interact with their children, taught them games and activities they could do at home and it was a real fun learning experience for everyone. I have also taught classes where the vibe was that the parents where their to socialize and I was there to teach the kids. As you can imagine it was less fun, rewarding and it did not go longer then 30 min. I think it is great if you can have some open time at the end of class where the children can interact and the parents can socialize as well. YOu can leave props out and let them no the last 10 or 15 minutes is there time to explore. I don't think there is any right or wrong but works best for you and the people taking your class. Good luck. And let me know how it goes! All the best,
Stacey

I do a hula hoop game
Just like frezze dance but when they jump back in their hula hoop I tell them a word and see if they can show me if not I show them as soon as everyone shows me they can do it they can just out and we start the music again. This way they are still learning but having fun and you can do this to cover some time.

use props with the creative movement segment. that makes the class fun for the kids...things like rhythm sticks, scarves, parachutes...even at 2 and 3 can be used in a controlled way.

In my opinion, there is a big difference between a 2 year old and a 3 year old. We separate ours. We have a class just for 2 year olds (30 minutes) and 3-4 year old are separate. I don't think a 2 year old can handle longer than 30 minutes, but a 3 year old can.

I think 45 minutes is too long, but if that's what you are given...

I would recommend NOT doing things individually. 2 year olds have the most difficult time sitting still and waiting their turn.

While you might not do tumbling/acro, you could still do some VERY simple things with mats. Rolling on the mats, crab walks (maybe?) hoping over colors if the mat has different colors, assist them with somersaults, bear walks (walking on hands and feet), things like that. Large motor skill type things.

I always read a very short book at some point. We did lots of things in circles. TONS of props, scarves, balls, ect - but always used at the END of class. Take a good 5 or more minutes at the end to do a treat or stickers.

Hi

I don't think 45 minutes is too long, if you can break it up. I use props throughout, and stories, rather than exercises/steps and sems to work. I teach an hour age 2-3 mummy and me class, which is ballet ish, dance, creative- then at 3 or so they come to the drop off class, which is 45 minutes, then 60 minutes the following year.

If you can use lots of imagery and stories after a few weeks they get to know what comes next and I find they love answering questions relating to what they are doing. I also do a mum dance after we have finished with the spots at the beginning (20 mins or so) mainly so I can clear away the spots and get my pictures out for our story, but the children LOVE this and mum loves to twirl and dance with her daughter - and its so lovely to watch too!

Another thing they love is like an obstacle course, if you have the space, lines for jumping over, a tunnel for crawling through, soft balls to roll along, and a version of the egg and spoon race with a spatula and a bean bag lol

We also have puzzles/activities that last 5-10 minutes and stickers at the end for curtseys.

One thing I INSIST on is parents join in properly, and not sit and gossip on the sidelines LOL. The parents I currently have know the drill and if I'm honest they love coming to class - some of them even wear ballet shoes!

Sometimes the little ones get tired and lose focus, so I change tack and do a few action songs at the end, but if they are doing fine, we have just one song at the end before curtsey.

We had a class for that age that we called Rhythm and Dance. Some tap moves were in it but not with tap shoes. They did different creative stuff, learned about music and dance. Therefore, I think 45 minutes is not bad, as long as you keep them engaged.