Guest Really Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 Next term I am covering 'exploring straight and curved pathways' with my Reception class. In need of inspiration on what to do with them. Any ideas out there? Thanks in advance.
Guest Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 Hi Really, The Blue Balloon (M Inkpen 1999 Hodder Children's book) is a good one. I went on a PE inset and this was included. It's good for KS1 or Rec. Both the text and illustrations are full of movement and shape and therefore a good stimulus for dance. The warm up and intro activities include various movement possibilities with balloons i.e throwing an inflated baloon into the air and watching it drift down. The children can track this pathway with their fingers and/or other parts of their body. The can explore different levels, high low etc. Another activity, which would need be built up over a number of sessions, is the snakes' head 'follow my leader'. The teacher can start off as the head of the snake tapping children's shoulers and they join at the end of the line. The teacher can use the idea of the balloon movements - rising, falling, expanding and contracting whilst travelling and the children copy. The children can work towards developing their own solo dance composition starting from a low position, rising up, travelling to follow their imaginary balloon (using movement ideas from the snakes' head) and returning to their original position. I'm sure art work could be developed from this. Have fun
Guest Posted April 14, 2005 Posted April 14, 2005 Hi there ... think I might be able to give you some ideas.. We looked at curved straight and wiggly lines as a focus at the start of this year. We looked at the work of Paul Klee .. and had children making large group collages, mini collages with straight curved wiggly zig zag (you name it) lines in them. We also followed this idea into PE - I took a large cement tray of sand into the hall and drew lines and pathways for them to recreate on the floor. We travelled on these pathways in many ways - for some of my special needs children I actually chalked some pathways for them to understand the idea. The children took these ideas into 'atelier 'work with pipecleaners, straws, ribbons, place matsand natural materials as well as into their usual painting responses. The children can also work with clay and plasticine and you could use their creations as inspiration for movment activities. We have also worked with ribbons in PE which may link to these ideas too. I wondered if the children could be encouraged to paint lines in repsonse to music and then use the music and the paintings as a lever into movement work? Hope these ideas help
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