Creative Beginnings: Movement

Residency Overview: The Creative Beginnings Movement residency encourages children to explore the way their bodies move in space. Students create movement based on ideas from their every day lives. Creative movement provides easy and fun tools to support learners across the curriculum while affording opportunities to promote wellbeing in the child’s day.

Arts Objectives Include:

  • Explore how the body moves
  • Learn movement language of direction and level
  • Create simple movement patterns
  • Use props to extend movement

Curriculum Connections Include:

  • Identify the math concepts of position and direction
  • Encourage interpersonal skills such as collaborating to make choices and plans
  • Encourage self regulation
  • Support early literacy

 Sample Student Activities:

  • Discover ways to move our bodies; define parts of the body
  • Create a movement sequence
  • Use patterns of speech to describe movement
  • Discover balance and shape alone, with partner or in group

Sample Professional Development Activities:

  • Explore movement in relation to space
  • Create interpersonal movement sequence
  • Identify open ended language to support creative movement
  • Discover cross curricular opportunities for movement

Facilitator’s Notes

Before starting any dance activity you must have an open space away from distractions. Remove all distracting items such as small toys, and books. Be prepared to support the learner’s ideas. Any experience you offer should stimulate and support children to actively engage with their imagination. The creative play of your students should guide the direction of the activity. If the teacher has limited mobility or is initially uncomfortable working with creative movement, they can participate from a seated position or focus on observation.

Classroom teachers often have scarves, hoops, blocks and music. These items provide ways to extend the learner’s movement ideas and should be introduced very intentionally so children have a clear understanding of how the prop becomes part of their movement.