Ali and Scott's "Purrrfect Time to Dance is Meow" Cat and Mouse Dance

Introduction

Teacher Task Progression

Dance Analysis

Section 1

Section 2 

Section 3

Section 4

Teacher Notes and Lesson Plans

Assessment Strategy

Teacher Reflections

Dr Hopper Website
 

This website contains a task progression designed for a creative dance unit. This task progression is essentially a breakdown of a creative dance developed based on the use of an imagery idea, phrases of a piece of music, action words and a task progression.  The students' movements are refined using Laban's movement concepts (Wall and Murray, 1994).  

Our website is designed to break down the task progression. We designed each lesson to connect to the BC IRP for PE (K - 7), analysis of the dance (Boorman, 1973). We developed each lesson to relate to a typical kindergarten class, using each lesson to build upon another. We have included detailed lesson plans suitable for beginner creative dance teachers, quick-reference notes suitable for "quick reminders" throughout teaching, assessment ideas, and reflections.

Scott Woodworth and Alison Dobell created designed this task progression for their Creative Movement class during their fifth and final year at the University of Victoria in the Elementary Education Degree Program.  The cat and mouse dance has been field tested in a kindergarten class afternoon physical education class.  We regularly reflected and refined our lessons as we taught them in the school. Through these changes and experiences, we were able to perfect our dance progression into a rewarding dance experience.

Boorman, J. (1973). Dance and language experiences with children. Don Mills, Ontario, Longman Canada Ltd.

Wall, J. and N. Murray (1994). Children and movement. Dubuque, IA, Wm. C. Brow Publishers.

This website contains the breakdown of a creative dance developed based on the use of an imagery idea, phrases of a piece of music, action words and a task progression.  The students' movements are refined using Laban's movement concepts (Wall and Murray, 1994).  

The website breaks the dance down based on connection to the BC IRP for PE (K - 7), analysis of the dance (Boorman, 1973), the dance task progression broken down into sections, management suggestions from teaching the dance, assessment ideas and finally reflections from the teachers teaching the content.

Here is a teacher Task Progression for the dance.

References

Boorman, J. (1973). Dance and language experiences with children. Don Mills, Ontario, Longman Canada Ltd.

Wall, J. and N. Murray (1994). Children and movement. Dubuque, IA, Wm. C. Brow Publishers.

Resources

To download the music for this dance click HERE!