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Round Valley Arts Curriculum
| SECOND GRADE DANCE |
I. ARTISTIC PERCEPTION AND RESPONSE
Students become aware of themselves, space, time, energy
and the power of dance to communicate ideas and feelings. As they dance, watch,
talk, and write about performances and their own experiences, they increase
their awareness, related to dance, of:
The Body
1. Responding spontaneously to sounds, colors, others' movements.
2.
Inventing personal images of animals and inanimate objects.
Time
1. Moving to even and uneven rhythms with different tempi.
2. Listening to internal rhythms such as pulse and breath.
Space (around the body)
1. Creating open and contained space.
2. Applying spatial concepts: over, under, between behind, in front of, near, far, next to, on the right, on the left, etc.
Energy
1. Selecting and showing contrasting qualities: sustained, percussive, swing, vibratory, etc.
2.
Exploring combinations of movement qualities.
Students use terms such as:
|
rhythm |
Percussive |
rising |
choreography |
|
beat |
Even |
falling |
pattern |
|
pulse |
Vibrating |
balancing |
costume |
|
breath |
Swinging |
tipping |
circle dance |
II. CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Students communicate observations, feelings, ideas, and
experiences about things in their own world. Students engage in exercises and
complete dances as part of learning the following:
|
Strength/Fluidity |
Use gross and refined motor skills, focusing on
eight basic locomotor skills: walk, run jump, gallop, hop, skip, slide,
and leap. Combine movements in rhythmic patterns. Explore suspension:
rising, falling, balance, and off-balance. Stimulate with images from
the students' world: wade in deep water, be a bouncing ball, walk on top
of a fence, be in the middle of an |
|
Dancers' Practices |
Healthy practices (e.g. good nutrition and adequate rest) Warm-up: practice. |
|
Improvisation |
Clearly focus spontaneous individual and group responses to: sounds (loud/soft, short/sustained), music (jazz, folk, etc.) and tactile sensations (bumpy/silky; sandy/rocky). Dance to different kinds of music without specific dance direction or mirror image exercises. |
|
Abstraction |
Invent movement in response to imagined situations and remembered experiences: inanimate objects (a slinky, clock, computer), nature (waves, rivers, earthquakes, volcanoes, rain, hurricanes, snow), fables, poems, and stories. |
|
Choreography |
Combine two or three locomotor skills to form a pattern that can be repeated. Originate a simple rhythm pattern in sound and movement (simple percussion instruments or clapping). Use qualities of suspension and put into a movement pattern. Make symmetric and asymmetric shapes. |
|
Performance |
Perform for other classes and parents, using their second grade skills and ideas |
III. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT
Students experience dances that relate to units being
taught. They attend performances and/or see video and film recordings of dance
from a variety of cultures and times. They watch, listen, talk, and/or write
as part of learning that:
1. dances are passed on from older people to younger people;
2.
other dances are invented by the people dancing.
They see and/or participate in:
1. dances that relate to units being taught (e.g., units in English/Language Arts and History-Social Science);
2. discussions about the similarities and differences of the dances, costumes, and sets;
3.
simple circle dances.
IV. AESTHETIC VALUING
Students reflect on experiences as audience members and
dancers, talking about:
1. what they see in a dance;
2. the meaning of dance, based on information from their classwork, own lives, and the world around them;
3. reasons for personal preference ("I like. . ." or "I don't like. . .") of the classroom experience;
4.
questions about dance (Why do I like to dance? What do I like about
dancing? What is dance and what isn't?).
V. CONNECTIONS, RELATIONS, APPLICATIONS
Students can connect, relate, and apply various types of arts knowledge and skills within the art form, across the arts disciplines (dance, music, theatre and visual arts), and with disciplines outside of the arts.