Adverbs

Third Week!  

Today’s lesson was our first one for adverbs.  It went well!  The students already had exposure to adverbs so it was an easy jumping off point.  I also introduced the Brain Dance today and began class with those connectivity patterns – something I will do for the rest of my time there.  It helped us focus on movement and get ready to dance.      

The class was very well-behaved today.  They were very excited about picking the verbs and adverbs out of my bags and pairing them together to try interesting combinations like adventurously slicing, or quietly crawling or skipping upside-down (definitely a challenge for creative problem-solving!)  We all enjoyed the lesson, and they really grasped the concepts.

Things got a little hairy again during the time to create their own pieces.  I’ve come to the realization that I need to spend some real time on basic dance elements because they just don’t understand what I mean when I ask them to create a dance with their own movement.  Today their chosen movement was a lot clearer than last week, but they still weren’t sure about what they were doing and I called a lot of groups through the formula.  The students really just don’t have real exposure to “creative dance.”  I should have realized that before and been prepared for it, but this is my first experience starting at square one.  It would help the class understand where I am coming from and trying to guide them towards if they understood more vocabulary and more dance concepts.  Maybe one of these times I’ll bring in a video of some creative dance I’ve seen in other elementary schools to show them as well as tell them.  For the next few weeks, I will definitely concentrate on dance basics, maybe moving one at a time through the B.E.S.T. chart.  This will give them the tools they need to fully invest and explore.

Management went well this week, and I’m already thinking of things to do next week to help the class concentrate from the very beginning.  I’m excited about trying a class start in silence.  Stay tuned. :)

Favorite Moment of the Day:

·      Seeing students fully invest in adverbs like adventurously and scarily.  They loved them!  I saw a lot of creative choices – something I will continue to encourage!