Hokey Pokey

Source: http://riverdaughter.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/hokeypokey.jpg

Content

History of the dance according to Wikipedia (informal online forum with a huge range of concepts and ideas added by people all over the world) “The Hokey Cokey, Okey Cokey, Hokey Pokey, Hokey Tokey, or Cokey Cokey is a participation dance with a distinctive accompanying tune and lyric structure. It is well known in English-speaking countries. It is of unclear origin, with two main traditions having evolved in different parts of the world.”

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokey_Cokey

The Dance Components

Some of the different dance components include:

·      Participation dance

·      Circle dace

·      Balance (standing on one foot and then the other “you put your right foot in and you shake it all about”)

·      Turning or spinning around

·      Hand holding with the group

·      Spatial awareness

·      Isolation of body parts- (“you put your head in, you put your head out”)

·      Wriggling whole body (“you do the hokey pokey”)

·      Clapping (“and that’s what its all about”)

Skill Components

·      Social skilling, team work and co-operation (group hand holding and team work to run to the centre of the circle without falling over of knocking anyone over)

·      Following instructions in the song

·      Possibly learning song (memory)

·      Learning body parts and following visuals for ELS students (picture cards of body parts)

·      Learning left and right for older students doing this dance e.g “you put your right legs in” some other strategies that teachers could use is putting two different coloured stickers of the left and right hands and explaining the blue may be their right hand and so on.

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How We Teach

The best way to teach different components of the dance is to introduce and deconstruct the moves during a warm up activity.

Deconstruct: warm

·      Shaking all about

·      Wriggling arms around

·      Wriggling legs around

·      Running into the centre and out again.

Strategies

Being organized is the key to success when teaching a dance; make sure you have your resources ready, and the time and space you need to teach. Also be flexible, the outcomes do not always go the way you have planned them, having a flexible program helps if things take longer or quicker to teach than expected.

·      Clear space to dance

·      Resources needed (music, cd player, Interactive White Bored)

·      Outline to students behavioural expectations during lesson

·      Clear explanation of the activity (learning a new dance)

·      Show the students a youtube clip of the dance on an IWB.

Teachers can also use other strategies for older children to keep them entertained with this dance.  Adult ESL students could attempt the complicated version of the Hokey Pokey called the Hokey Cokey. In this version there are more actions and the dance are a little faster.

Teachers may also like to use props such as scarfs for the children to enjoy waving in and out as they dance.

Curriculum Perspectives

ELA: 7.EC.2, 3, 13- Dance

ELA: 13.EC.1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9- Physical

Cross Curriculum Ideas and Perspectives

A study of human body parts, identification and function would be a natural link.

Rhyming and “silly” words is an important skill when developing literacy skills in Early Childhood. A discussion of words that sound the same Hokey/pokey/smokey/blokey/dopey/folky/goaty/jokey/…is enjoyable and a valuable exercise.

Many art ideas can emerge (hand prints, shaving foam, drawing around a hand, mirror work, dough modelling) from discussions about the body.

Resources

·      http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/hokey.htm - link to site with lyrics and music.

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·    - Youtube Link to Hokey Cokey-

Source:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omcpDN6ncXM&feature=related

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·      - Youtube Link to the Hokey Pokey

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Mlvme_gW4

·-Preschool preforming the Hokey Pokey.

·      NB; this was filmed at the Preschool my mum teaches at. This was a “H” themes community event. The dance was a real hit as all could participate, if you didn’t speak English you could follow, if you don’t know your left from right, the dance still worked. A great participatory dance, according to my interview March 2011

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For Cross Curriculum activities:

·      Skeleton

·      Mirrors

·      Torch

·      Books about the human body

·      Books with “silly” or rhyming words

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokey_Cokey

ACT Department of Education and Training (2007) Every Chance To Learn: Curriculum framework for ACT schools Preschool to year 10, Canberra: Department of Education and Training.