Right now, it’s more important than ever for our youngsters to develop creativity, teamwork, critical thinking and independent judgement.
Curiosity and Playfulness
Whereas digital technology may or may not replace many of the things we consider to be useful human activity, our children still need to get along and coexist within a nurturing, creative environment. Which means that developing their inherent curiosity and playfulness is key to a good education.
Through physical exploration and collaborative play, children gain confidence and develop self-expression. This allows them to think about and embody curriculum topics, away from the strictures of the classroom. Consequently, evidence shows that pupil-engagement, behaviour and concentration all benefit.
Changing World
Through movement, children get to create, instigate, collaborate, evaluate and appreciate. They experience performance, gain body-awareness and develop self-confidence. They are encouraged to think for themselves, ask questions and explore alternatives. All of which are vital skills in today’s changing world.
When everything comes from the childrens’ own imaginations, they have ownership of their output. This means that your role as teacher is simply to facilitate. Which is what you do. You already have the skills needed to motivate and lead where necessary: no prior knowledge of dance or movement is required.
No Gimmicks
You don’t need gimmicks, fancy visuals, flash-cards, videos or props. Just concise, easy-to-follow prompts and instructions. Plus – of course – varied and inspiring music. Music that is not patronizing or ‘child-orientated’. But, rather, which covers a range of styles, genres, textures and rhythms to underpin the movement.
Some help monitoring pupil’s assessment, charting their progress, defining learning pathways and understanding dance vocabulary may also be useful. So too, somebody on-hand to answer any questions that may remain. When you call or email, you would get an individual response from an actual human being… Imagine!
New Format
At Dance Notes, we have been championing this approach to learning for over 30 years. Currently, we are working to bring everything into a new format that allows both easy online access to and printable hard copies of the lesson plans. Accompanying music is available to stream directly from our site or download for use on your own devices.
At the time of writing, the following plans have been updated:
We’ll let you know when further plans get the new treatment. Whether you have bought these as individual downloads or have a Dance Notes Licence, they will show under Your Lessons & Subscriptions when you log in. Don’t worry if you’ve forgotten your password, this can be reset via the log-in. You can also now view and update your account information, see your purchase history and download invoices directly from the log-in menu.
Shaped By You
We hope you will appreciate these improvements to the Dance Notes service. Our resources are shaped by you and your pupils. We – of course – credit both you and them to have the actual intelligence to enjoy dance and all it has to offer.
We always value your feedback and input, so please do get in touch.