Just Dance!

Last weekend, I was surfing for ideas to teach weathering, erosion and deposition in new and exciting ways. I was surprised to find a bank of lessons from the San Diego Unified School District integrating science with the arts – especially dance. It got the gears in my brain turning. I have several girls in my classes who dance. How could I make this work for us? (I know nothing about dance except I am not very good. I blame being rhythmically challenged!)

I recalled an awesome weathering, erosion, and deposition chant that I had learned at a county staff development session a couple of years ago. It’s a fun way to remember the differences. I shared in class on Monday that I needed some help choreographing dance moves to the chant. Tuesday morning, I had four girls in my classroom at 8:15 eager to help make up a dance.

By the end of the day on Tuesday, all the classes had learned the dance. On Wednesday, we did our final practices and recorded our moves. This led to our class Dance Off – a friendly competition between classes.

This has been a very fun experience because it stretched me, but it also helped me pull in a lot of kinesthetic movement into the lesson. I am hoping this will really help the students keep these three concepts clear in their heads. I mean, who could forget this awesome dance moves?!

Please check out our dances and vote for your favorite. The poll is open for a week. The students are anxious for the results. We would love to have over 1,000 votes! Feel free to share, and next time you are looking for a new idea, why don’t you just dance?