Frankenstein, ghosts, witches and more!

What’s more fun than a Halloween lesson during Halloween week? Nothing! When I was planning this lesson I was a little afraid that if I compared movement qualities to ghosts and witches that the dancing could turn into pantomiming instead of dancing. I worked hard to stay away from pantomiming and the class never even came close! We first built our own Frankenstein from head to toe: exploring our different body parts. Initially I didn’t want to take too long on this part and I greatly simplified this section to eye, head, spine and limbs. However once we started moving the class was captivated. When we moved down to the spine one little girl said “I didn’t know my back could move like that!” The whole class was interested in moving just their toes as we tried to move each toe individually. When I thought we were ready to move on the whole class kept telling me of different body parts that we had forgotten; mouth, ears, nose, tummy, eyelids, hair, tongue and so on. I didn’t realize that they would love pointing out all body parts and want to try moving them. So we spent more time dancing with our tummy and mouth. We then moved on to other creatures and their movement patterns. Ghost – sustain Witch – suspend zombie – percussive skeleton – collapse. The collapsing ghost was their favorite.
The last thing we did was continue our work on our Indonesian dance. Even from the beginning of class the students were reviewing the dance. One little boy told me that he taught the dance to his family! Another boy told me that while we were improvising and dancing like a zombie he added in some moves we had practiced. It was nice to review the dance and see things running a bit more smoothly. Last time I taught my mentor Pam Musil observed my teaching and suggested that in the dance I give the students the opportunity to create. I was a little weary because the last time I asked them to create something it was a bit chaotic and some feelings were hurt. This time I believe I gave them more clear instructions as they each grabbed a partner and greeted them with a secret handshake that they created together. The class loved this! Before leaving I told them they can work on the handshake at recess and can even add to it! Next time I’m sure I’ll see some elaborate and creative handshakes.