Creative Dance Lesson Plan on Problem/Solution Grade: 2nd Length: 45 minutes Written by: Chelsea Alley Student Learning

Outcome: The students will demonstrate an understanding of how literature is often built around problems characters face and the subsequent solutions/resolutions. Students will demonstrate creative problem-solving and apply these themes to reality. Equipment Needed: Hand Drum; CD player; CD with creative dance music; The Fool and the Phoenix by Deborah Nourse Lattimore Utah Core Language Arts Standard 7: (Comprehension) Students understand, interpret, and analyze narrative and informational grade level text. Objective 3: Recognize and use features of narrative and informational text. a. Identify characters, setting, sequence of events, problem/resolution. Behavioral Expectations: (5 minutes) Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes Race Head: Think Shoulders: Dont bump other people Knees: Have fun! Toes: Foot away from the objects/walls, good shoes or barefoot Eyes: Watch Ears: Listen Mouth: No Talking Nose: Take a deep breath . . . Here we go! Experience/Identify: (15 minutes) Begin reading The Fool and the Phoenix. Ask students what problems Hideo has to face as they arise. For example, What problem will Hideo have to find solutions to? Ask these questions when the bandit is introduced, when it says that Hideo cannot speak, when Hideo is banished, when the river is dammed, when the fish are trapped, when the logs are in his way, when he faces the angry farmers, and when he has to reveal the bandit. When the book reveals that Hideo cannot speak, have students find ways to communicate emotions without speaking. Can they do it with their facial expressions? Challenge them to communicate an emotion with their whole body, in their movements, as well as on their faces. Can you make someone understand that you are very, very sad without saying anything? How would you move if you wanted someone to know that you are happy? What about when you are scared? etc. When Hideo must climb over and under branches and logs, allow the students to explore the pathways they would choose to make it past the obstacles. What if the log is as high as your waist? What if the branches are so low, you can only get through my squeezing under?

We have to face many problems in our lives. Sometimes they just happen, sometimes these problems are given to us and we have to solve them like puzzles. Problems that need to be solved are everywhere! Explore/Investigate: (10 minutes) Lets practice some creative problem-solving. I will give you some limits you have to work with and it will be up to you to find ways to work with them. Challenge students to solve each of the dance problems you give them. Let each step build on the last. Vibrate a hand Move the other hand slowly and evenly Hop across the floor Do everything twice as fast Wiggle your knee Clap your hands Find a way to do it on the ground without stopping More challenge ideas:
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Choose the ocean or a waterfall. Show me the difference between the feeling in those two. Move around the room with three limbs touching the ground Pick one hand or foot that always has to stay in the same place. How many interesting ways can you move around it? What if your head is so heavy, it doesnt move as fast as the rest of your body, or what if it tips you over? Pretend your feet are glued together. How can you move across the room? How can you make clapping sounds without clapping your two hands together? The ceiling is now only three feet off the ground. How can you move and dance underneath it? The floor is lava! You can only stay alive by jumping! How many different ways can you jump around the room?

Create/Perform: (10 minutes) Group students into four groups. Allow them time create a dance together. Use the dance sandwich (or ABA) as a format. It must begin and end with an interesting shape that links with someone else and have a middle that shows one emotion through movement and the ways they solved their favorite dance problem. Have the groups perform for each other, two groups at a time. Ask students watching to look for the creative ways their classmates have solved the problems as well as identify which emotion the performers showed.

Connect/Analyze: (5 minutes) What problems did Hideo face? How did he solve them? Why would the book be boring without any problems for Hideo to solve? What was your favorite dance problem to solve? What problems do we face in our everyday lives? What tools can we use to solve them?