Teachers > Lesson Plans > Dance > Moving to a Path Map

Elementary School Lesson Plan

Standard: Students will:

• accurately demonstrate non-locomotor/axial movements such as bend, twist, stretch, swing
• accurately demonstrate eight basic locomotor movements such as walk, run, hop, jump, leap, gallop, slide, and skip, traveling forward, backward, sideways, diagonally, and turning.

Materials: paper and a crayon for each student

Preparation: As a warmup, have the students move with non-locomotor and then the locomoter movements.

Give each student paper and a crayon. Explain a "path map" that can organize a dance study by directing the movement through space.

Example of a "Path Map"

Activity: Have each student create a four legged path map; then select a locomoter movement for each leg of the map, practice the movements and memorize the sequence. Then have the students add one or more non-locomotor movements to each leg of the path map and rehearse.

Play some unstructured music and have the students repeat their sequences. Play once more and let them experiment with changes. Video tape the sequences.

Assessment: Have the students view the video tape, first concentrating on their own performance. Have them write a short description of what locomotor and non-locomotor movements they used. What was interesting to watch; what they would change.

Replay the tape. Have the students compare and contrast the movements they observed, such as a walk with a bend, a run with a twist, a backwards slide, etc.. Discuss which they enjoyed watching -- and why.