Circle Teacher Resources

A brightly-colored David Hockney landscape painting inspires poetry, dance, music, and paper sculpture in this multi-faceted activity. After brainstorming words inspired by the painting, the whole class collaborates on a cinquain poem,...

The upbeat song "I Like to Move It" from the movie Madagascar is just the ticket! Get your younsters up and moving. The basic steps in this dance are the grapevine, side step, squat, back step, jumps, jumping jacks, and marching in...

Dancers practice echoing through dance. They listen to a story "Flip and Flop" and then are put into pairs. One partner is Flip, while the other is Flop. Flip creates a shape by dancing, and Flop, the other student, echoes that shape by...

Oh, what a fun dance to learn! In this version of the Jarabe Tapatio (Mexican Hat Dance) which comes from Missouri State University, there are a lot of steps to learn along with finger snapping and hand clapping. While this is not...

Heel, toe, heel, toe, grapevine, stomp. Put some basic dance steps together and get moving. Teach this 32-count series to your class and when they've got the steps down add some music. "Stuck Like Glue" by Sugarland has a great beat and...

Learners explore colors through storytelling and dance. In this visual arts lesson, students view the painting "Bird and Cornstalk Rug" and identify three colors. Learners express how the colors make them feel through the rhythm of...

Take a good, square look at this introductory square dancing instructional activity. Each square dance move has what is termed a "call." Teach some beginning calls to your young dancers. They can be scattered around so that their focus...

This worksheet about "The Ritual Fire Dance" by Manuel de Falla, provides information on the musician, his music, and the dance. It includes 9 questions about the reading in addition to 5 questions about the instruments important in the...

This dance makes me want to just get up and start moving right now. This dance is done to the song "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins. The activity includes not only step-by-dance step instructions but also a video. There is a lot of movement...

Get those youngsters moving! The activities put together to music are every day warm-up exercises. Jogging in place, jumping jacks, arm circles, and toe touches are a few of the movements presented to get children moving. Teach them the...

Combine square dancing and a Swiss ball. There are quite a few square dance moves and how to do them while sitting on, or carrying a Swiss ball. Teach these square dance moves to the class. Then have them work together in small groups to...

High schoolers incorporate historical references into the modern circle dances.

Your class will watch as one child orbits the sun as Earth, while another orbits as Mars. If the timing is right, they will see the repetitive dance between the two planets and discover how often they are opposite from each other. For...

Considering including Juliet Marillier's young adult novel, Wildwood Dancing as part of your language arts curriculum? Check out an overview that examines some of the themes and issues presented by the novel. 

This line dance lesson involves the use of PE equipment. If you have yoga balls and rhythm sticks then take a look at this lesson. Of course there are other things that could be used instead of yoga balls. This is a 48-count dance...

Young scholars classify angles. In this angles lesson, students explore the characteristics of angles, triangles, quadrilaterals and circles. They identify polygons and sing a classifying angles song. Young scholars participate in a...

Teach this circle line dance to focus on locomotor skills and directions. Which way is clockwise and which way is counter clockwise? The steps in this dance are very basic: grapevine, sliding, hopping, jumping. Put these steps together...

Knee bends, jumping jacks, arm stretches, arm circles, and just jumping around are some of the moves used in this dance workout. Get those youngsters up and moving to the beat of "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves. It's all...

Third graders explore rhythm and quality of word and phrased to that of dance. They move to the rhythm of poetry.

Students analyze how repeated body movements and shapes can represent and extend patterns. In this pattern analysis lesson, students discuss patterns in dance, math, and everyday living. Students demonstrate a dance using a sequence of...

Day four of this dance lesson teaches the steps to a Mexican folk dance. It uses chunking and dance to aid them in memorizing the steps. Note: This lesson appears incomplete.

"Let's go surfin' now, everybody's learning how, come on and safari with me." One of the Beach Boys more famous songs that is bound to get your class up and moving. This dance has basic dance steps and the added dimension of using Lummi...

Teach and review elementary locomotor skills. Use "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis to get youngsters up and grooving to the beat! The dance steps are described in rich detail and you will have the class jumping, skipping,...

Here's a 32-count, get-up-and-move line dance done to "A Girl Like Me" by Rihanna. Move left, move right, step kick, clap, pivot and turn. These are some of the moves in this line dance. Make adjustment according to what you learners can...