Mexican Hat Dance: Lesson Plan

LESSON PLAN:  Mexican Hat Dance

ELA: 7.EC.3, 4, 13- Dance            Class: Preschool 4 years                                      Date:                                 Time: 1 hr
OUTCOMES/ESSENTIAL LEARNINGS Spatial awareness Legs crossing (complex motor planning) Galloping and skipping Change of directions Following instructions Socializing (team work)		INDICATORS Students are able to follow  a sequence of movements in dance and work co-operatively in partners. ASSESSMENT Students can work cooperatively in groups. Students can follow instructions set out. Students have basic knowledge of body parts. Students can be a successful audience. Students can use self-assessment techniques.  Students understand about different cultural concepts.
TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIONS
TIMING 5min 10mins 20mins 10mins 10mins	ORIENTATION/INTRODUCTION; Discussion: learning a dance Outline behavioural expectations. Warm up- Deconstruct movements in the dance BODY Teach components of the dance, add sequence with music. CONCLUSION Warm down- breathing exercises and stretching Students critically reflect on how well they learnt. Discussion- The dances symbolic meaning, where it is from and the cultural and social aspects of the dance	TEACHING/ LEARNING STRATEGIES Outline to students behavioural expectations during lesson Clear explanation of the activity (learning a new dance)	RESOURCES Cd player Clear space Music Props	INCLUSIVE PRACTICES

Mexican Hat Dance

Source: http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00zMUtApraahcm/Mexican-Hat-Sombrero-Hat-Straw-Hat.jpg

Content

A little bit of history on the Mexican hat dance that you can discuss with your students: The Dance is extremely popular world wide, and according to Ganguly. P (2000) “at one point was even considered the national folk dance of Mexico”. The dance has symbolic meaning behind it and is important to most Mexicans. This dance opens up discussions about culture, social aspects, and significance of the steps, you may also want to discuss the importance of the costumes and create your own.

Reference:

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/mexican-hat-dance.html

The Dance Components

·      Traditionally a partner dance (you may want your students to dance around a prop i.e. a Mexican hat they have made themselves

·      Levels

·      Clapping (fast and slow)

·      Swapping legs whilst jumping up and down (may be difficult for some younger students, can be altered with stepping forward instead of jumping for the little ones)

·      Skipping

·      Galloping

·      Circle around a partner or prop

·      Galloping around in a circle linking arms with partner

·      Faster and slower movements as the dance can speed up and slow down accordingly

Skill Components

·      Recognition of partner

·      Spatial awareness

·      Legs crossing (complex motor planning)

·      Galloping and skipping

·      Change of directions

·      Following instructions

How We Teach

One method to teach different components of the dance is to introduce and deconstruct the moves during a warm up activity.

Deconstruct: Warm up

·      Jumping

·      Jumping whilst crossing legs

·      Galloping around the room

·      Linking arms and galloping/skipping

·      Kneeling, then springing up

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, outcomes do not always turn out 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)

·      Props and costumes made

·      Outline to students behavioural expectations during lesson

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

Curriculum Perspectives

ELA: 7.EC.3, 4, 13- Dance

ELA: 12.EC. 2, 4, 7, 8, 9- Physical

Cross Curriculum Ideas and Perspectives

Students could create their own Mexican Hats, this activity promotes other forms of artistic work and is culturally inclusive. To follow on from this activity teachers could also discuss the movement of jumping with their students and jumping beans- they then could create their own musical Mexican shakers with beans as the filler.

Every Chance to Learn:

ELA for Mexican hats: 7.EC.2, 10, 13

ELA for creating instruments: 7.EC.5

Resources

·      Hat templates

·      Youtube clip- Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq5c09ExG3o

·      Instructions

·  

References:

 Ganguly.P (2010), Mexican Hat Dance,

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/mexican-hat-dance.html

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

Animals Christmas BBQ- Lesson Plan

ELA:  7.EC.3, 4, 13                                              Class: Preschool 4 years                                    Date:                                 Time: 1 hr
OUTCOMES/ESSENTIAL LEARNINGS Spatial awareness Jumping (Fundamental motor skill) Following instructions For ESL learners- activity to create and use Australian animal cards. Social skilling (hand holding, greeting) Cultural aspects of Australian celebrations		INDICATORS Students are able to follow  a sequence of movements in dance and work co-operatively as a team. ASSESSMENT Students can work cooperatively in groups. Students can follow instructions set out. Students have basic knowledge of body parts. Students can be a successful audience. Students can use self-assessment techniques.   Students are culturally aware. Students have some knowledge of Australian animals and celebrations.
TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIONS
TIMING 5 mins 5-10 mins 20 mins 10 mins 10 mins 5 mins	ORIENTATION/INTRODUCTION; Discussion: learning a dance- Australian animals and some of their movements Outline behavioural expectations . Warm up- Deconstruct movements in the dance BODY Teach dance components and sequence to music CONCLUSION Warm down- slow movements, breathing and streaching. Discussion-Brain storm Australian animals. Watch youtube clip on IWB of Australian animals.	TEACHING/ LEARNING STRATEGIES Outline to students behavioural expectations during lesson Clear explanation of the activity (learning a new dance)	RESOURCES IWB Cd Player Music Clear space	INCLUSIVE PRACTICES

Animals Christmas BBQ

Source: http://www.everythingchristmas.com.au/images/aussie_bar-b-que.jpg

Content

Animals Christmas BBQ is a circle dance, involving Australian animals and cultural celebrations i.e. Christmas/BBQ. The songs and dance also include social aspects such as greetings verbal and non-verbal and sharing and caring.

The Dance Components

Some of the different dance components include:

·      Participation dance

·      Hand holding

·      Creating a circle (circle dance)

·      Directionality

·      Side step, slip step or grape vine (depending on child’s capability)

·      Different levels of complexity for different age groups

·      Recognition of position (into the middle)

·      Clapping at (different levels, in front, behind, under, at feet)

·      Backwards and forwards movements

·      Returning to original positions (staging and positioning can be a difficult task for pre-schoolers)

·      At the beginning of the song the teacher can instruct children to act out actions of the Australian animals introduced therefore, creative interpretation becomes a component of this dance.

Skill Components

·      Spatial awareness

·      Jumping

·      Following instructions

·      For ESL learners this can be a good activity to create and use Australian animal cards.

·      Social skilling (hand holding, greeting)

How We Teach

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

Deconstruct: warm up activity:

·      Shake and sizzle

·      Wriggling noses

·      Vertical jumps

·      Warming up arms (pretend to swim up stream)

·      Cross body exercises to help brain development and left to right co-ordination.

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, outcomes do not always turn out 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)

·      Outline to students behavioural expectations during lesson

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

Curriculum Perspectives

Every Chance to Learn

ELA: 7.EC.3, 4, 13- Dance

ELA: 12.EC.1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9- Physical

Cross Curriculum Ideas and Perspectives

Some ideas that could follow on from this activity could include introducing a game on a laptop or interactive white board from the Priory Woods website –Ten Fat Sausages sizzling in a pan. This game relates to the dance because of the “sizzling sausage” move. The game on the website includes; counting, adding, subtracting and interactive use of the technology.

Every Chance to Learn:

ELA- 6EC: 1, 2 (Technology)

ELA-16EC: 1, 2 (Numeracy)

Another activity that you could do with your students before or after you teach the dance could be creating Australian animal masks (costumes) for the students to wear whilst preforming the dance.

Every Chance to Learn:

ELA- 7EC:1, 2, 9, 10 (Arts)

Resources

·      Animal Face template

·      Australian animal collection

·      Australian small manip collections

·      Books about Australian animals eg: Mem Fox’s books

Link to: Possum Magic- http://books.google.com.au/books?id=yDct3c0IUF8C&q=mem+fox&dq=mem+fox&hl=en&ei=HxWUTYu3EYOycIS1yJMH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAA

·      Or Koala Lu - http://books.google.com.au/books?id=VHS9sKAJBu8C&dq=mem+fox&hl=en&ei=HxWUTYu3EYOycIS1yJMH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ

·       

 References:

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.