Integrating Science and Dance (Lesson Plan)

If you look for ways to incorporate movement (and dance) into your lessons, they’ll be a fabulous change of pace from other lessons. It’s not that hard, if you think from a movement point of view. For example…

Lesson Title: Earth’s Rotation
Learning Outcome: Students will demonstrate understanding of the Earth’s rotation by performing the Rotation Dance.
UT Science Standard 1, Objective 2:  Describe the movement of Earth and the moon and the apparent movement of other bodies through the sky. Describe the motions of Earth (i.e., the rotation [spinning] of Earth on its axis, the revolution [orbit] of Earth around the sun).
Grade Level: 3rdor 4th
Length of Lesson: 1-1 ½ hours
Materials: pictures of the earth, ball, music to dance to
Behavior Expectations: Participate in each activity; respond with movement instead of voices.
Instructional Plan:
a.       Experience/Identify
b.      Explore/Investigate
a.       Define the various terms involved by making movements (and using pictures as appropriate):
                                                                          i.      Sphere (like a circle). Have students make a 3D sphere shape with your body
                                                                        ii.      Axis Have students be a narrow shape reaching up and down, legs bending up and down.
                                                                      iii.      Planet (a large body of rock or gas that orbits the sun) – Students make a large shape. (Crossover) There are different size planets. Students show large and small planets.
                                                                       iv.      Earth (shaped like a sphere, or a circle) – Students draw circles with different body parts. (Crossover) Students draw a circle on a low level or a high level.
                                                                         v.      Tilted (The Earth’s axis is tilted or at an angle) – Students shift their weight to tilt to one side.
                                                                       vi.      Rotate (spinning or turning to one side on axis – the Earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours)- Student spin once in each direction.  (Crossover) Some planets spin very fast and some spin slow. Students spin both fast and slow.
                                                                     vii.      Orbit -is the path an object takes as it moves around another object. The Earth’s orbiting pathway is spherical. Students run in a circular pathway and back to their spot.
* use the ball to show terms you might have a hard time explaining with movement.
c.       Create/Perform
a.       Have students demonstrate the various terms as the teacher calls them out.
b.      Have students form small groups. Each student chooses a movement and dances it while the other group members try to identify what term was being demonstrated.
d.      Connect/Analyze
a.       Discussion: what other things rotate?
b.      Discussion: what are the effects of Earth’s rotation? (seasons, day/night, etc…)
Assessment of Learning: While the teacher calls out terms, observe students to check for understanding of concepts.
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2 thoughts on “Integrating Science and Dance (Lesson Plan)

  1. Pingback: Dance in the Classroom Links – Dance Education Resources

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