larger poster paper and markers, two poster papers for each class; Post-it poster paper is good
Large open space so students can move freely. This open space can be in a classroom with the chairs and tables pushed back, on a stage (please make sure the stage is clear before we arrive) a gym or cafetorium.
I can understand Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. I can choreograph a basic dance phrase. I can understand the structural elements of poems. I can understand the challenges to the environment (for younger classes) and climate change (for older classes) and ways to mitigate the threats.
Through poetry and choreography students explore ways to help the environment with Savana Jones, Dimensional Dance member and Hartford resident and Ruth Lewis, Dimensional Dance director. On the first day we build a choreography vocabulary, learn basic hip hop elements of dance, explore the 3 R's, and begin choreography about an environmental poem. On the second day the students create their own dances in duets about helping the environment (for younger classes) and small groups about climate change mitigation (for older classes).
Grade 2
Grade 2: Science: Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth: Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.
Grade 2: Reading Standards for Literature: Craft and Structure #4: Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
Grade 2: Dance: Connecting: B. Respond to a dance work using an inquiry-based set of questions (for example, See, Think, Wonder). Create movement using ideas from responses and explain how certain movements express a specific idea.
Grade 3
Grade 3: Science:.Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
Grade 3: Reading Standards for Literature: Craft and Structure #5: Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene, and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections.
Grade 3: Dance: Connecting: B. Ask and research a question about a key aspect of a dance that communicates a perspective about an issue or event. Explore the key aspect through movement. Share movements and describe how the movements help to remember or discover new qualities in these key aspects. Communicate the new learning in oral, written, or movement form.
Grade 4
Grade 4: Science: Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth: Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.
Grade 4: Reading Standards for Literature: Craft and Structure #5: Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.
Grade 4: Dance: Connecting: B. Develop and research a question relating to a topic of study in school using multiple sources of references. Select key aspects about the topic and choreograph movements that communicate the information. Discuss what was learned from creating the dance and describe how the topic might be communicated using another form of expression.
Grade 5
Grade 5: Science: Earth’s Systems: Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
Grade 5: Reading Standards for Literature: Craft and Structure #5: Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem
Grade 5: Dance: Connecting: B. Choose a topic, concept, or content from another discipline of study and research how other art forms have expressed the topic. Create a dance study that expresses the idea. Explain how the dance study expressed the idea and discuss how this learning process is similar to, or different from, other learning situations.
