Introduction to B.E.S.T

I taught again in Mrs. Marvel's class this week. First, we reviewed the brain dance as a warm up and the students remembered it quite well. They were enthusiastic and focused. Next, I introduced the students to the elements of dance which are Body, Energy, Space, and Time. We only spent a few minutes on each element to give them a brief idea of what each was about, but I plan to go into depth on each element in future lessons. Under the category of body we talked about different body parts and explored isolating them. With Energy we explored the difference between Sustained and Percussive. To introduce them to Space concepts we explored personal space, general space, and the amount of space we can take up. For an introduction to Time we explored walking and clapping simple rhythms and played with speed. I think this introduction was a bit quick for them to retain it all, but it worked for giving them a taste of what is to come.

I wanted the students to have some knowledge of the elements of dance in order for them to be able to do the mirroring and shadowing activities later in the lesson. Mrs. Marvel informed me that they were learning about shadows this week so I thought it would be great to reinforce this with shadowing in dance. The mirroring activity was supposed to be a good preparation for shadowing. The transition between mirroring and shadowing didn't work as well as I thought it would but I think that was mostly because of my instructions being somewhat unclear. Although we didn't get to explore shadowing as much as I would have liked, we got a good start. Some of the students were very, but some were a bit inhibited. I found it helpful to use the terms that we had just discussed in the introduction to the elements of dance to give the students ideas of how to move when they were the leader. I think for the level they are at, which is very little dance experience, they are doing well. It was hard to get the students to really sustain their movement so that their partner could follow. Walking while shadowing seemed to make it easier for the students to lead and follow.

Before we did the shadowing I asked them to tell me some things they were learning about shadows. They talked about things such as shadows appear when there is light, and shadows do exactly what we do. I'm hoping in the future to continue working on shadowing with them. I want to explore different types of shadows that would be cast when the light is in different places and see if the students can figure out how to represent it using elements of dance.

I'm excited to keep working with these 1st graders. It seems like they just need more practice learning how to control their bodies, which is exactly what we will be doing all semester.