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Katia Francisque posted an update 7 years, 5 months ago
Hello Everyone,
I am so delighted to be part of this dance community. I love how many of our stories intertwine yet we are all unique. As I completed my work week, I had a few challenges with my pre-k students. Many are resistant to dancing and prefer to sit down. Something in their tiny souls is put off by my requests for them to dance. I feel as if I’m intervening in their natural movement patterns. But how do I instill this routine and teach using the DEL recipe, if I just allow them to move any way they want? I begin class using the drum, asking them to move to the beat, once I transition to creating a movement sentence, many of the students are disengaged and begin pouting. I explain to them that when things are new, they can be weird and scary but we have to create dance together. As the teacher, I notice myself feeling slightly offended (and I know they’re only four years old😐) because I think dance is so important but I know they are very young. So, my question is: What ideas do you have to engage the resistant little pre-k student other than making them an active audience member?
I don’t have a ton of real-life experience, but I know it’s important to remember that some of them may feel the same about dancing as others do about math or science. Even if the teacher says it’s important and tries to make it fun, they may have a mental block with it that is hard for them to get around. Maybe the movement sentence section could be approached in a different way, like more of a game than an assignment? Bring in props like scarves or ribbons to see how they can focus their attention on the inanimate object rather than their own self-conscious bodies at first? I’m interested to hear anyone else’s suggestions too!
Hi Shelley, thanks for your suggestion. I will try to engage them by giving sa prompt and allowing them to go where they’d like to. As I think about it, it’s all a learning process. I think it will be interesting to see how their creativity emerges over time. I appreciate your helpful insight.
Hi Katia,
I find with Pre-K that the class needs to be divided into lots of short sections. For example: 5 minutes movement warm-up, 5 minutes shape game, 5 minutes movement story, 5 minutes music listening and then 5 minutes moving to that music. 5-10 minute creative movement game. 5 minute review and goodbye.
I also find that ritual is essential. They need to understand that there is a clear beginning, clear sections of the class and a clear ending.
Hope this is helpful.
Emily
Hi Emily,
You are absolutely right. I will be working on breaking up the lessons more. Perhaps I am losing there attention because they need more variation. Do you have any lesson plans to share?
Thank you for your thoughts:)
Katia
Hi Katia! Make sure to navigate to “DEL Foundations 2016-17” so your comment is logged in our forum for our class as opposed to general status update! 🙂 Hope you are having a great time in DEL Foundations.
Hi Taryn, so how do I get these comments to transfer?
You can copy and paste your comment to the correct forum! There isn’t a way to transfer this thread.