Mrs. Olsen informed me that the kids were in the process of learning about Christmas and traditions in other parts of the world. As I was thinking about ways to tie an art project into such a broad topic, she suggested that I stray away from painting and drawing for a class period and taught the kids part of a Scottish dance that I have been learning as part of BYU International Folk Dance Ensemble's performance of Christmas Around the World. I was a bit hesitant in my abilities in teaching dance to a bunch of cute but clumsy first graders, but it was a great learning experience for both myself and the kids. I created a brief powerpoint presentation with facts and interesting information about Scottish traditions and dancing (included). I then showed a video of my group practicing in class for our performance. We discussed what art means, and hopefully opened their eyes to different kinds of expressive art forms. We then learned a short routine to Scottish bagpipes and practiced our coordination and expression!
I definitely felt a bit underqualified to teach dance, and have an immense amount of respect for dance teachers. I think the project would have been a bit easier if I would have understood the dancing levels of six year olds a bit more concisely.. They were not as coordinated as I imagined! But it definitely made for a nice change of pace and an attention-getter.
My group and I! The kids enjoyed the plaid costumes!
here's the link to the video we watched:
Here's the powerpoint I used:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6Bdj58CXKjIQlI1Zk1yYVhuSXVaLVh6VGw2VzJUSnhHNWNr/view
The powerpoint includes my lesson plan for this dance!
Way to go for branching out! Its not easy to do something new like that. I enjoyed watching the video. You guys are good!
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