Blowing On the Wind

Ok, I'm sharing today.

I am working on a Lesson Plan for Pre-K. If you have a moment, please read it and send me your thoughtful feedback.

Lesson Plan #1

PRE-K

Goals/Objectives:

1.      To introduce the idea of creative movement.

2.     To practice self-expression.

3.     To practice following instructions.

4.     To build ensemble and community.

5.     To assess student’s ability to listen, play, move and interact safely in the space.

Outcomes:

After participating in this session, students will:

·      Be more able to use their imaginations, voices and bodies to express emotion, meaning, action and narrative. Students will demonstrate understanding by responding to verbal and physical cues from the TA. Further, they will respond to narration, acting out parts of a story as they are suggested by the TA.

·      Understand more about how character and movement are related. They will demonstrate this understanding by pretending to be a seed blowing on the wind.

·      Understand more about story and narrative. Students will demonstrate understanding by being able to retell and/or recall details about the story they have acted out together during the session.

Materials:

·      A big sheet of chart paper or brown butcher-block paper.

·      “Seeds” – Oval shapes cut out of colored paper. Enough for each student to have.

·      Glue sticks. These are to stick the Seeds on to the chart paper.

·      Handy wipes or some rags. These are to clean the floor and our hands.

·      Instruments: Clavé, or a drum.

Music: Three to Get Ready by Dave Brubeck. From the album Time Out, or something similarly bouncy.

OPENING  (10-15 Minutes)

Hello Room!

·      Warm-up.

·      TA asks students “Can you please take off your shoes and come sit in a circle?”

·      TA asks “Have you ever been in this room before?”

·      TA asks  “What is this room called? What is it used for? What do you think or expect that we will be doing together in this room?”

·      TA explains the ideal of a movement space “’This will be the place that we do something called creative movement work together. We’ll use move in this space to show how we feel and we’ll tell stories using our bodies in this space.”

·      TA takes questions and then states “OK, let’s clean this floor together. This is our creative movement space, so let’s keep it clean.”

·      Each child gets a handy wipe or a rag.

·      TA and children “clean” the floor together.  TA offers various verbs and qualifiers while modeling movements. “Push the cloth. Pull the cloth. Rub. Scrub. Sweep. Make big movements. Make small movements. Big circles. Small circles. Can you go fast? Go slow. Can you go back and forth? Use your arms. Use your feet. Can you use your elbows?”

·      When the floor is declared clean, the TA states “Now that our movement space is clean, let’s scoot across the floor. Let’s roll around the floor. Let’s all come together in the center of the space. Let’s all move far apart. Let’s all freeze and stay very still. When I say freeze you will not move a muscle, but be very still. ” Note: Model, label and give a concrete example for each verb and instruction. Make the connection.

Hello Children!

·      Choreography.

·      Seated circle. Name Game A: Cued by drumbeat; each child is invited to stand up and say their name out loud.

Hello Friends!

·      Self-Expression/Interpretation

·      Name Game B: Each child gets to hold the instrument. “Hit it and say your name on the syllables. MI-CHAEL!”

·      Name Game C: Each child gets to cross the circle on the drumbeat. “I’ll hit the drum, point to you and you can move across the circle in any way you like. Fast. Slow. Moving your arms. However you like. OK? Who wants to try first?”

STARTER ACTIVITY (5 MIN)

Character of the day

·      TA introduces the character of the day. THE SEED.

·      Students view a photo or a real example of THE SEED.

·      Led by the TA, students discuss THE SEED. “What do you see? What do you think? What do you feel? What do you wonder? Why do you say that?

·      Music.

·      Choreography: “This is rehearsal. Follow me!”

·      THE SEED starts small and opens up. “Do as I do!”

·      THE SEED starts big and gets small.  “Copy me!”

·      THE SEED moves as if the wind is blowing it across the room. “Move to your left! This way! Move to your right! This way!”

MAIN ACTIVITY (10 MIN)

In the Garden

·      TA working in-role as the gardener narrates a story: “One day in the garden, I was planting seeds. I dug a hole for each seed./Cave un augjero por cada semilla.”

·      The Gardener plants all the seeds one by one. Tapping each child on the shoulder. “Hello seed!”

·      “I was just about to put the dirt on top of them, to cover them up, when a great wind arose from the East and blew them all away. I rushed to catch them in my hand, but alas I could not”

·      TA out of role asks the students “What would happen if the wind blows all the seeds? What would that look like?”

·      Students offer suggestions about what a seed floating on the wind might look like. TA encourages them to “Show us! Use your whole body to show us what a seed floating on the wind might look like!”

·      TA asks students “Shall we pretend to be seeds floating on the wind? Shall we continue our story? Let’s try and see what it feels like and what it looks like to be blown around like a seed on the wind. I will pretend to be THE GREAT WIND. You all pretend to be seeds and follow my voice and the motion of my hand. Move in the direction I am pointing. OK. Shall we try?!”

·      Music.

·      TA in-role as THE GREAT uses voice and gesture to encourage students to move across the room as if they were seeds blown on the wind. “I am THE GREAT WIND! Wherever I blow, the seeds will follow. First I sweep into the garden and I blow all the seeds to the East! Then I blow all the seeds to the West!”

·      After a few runs at this game, the TA comes out of role and asks the children to freeze.

·      TA might sit half the group down to watch the other half pretending to be seeds. Then we can talk about Audience/Performer.

·      To close this section, TA in-role as THE GARDENER narrates, “The Great Wind blew all the seeds this way. The wind blew all the seeds that way! Finally, the wind stopped. I swept all the seeds up into a pile and replanted them, one by one.”

·      All the students are gathered close together, seated in the center of the room.    
·      With a tap on the shoulder from the TA, each seed/student is replanted. 
 

CLOSING (10 MIN)

Active Reflection

·      Dialogue: “What did we do today? What happened in our story? Where were we? What did we pretend?”

·      Each student gets a colored piece of paper shaped like a seed; an oval.

·      TA says “Let’s plant our seeds in the garden.”

·      Each child will be able to glue their seed to a piece of butcher-block paper which is divided into layers. The bottom layer is the earth and that’s for seeds. Each week we will add to this picture of our garden.

·      In a seated circle, TA narrates “All the seeds go to sleep.  Can you be small? Become small. Smaller. Smaller. Move slowly. Stiller and stiller. When you are fully asleep and still, then THE SUN (TA or another adult in the room) will come and tap you and then you are awake and yourself again and you can go over and plant your seed in the garden.”

·      Students write their name (or stick their name-tags) on their oval and plant their seeds. Then we all line up and go back to class.

 

That's it, so far. See you in the garden!