Lesson Plan
Missoula Art Museum

Dance with Your Fingers, Draw with Your Toes

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Pair dancing, music, and art into one elementary lesson. Using the work of Henri Matisse and Rudy Autio as inspiration, kids spend a few days listening to music that fits the moods of various pieces of art, then work on their own...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Stuck Like Glue 4 - Wall Line Dance

For Teachers 4th - 12th
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...
Activity
Teaching Tolerance

Musical Movement Showcase

For Teachers K - 2nd
Young performing artists create a song or choreograph a dance to illustrate a theme in a text they are reading. Step-by-step directions are included.
Lesson Plan
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education

Dimension Dances

For Teachers 4th
Use dance to help learners conceptualize line segments, rays, lines, and planes. They choreograph dances that show dimensional space. Dancers start by pondering space, point, and lines as the teacher draws them in the air. Each...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Telling Stories Through Dance

For Teachers K - 2nd
Examine the movement of characters in the story, Caps for Sale. Using the text, pupils invent gestures and movements for some of the actions and major events. They practice retelling a story by using the movements they developed. They...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Character Traits in Fables

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Combining art, music, dance, and reading comprehension, this lesson is geared to reach all ability levels. After reading a variety of fables and discussing story elements and character traits, class members select a moral to use as the...
Lesson Plan
California Academy of Science

Kinesthetic Astronomy: Mars Opposition Dance

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Planet Dance

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars examine Anna Halprin's philosophies and choreography and perform one of her Planet Dances. They find a site that inspires them to create a dance based on the environment's design, levels, textures, and atmosphere.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Patterns in Dance and Math

For Teachers 4th - 6th
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...
Lesson Plan
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Nemours KidsHealth

Bike Safety: Grades 6-8

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Two activities teach tweens and teens about bike safety. After reading articles about bike safety, class members design tags with important safety reminders that can be attached to bikes. Groups then create a dance video that...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The 'Language of Dance'

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Learners choreograph dances. In this dance choreography lesson, students evaluate musical selections, then create a dance that capture the emotion of the music.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Self and General Space in Dance

For Teachers K - 5th
Students explore the different themes and strategies of dancing by performing in class.  In this physical education lesson, students practice moving specific joints and muscles as they train to perform a dance.  Students...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Weather Dance

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students study weather and focus on specific dance concepts. They are introduced to different ty es of clouds and how they are formed. Next, they study wind and why it occurs.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

March Madness

For Teachers 4th - 10th
Get those boys dancing! Here's a dance activity that is choreographed around the use of a basketball. Teach them this line dance and see how they do. Watch the provided video yourself, or better yet, use the video to teach this dance....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dance Sequences and Phrases

For Teachers 8th - 12th
A series of lessons about dance would be a great addition to your physical education class. Straightforward as well as creative, it teaches the basic skills of dance movement. A rubric helps guide the dancers to let them know what steps...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dancing the Colors of Birds

For Teachers Pre-K - K
Students explore colors through storytelling and dance. In this visual arts lesson, students view the painting "Bird and Cornstalk Rug" and identify three colors. Students express how the colors make them feel through the rhythm of...
Lesson Plan
PE Central

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with Dance

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Erin go bragh! Enliven your St. Patrick's Day celebration by teaching your class members some of the combinations found in traditional Irish step dancing.
Activity
Colorado State University

What Makes a Gas, a Greenhouse Gas?—The Carbon Dioxide Dance

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Investigate a heated topic in environmental science. Scholars team up to play the parts of gas molecules in the atmosphere. As the teacher moves about, acting as the electromagnetic wave, learners react as their molecules would to the...
Lesson Plan
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Smithsonian Institution

George Washington: A National Treasure

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Take a closer look at the life and presidency of George Washington with this great set of lesson plans and worksheets. The resource includes a timeline of the president's life and multiple opportunities for primary source and...
Lesson Plan
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education

Making Dances From Stories

For Teachers 4th
After reading a short story, learners will create dances that show homophones and verbs. Their dance sequences involve three verbs and transition movements in between each verb. Tip: Have the class dance out the sequence of events from...
Activity
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All for KIDZ

Giraffes Can’t Dance Concepts: Giraffes Can't Dance

For Teachers Pre-K - 6th Standards
Teach young children that with a little perseverance and the help of a good friend, anything is possible. This two-part lesson series based on the book Giraffe's Can't Dance starts with a shared reading about Gerald and...
Activity
Amani Project

Harmony Break! Finding Emotions With Music

For Parents 3rd - 8th
Gather the entire family (or class members) for a fun Harmony Break! A volunteer thinks of a color from their Mood Meter that they will express by singing, playing an instrument, or performing a dance. After the performance, the audience...
Activity
American Museum of Natural History

Make Your Own Mythic Mask or Puppet

For Students 6th - 12th
No need to wait until Halloween to create a mask. Young anthropologists get involved in the centuries-old tradition of mask and puppet making with the help of an engaging resource that shows them how to craft their own masks or puppets.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Scattered Square Dance

For Teachers K - 5th
Take a good, square look at this introductory square dancing lesson. 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 is on learning...