When I get older, I will be stronger. They'll call me Freedom, just like a waving flag...

O how our voices, and hearts, have sung through this study of dance. We have learned about different parts of the world as we immersed ourselves in the Russian folktale, Firebird, and witnessed a dramatic and incredible West African dance and drumming performance, Balafon. 

We have learned so much about our bodies and the movements we can make. We have done some biology too as we learned about what is inside our bodies, thanks to Tiffany and her "blood mobile" song and flannel story. We measured our feet and some of us studied a human form as we tried a very challenging "Draw What You See" using a wooden model.

We learned about many kinds of dance and about the importance of music. We played extra hard in Capoeira and we tried some ballet, tap and swing too! We learned about expressing ourselves through our movements and our singing.

Some of us even made our own tap shoes using our ubiqiutos baby jar lids, a hammer, a nail, a rubber band, and some good ol' ingenuity.

As in all our studies, we played, played, played. And through this intensive pretend play we grew in many ways. A duo of tumbly boys one day pretending to be superheros, found themselves signed up for a ballet class. There, as in all dramatic play, they had to subvert their immediate impulses and, controlling their behavior and body, work towards a larger, more collaborative goal. And that's how Batman learned to pirouette!

We really dived into rich mathematics this unit with a sub-study on patterns. Patterns are the essential mathematical concept and recognizing, understanding and ultimately being able to continue or change them forms the basis of algebraic thought. We sought out the patterns in music and stories and we studied the patterns in dance. Right, left, Rock-back, Right! We made patterns in art and the blue group took a special trip to the Building Museum to immerse themselves in more pattern work...

As always, the small bits of info we learned, were but vehicles for the larger habits of mind we are working to cultivate: persistence and flexibility in the face of challenge, working together and on our own, and working towards clarity of thought and communication. Of course we also had a great time, danced our 'badunkies' off and enjoyed the beauty of life! Till next time...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For more on Mathematics and young children, you can check out a parent guide from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
 http://illuminations.nctm.org/FamilyGuide/FamilyGuide_FullText.pdf#search=%22importance of patterns young children%22

Beautifull Oops

  So on a bright and beautiful day, the Purple and Yellow groups head out to explore some paintings at the Museum of American Art. We teachers had carefully selected several paintings and sculptures to see and then, over several days we gathered related books, art prints and real objects to enrich our art experience. We communicated with a museum docent to make sure everything we wanted to see was on display and had marked the locations on a map. Everything was in it's place....Well, almost everything.

It turns out that every Smithsonian Museum opens at 10a.m., every museum that is but the one that we were trying to visit. Massive Oops! So there we were, all dressed up and no where to go.




What to do? The museum wouldn't open for an hour and a half, And then we had to be back to ALG by 1ish...A teacher quickly suggested, on that gorgeous sunny and warm day, to walk several blocks down to the Sculpture Garden.

And there, we decided to stay in the warm sunshine and retrofit our original plan. So we made our own museum there in the Sculpture Garden. We had printed and laminated copies of all the works of art we were going to see, so we sat in the green grass and  looked at the art works. For each piece, we presented a series of objects for the children to touch and engage with as we looked at the art. Here, we looked at a painting "White Ballet" while we passed around different kinds of ballet shoes.






Then we read the book, Swan Lake.

After each painting, we would turn our attention to the sculpture we were sitting by. Studying the sculpture, we used our bodies in new and different ways as we tried to re-present what we saw. We strengthened our muscles, balance and coordination as we became sculptures.  

Sometimes we worked together and sometimes we worked on our own. Here we worked together to make a super long tunnel. Children took turns crawling through...

Here we became trees!

After studying an abstract work dedicated to a choreographer, Merce C, we gave children pencils and white paper and asked them to draw "movement."

Here we are sitting under the sculpture, "Moondog."

   Looking at the painting "Corn Dance" students were given dried corn to handle and inspect. When talking about the sculpture Yeibichai Dancers with Medicine Man and Patient, children passed around feathers. After comparing and contrasting these two works, we read a story, Dancing with the Indians by renowned children's author Angela Shelf Medearis. In simple but lovely sing-song language it  tells the story of a girl who's grandfather escaped slavery and joined the Seminole Indian Tribe. He returns once a year for several nights of special dancing. As we read the story we would stop to act out different dances. This was our last stop and we soon after caught a waiting and empty bus for a nice ride back to school.This sudden and delightful plan B of a trip, was made possible with the invaluable help of our intrepid co-opers Henry's dad Chris Mills and Cameron's Nana, Candy; also, with the help of a flexible and walk-hearty crew of children and, last but not least, with help from the amazing sunshine which truly made the experience into a beautiful oops! 

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For more on the use of objects in young children's Art experiences:

http://www.albanyinstitute.org/mli/objectlearning.htm

http://www.ket.org/arttoheart/program5/smithsonian.htm