We hope you have had a great dance teaching week so far. Today's printable may seem like it is geared toward younger classes, but the journal page we have included could be great for high schoolers as well. Are we really ever to old to read a picture book? I don't think so!
The children's book "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees is one that I have loved for many years. The basic premise is that the main character Gerald believes he is too awkward after the other jungle animals tell him "giraffes can't dance". The book is filled with colorful illustrations of different jungle animals dancing, and lots of movement and music descriptions that would be perfect for a dance class. By the end of the book Gerald is taught by a wise cricket to listen to the world around him to find music that inspires him...and he becomes the best dancer of all of the animals. If you don't own this book, go purchase it now! It is the perfect addition to your dance classroom bookshelf.
Our printable for today gives you one idea about how to use the book to teach a dance class.
Idea #1 focuses on the descriptive words in the book. You could read the book, and dance along, or read the book first and then use our word list to have students try moving their bodies in different ways.
We have included a journal page that can help dancers reflect on their own experiences, using quotes from the book as a jumping off point. Here are the Journal questions:
The Cricket at the end of the book says “But sometimes when you’re different you just need a different song.” Is there a time that you have felt different than other people around you? What have you done (or what could you do) to embrace your differences?
The Cricket also says: “So imagine that the lovely moon is playing just for you--everything makes music if you really want it to.” What is something that makes music to you, or what is something that naturally makes you happy and why?
On the last page of the book Gerald says “We all can dance...when we find music that we love.” What is something that you are good at in our dance class? What makes you good at it? What is something you would like to get better at in class? Who in our class could help you with your goal?
These are all written out on a beautiful journal page with room to write and reflect that would be perfect for your class. (Obviously your class would need to be old enough to read and write to do this page...but you could have the same discussion with younger age groups.)
As we are nearing the beginning to another school year and dance season, we think this could be a great way to kick off some of your dance classes, especially for those students that may be feel apprehensive about being in the dance classroom.
As always, we hope this printable helps cut down on your prep time and up-level your creativity.
Keep Dancing!
-Whitney
P.S. If you like this lesson plan you should check the Children's Book Lesson Ideas in our shop (click the button below)! There are more ideas to go with this book, as well as ideas to go with 11 other children's books with included visual aids and worksheets!
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