MAKING TREE BODY SHAPES IN DANCE

MAKING TREE BODY SHAPES IN MUSIC, DANCE, AND DRAMA -
THORNCLIFFE PARK ES

 

"What shall we dance today?" When I asked some of our kindergarten students, I wasn't surprised when some of them suggested that they liked to dance like  trees.  It seemed that students had some ideas of trees in their minds that probably had occurred from our teacher-directed dance called "A Tree in the Wind".

EXPLORING TREES: ESTABLISHING CONNECTION WITH TREES IN NATURE
How can we shape our bodies like trees?  What do trees look like? I felt that students needed to have the direct experience and connection with trees and nature before we stepped into creative dance.  We were ready to start our tree exploration!

 
Children observed that trees have various shapes, sizes, and colours. They were eager to touch, smell, and feel the trees. Some children suggested that the moss grown on this tree's bark looked like from the "dinosaur's time".

JK/SK'S KNOWLEDGE BUIDLING CIRCLE
In our next Music, Dance, and Drama class, we recalled and reviewed the photographs from this outdoor experience.  Our discussion on trees started with exploring different questions that emerged from students and myself such as
"What food do trees need to grow?"
"How old is a tree?"
"Where are the roots and how do they look like?"
"Why do leaves change colour?"
"What are the parts of a tree?"

Children expressed their theories about the above questions"
"Trees need soil, sunshine, and water to live."
"The leaves change colour because the sun changed them."
"The trees look big, medium and small."
"Tree roots grow in the soil."
This was an opportunity to build the knowledge and vocabulary for our upcoming dance experience.

MAKING TREE BODY SHAPES - OUR FIRST STEP TO CREATIVE DANCE
After this knowledge-building discussion, students were ready to start making tree body shapes that were the beginning of our dance adventure.


     "I am a tall tree."

 

 

"I am a short tree with a pointy crown."

 

 

Student: "I am a tree with lots of leaves."

                                             Teacher: "I like the big crown of your tree."


Student: "I am the roots."
Teacher: "I can see that they are spread out like a spider web."

                                               Show me what a tree-trunk looks like.

 

 Student: "Look at my tree shape!"

                                                       Teacher: "It seems that the branches are heavy with lots of fruit."


                                                  
                                                  The roots of the tree are in the ground.
                                                  Teacher: "Is your shape at a low level or high level?"
                                                  Student: "Low level."

                                     Student" These are the branches."
                     Teacher: "I am proud of you of the way you are reaching your arms out into space."

Students have come to realize that they can make so many shapes to represent a tree.  Kindergartners love to express what they see, think, and feel.  Their knowledge and vocabulary about trees has grown; their physical abilities and spatial awareness has considerably improved.  Making body shapes has helped them to experiment and learn not only about the topic of exploration, but also about themselves as growing, changing beings.