An Inclusive Early Childhood
Development Program
How I Go From Here to There: From Here to There
Expressing individuality in moving from one point to another
Learning Objectives Including All Children Arts Experience
Artist With a Disability Learning Log Learning at Home
Learning through the Arts - In Start with the Arts lessons, children explore concepts of body, space, time and energy as they learn to move in relationship to others and in response to rhythm and music. The lessons are not designed to teach formal dance steps. - More about Learing through the Arts
Learning Objectives
- Express thoughts and feelings about going places on foot.
- Recognize personal preferences and abilities for moving from one point to another.
- Build vocabulary related to locomotor movement.
- Demonstrate various types of movement in keeping with a drumbeat.
- Create a personal walk or means of getting from one point to another.
Preparation
Practice a variety of drumbeats.
TIP: You could also clap the rhythms.
Use American Sign Language signs for “leg,” “arm” and “head,” and use these signs during the activity.
For children using wheelchairs, remember that all children move from one place to another. Children using wheelchairs can also move in different pathways, in different directions, at different rates, to different beats and different dynamics. Simply think of a wheelchair as an alternative way to “walk and run.” Upper body, arms and hands can do alternative versions of any movements that legs can do. This also applies to other mobility aids that children may use, including braces, scooters, crutches and walkers.
For children with visual disabilities, move from one place to another. Discuss canes, dogs and mobility aids such as push sticks that move along a raised track secured in the ground.
For children with motor disabilities, allow them to move in any way that works well for them.
Key Vocabulary
- Locomotor movements: walk, run, hop, jump, leap, gallop, slide, skip
- Developmental movements: roll, slither
- Axial movements: bend, twist, stretch, swing
- Directional movements: forward, backward, sideward, turning, zig-zag, diagonal
- Pathway movements: straight, curved
- Mobility aids: wheelchair, walker, crutches, braces
Getting Started
Create a large open space. Desks and/or tables could be placed around the edge of the classroom, or the class could go outside.
Plan ahead for assisting children who have motor disabilities.
Connecting to Past Experience
Introduce the dance and movement activity. If we have only our bodies to use, how do we go from place to place? Sometimes we get from one place to another by walking or running. What are some places you walk to? When would you run? How else can you move from one place to another: quickly, slowly, at a high level or at a low level?
Expressing Through Dance and Movement
Initiate the dance and movement experience:
- Have children sit at one end of the classroom.
- Begin the drumbeat.
- Give children time to find their own rhythm to the beat with knee pats or small body movements while they are sitting.
- Change the beat. Allow children time to change their movements.
- Invite children to stand and begin to move around with the beat.
- Change the instrument, such as using a bell instead of a drum. Allow children time to change their movements accordingly.
Ask children to think about traveling from one point of the classroom to another. How many different ways could you do this?
TIP: You may want to have small groups of children move around at one time, while the remaining children continue to move to the beat in their places.
Invite children to explore different ways of moving from one place to another. Consider moving fast and moving slowly. Consider moving in different directions. Encourage children to invent their own movements. Some may march, hop, skip, move in small jumps, wiggle, zigzag. Remind them to move with the beat. Continue until everyone has had several turns with different movements.
Ask children to demonstrate how an alligator, a cat, a crab, a bear, a frog and a snake would cross the room. What about a tired bear? A very full snake? A nervous penguin?
Slow the rhythm down until the children are moving very slowly. Then stop.
Talking About Dance and Movement
What movement did you like best? How would you describe your personal walk? What if the beat was very fast? How would you get from one point to another? What if you were going to the ice cream store? How would you move?
Extending the Experience
- Go on an imaginary journey through different environments, land masses and water. Dance the way you would travel through each of them.
- Add music and have children select a locomotor movement that best fits the music.
- Create a Class Book about different movements. Each page could be titled with a movement: I can walk; I can wiggle; I can jump; I can roll. Have children illustrate it.
- Invite a person who uses mobility aids to visit the classroom and demonstrate how these work.
- Create a class videotape of creative ways to move. Encourage children who have experienced motor limitations to take the lead.
Introducing An Artist With Disabilities
Kitty Lunn is a dancer. While preparing for her first Broadway performance, Ms. Lunn slipped on ice, fell down a flight of stairs, broke her back and became paralyzed. This means that she couldn’t use her legs any longer. Ms. Lunn has continued to dance even though she uses a wheelchair.
Kitty Lunn founded the Infinity Dance Theatre, a non-traditional dance company that includes dancers, with and without disabilities, over the age of 40.
She says, “I have learned that my ability has nothing to do with my disability or the fact that I now use a wheelchair.”
Invite children to draw pictures of themselves dancing their special or favorite way of getting from one place to another. Assist them in writing a phrase or sentence to describe the movement.
Suggested Title: Dancing From Here to There
Dear Family,
During our dance and movement activity, we expressed our individuality when we created different ways of moving across the room to the beat of a drum. The vocabulary we used included walk, run, hop, jump, leap, gallop, slide, roll, slither and skip.
Talk to your child about the dance and movement experience and select from the following ideas to continue learning at home.
Talking With Your Child
Show me some ways that you moved. How does an alligator, a cat, a frog, a crab or a bear move? Show me your favorite way to move.
Ideas for Continued Learning
Select and read books from the library. Consider:
- Abuela by Arthur Dorros, Illus. by Elisa Kleven
- Arnie and the New Kid by Nancy Carlson
- Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale by Gerald McDermott
- Come with Me: Poems for a Journey by Naomi Shihab Nye, Illus. by Dan Yaccarino
- Mama Zooms by Jane Cowen-Fletcher
- Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
- The Story of the Travels of Barbar by Jean de Brunhoff and Louis Jordan
With your child…
Observe people moving – dancing, playing basketball, swimming, jogging, skating – and talk about the different ways they move their bodies in these different environments.
Go for a walk. Change the pace – walk fast, then slow. Mix up the pace. Take long strides; take short strides. Walk backwards for a distance. Try walking sideways. Have your child make up different ways to walk. Imitate each other.
Check the DANCE and MOVEMENT BOX for props for creating ideas for additional movements from one point of the room to another.
| Materials |
A drum, or any available means of percussion (for instance: pots, spoons, buckets, sticks) |
