Welcome to Dance Teacher Tidbits with your host Jessica Strong, the creative director & owner of Dance to Learn®
**This description contains Affiliate Links**

Teaching the Dance Concepts: Tempo
Tempo refers to the speed of which dancers move. While there are numerous tempos we start with the basic: Fast & Slow

How to Teach the Concept:

I love to include props when teaching about tempo! Some of my favorite props include:

🔴 Music Makers such as egg shakers, maracas, drums or jingle bells
🟠 Scarves! Scarves are a great way to play and explore tempo
🟡 Parachute! The parachute is a great prop for tempo exploration as you shake the parachute fast or slow!

Music! 

Finding the right music is important when teaching tempo! Some of our favorite songs for each prop are:

🟥 Egg Shakers: I know a Chicken by The Laurie Berkner Band 

🟧 Scarves:

Welcome to Dance Teacher Tidbits with your host Jessica Strong, the Creative Director and Owner of Dance to Learn®

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5 Eye-Tracking Exercises we should be incorporating into every preschool dance class!

Eye-Tracking is an important skill required for success in reading & writing. In the book Balanced & Barefoot by Angela Hanscom studies by therapists show that children today, in comparison to children from 30 years ago, are having more difficulty using the muscles of their eyes in unison which is required for scanning a room, locating an object & reading.

Dance provides children with the opportunity to improve eye-tracking & focus skills. These skills are required of more advanced movements such as pirouettes, fouettés or even judging how far the dancer is from the ground after a leap!

Here are 5 easy eye-tracking exercises we should be incorporating into every preschool dance class! It will help our students not only with reading & writing preparedness but also for those more advanced technical skills later in their dance training.

1️⃣ Seated Butterfly Stretch with Eye-Hand Connection. Sit in a butterfly stretch. I usually have my dancers pretend to be a bird. We fly following our wings with our eyes & head. Oh no! There’s a cloud! Duck under the cloud & sniff your toes!

2️⃣ Scarf Tracking. Give your dancers a visual to track with their eyes (I like scarves). I just do a simple wave the scarf up & down 3 times following the scarf with our hands & eyes. Then we do a turn focused on the scarf.

3️⃣ Bounces with Focused Direction Change! For super young kids, you may want to hang some pictures or foam shapes on the wall to give them something to focus on. As they stand parallel, hands on their hips. They do 2 bounces. Turn their head sharply to focus in one direction. Then jump for the rest of the body to change directions. This is a great introduction to spotting exercise.

4️⃣ Consecutive Twirls Changing Directions. The goal is to see how many times they can twirl without falling down. Start with a small number (3 twirls) as your session progresses see if you can make it up to 10! Incentivize it to discourage falling down as a lot of kids like to fall down for attention.

5️⃣ Popping Bubbles! The easiest & most fun! Incorporate popping bubbles in your free dance.

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Welcome to Dance Teacher Tidbits! I'm your host Jessica Strong, the Creative Director and Owner of Dance to Learn®!

**This Description includes Affiliate Links**

The first dance concept we explore is the concept of Action! A body in action vs a body in non Action commonly referred as Locomotion (Traveling) and Non-Locomotion (Stationary).

When teaching these concepts I try to use props to help my dancers visualize their own Action. For Locomotion I try to use Props that dancers Can travel down, through our around. Some props I’ve used:

🟥 Floor Tape 

🟧 Jump Ropes 

🟨 Tunnels 

🟩 Balance Beams (Pictured)

 🟦 Hula Hoops

🟪 Cones 

For Non-Locomotor (Stationary) Movements. I look to use props they can stop and balance, jump or twirl on or inside:

🟥 Poly Dots 

🟧 Balance Steps/Stones 

🟨 Hula Hoops 

🟩 Theme Shaped Foam Mats (Pictured)

How I taught the Dance Concept:

This week we did our Thankful Tree Lesson Plan 🌳

🌳Locomotion: Dancers tip tied up the tree trunk. Then chose a Branch to tip toe down.

🍁 Non-Locomotion: When they got to the leaf, they performed a First Position Plié on one and a Second Position Plié on the other.

🌳 Locomotion: They continued to walk up the tree.

🍁 Non-Locomotion: They got to pick up and throw leaves from 3 different hula hoops as they said what they were thankful for.

Get the Thankful Tree Lesson Plan:
https://learn.dancetolearnuniversity.com/courses/lesson-plan-thankful-tree-creative-dance

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Welcome to Dance Teacher Tidbits! I'm your host, Jessica Strong, the Creative Director and owner of Dance to Learn®!

**This description includes Affiliate Links**

Teaching the Dance Concepts: SPACE

Space is broken down into two general ideas:

🟥Self Space - I’m standing or sitting on a place or spot within Space

🟧 General Space - I’m traveling through or around the Space

To teach the idea of both spatial concepts I like to give my dancers spots they can stand or sit on in self space those could be:

🟥 Poly Dots 

🟧 Floor Tape 

🟨 Balance Stones 

🟩 Fun foam shapes like my Turkey Feathers

🟦 Hula Hoops 

You can also use props to indicate general space! Some of my favorites are:

🟥 Balance Beams! Especially build a beam brands that allow different pathways through or around space

 🟧 Tunnels

🟨 Floor Tape Pathways

🟩 Rows of Poly Dots or Balance Stones to jump across

Empty space is also great to explore general space and allowing dancers to move through the general space on their own!

Space Activity:

Place poly dots or balance stones around your room. Leave your general space empty. The dancers can move like different animals or bugs in general space. When the music stops they must find a poly dot or balance stones in their self-space and perform a balance on one or 2 legs. Say the concepts as you explain each new animal or insect for example:

“Now I would like you to fly like butterflies in general space. When the music stops find a spot in the room to balance in self space. That’s your flower. I want you to show me how your butterfly would sip nectar from the flower”

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Welcome to Dance Teacher Tidbits with your host Jessica Strong, the Creative Director and owner of Dance to Learn® 

Let’s Talk: Classroom Management!

A major change I made to my classroom years ago was to eliminate standing & waiting in line to go across the floor. When I was a new teacher, I would get frustrated that dancers would start running around the room as soon as the music played instead of waiting their turns to dance. It was a huge distraction & took so much time to get them refocused & back into a line. One day I decided to have them sit & wait their turn. It was a game changer.

To ensure this works for you:

🟥 Find a wall in your classroom that is free from distractions ie: no barre to hang on or mirror to touch.

🟧 Give each dancer a poly spot to sit on.

🟨 Give clear expectations of how they should sit to wait for their turn (criss cross applesauce spoons in the bowl).

🟩 For large classes, to avoid dancers sitting too long, consider multiple dancers going across the floor or completing an obstacle course at one time.

✨Magic Super Glue Game✨

Each dancer holds their hand out to get magic super glue from their teacher. They can pick what color super glue they want (rainbow sparkle is pretty popular). They rub the super glue on their hands, backs & bottoms & glue themselves to the wall & poly dot. Only the teacher can un-glue them when it’s their turn. If a dancer comes un-glued too soon it’s an easy reminder to say “oh no you ran out of magic super glue! You’d better get some more!

Having our dancers sit & wait for their turn to dance also teaches them some important social-emotional skills:

🟥Patience! We live in a world of instant gratification. It’s important to remind our little ones that sometimes they have to wait for their turn. Knowing how to wait is important for self-regulation.

🟧 More Focused. I’ve noticed my dancers have a better chance of following directions when expectations or combinations are demonstrated while they are sitting down, focused on the teacher rather than standing.

🟨 Fewer conflicts. When dancers stood in line, they were also more likely to touch other dancers, try to “cut” in line or would stand too close to someone even with a spot to stand on.

🗣 Do your dancers sit or stand for dancing across the floor? Join the discussion here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/preschooldanceteachersforum

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Welcome to Dance Teacher Tidbits with Jessica Strong, the Creative Director and Owner of Dance to Learn®.

One thing I strive for in my classes, is to be sure that my students are having fun while also following rules and being safe. So I have a lot of silly things I’ll say/do to help them exhibit appropriate behaviors throughout class.

When it’s time to watch Miss Jessica demonstrate going across the floor I want them to do a couple things:
🟥 First Sit Criss Cross Applesauce
🟧 Eyes on Me
🟨 Listening Ears On
🟩 Quiet Mouths

Here’s an example of how I “teach” these expectations in a fun way. Here’s what I did for Cinderella Week:
🟥 Let’s all sit on our dots. Take your big spoon mix it all up (butterfly stretch) what are we making today??? Criss Cross PUMPKIN sauce! (Kids sit criss cross)
🟧 Put on your binoculars and say “I see you Miss Jessica” (Hands over eyes like they are looking through binoculars)
🟨 Oh my goodness something is clogging up our ears! What could it be! PUMPKINS! Quick pull those pumpkins out of our ears!
🟩 Hold a finger in front of your mouth and say “Bibbidi Bobbidi Shhhhhhh”

Then I demonstrate the exercise and if someone forgets what they are doing I just repeat any one of these silly steps to remind them what they should be doing while Miss Jessica is demonstrating!

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Welcome to Dance Teacher Tidbits with your host Jessica Strong, the Creative Director and Owner of Dance to Learn®️! 

In the Dance to Learn®️ Program, we follow the BrainDance Warm Up. BrainDance is a whole Brain and Body warm up created by Dr Anne Green Gilbert that follows 8 patterns of movement we explore naturally from birth:

Those patterns include:

- Breath

- Tactile

- Head/Tail

- Core-Distal

- Upper/Lower

- Body-Side

- Cross Lateral

- Vestibular

The next Pattern in BrainDance is Head/Tail. This pattern is important to build the flexibility of our spine as well as create a pathway for brain-body connectivity. Our spine is our body’s central support structure that connects different parts of our musculoskeletal system. We must keep our spines strong and healthy to do simple everyday tasks including standing, sitting and walking. 

Having a healthy spine is important!

🟥The spine is the pathway from the brain to the rest of our body. Spinal exercises allow these messages to flow safely and easily by strengthening the brain-body connection.

🟧 Spinal flexibility allows our body to bend, twist, and reach more easily.

🟨 Spinal exercises can improve our posture. Poor posture can change the weight loading of our spine and interfere with our brain’s ability to communicate to all parts of our body.

Popular exercises for the head/tail pattern could be:

🟥Cat/Cow Stretch

🟧Head/Hip isolations both individually and together

🟨Downward Dog Stretch

🟩Sphinx

🟦Cobra/Child pose stretches

Here’s how we taught this pattern for our Pumpkin Pie BrainDance:

We made a bowl 🥣 with our legs by sitting in a butterfly stretch. We pretended to pour in our ingredients (reach hands up & look at hands). We then stretch forward towards our feet and pat the floor like we are filling up our bowl. Repeat 2-3 times. Next, remain seated in your butterfly stretch, and take your pretend spoon and mix up your ingredients. Rock your pelvis side to side as you mix with your hands circling. Repeat to the other direction.

Learn more about BrainDance by enrolling in our BrainDance Master Class on Demand:
https://learn.dancetolearnuniversity.com/courses/braindance-master-class

Learn more at our website:
https://www.dancetolearn.co
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Welcome to Dance Teacher Tidbits with Jessica Strong the Creative Director and Owner of Dance to Learn®️! 

In the Dance to Learn®️ Program, we follow the BrainDance Warm Up. BrainDance is a whole Brain and Body warm up created by Dr Anne Green Gilbert that follows 8 patterns of movement we explore naturally from birth:

Those patterns include:

- Breath

- Tactile

- Head/Tail

- Core-Distal

- Upper/Lower

- Body-Side

- Cross Lateral

- Vestibular

The second pattern in BrainDance is Tactile!

Developing our dancer’s tactile touch is important because many young children learn best through their sense of touch which is why the use of props & toys in early childhood dance classes is so important. Exploring Tactile experiences with just their fingertips is also important!

Did you know? Your fingertips are full of some of the most sensitive nerve endings in your body? These nerve endings help us feel vibrations & light touch. Understanding these sensations are important for determining if something is hot, cold, sharp or dull etc & can impact our reflexes when our sense of touch tells our brain something may be causing pain.

That’s why when teaching BrainDance, I try to focus on different tactile touch using our fingertips & hands (sometimes even our feet).

Some different types of touch we may explore:
🟥 Pats
🟧 Rubs
🟨 Tickles
🟩 Brushes
🟦 Squeezes
🟪 Gentle Pinches

We can perform these touches on our heads, faces, legs, arms, stomachs & backs. It’s important for our dancers to learn how these different tactile experiences feel to them so they can learn appropriate force to use when touching others. All the tactile experiences we explore with our own bodies, we can also explore with partners. If you have Dancers who struggle with partner or group activities (think of the kids who hold their friends hands too tight when making a circle, or the ones who push & pull in a chassé circle). Taking a pause to explore some tactile activities on their own bodies, may help them learn how to touch & dance with their friends appropriately.

Try this Tactile Activity:
Hug your legs, close your eyes. You’re a tiny seed. Your seed is dreaming about growing into a tall tree. Using soft pats, bury your seed in the dirt starting with your head, shoulders, tummies, knees & toes.
Hug your knees. Now think of rain clouds forming. Your seed now feels cold raindrops falling. Using tickle fingers, they fall on your head, your nose, shoulders, back, legs & toes.
Hug your knees. Now the seed feels the warm sun peeking out. Begin rubbing your face, your ears, your arms, & your legs.
Now your tree is ready to grow!

Learn more about BrainDance in our BrainDance Master class on Demand!
https://learn.dancetolearnuniversity.com/courses/braindance-master-class

Learn More by visiting:
www.dancetolearn.co
Follow us on Social Media:
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