Content Area: Health and Physical Education

 

Index: 2.5B Grade 2 CPI 3

 

Standard: 2.5 - Motor Skills

 

Strand: B -   Movement Concepts 

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 3 -  The student will explain how changes in direction, pathways and levels can alter movement.

 

Grade: 2

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        ORIGINAL PARTNER DANCE - Using a 4/4 beat (drum, tambourine), each student creates an eight-count movement pattern. When the student can perform the eight-count pattern to the beat or music, create triads or pairs. Each member of the group teaches his/her movement pattern to the others. The result is a short dance pattern, consisting of two or three patterns. Students perform their dance creation.

 

      Variation: Combine groups to create a dance with four or six movement patterns. Allow students to select music, create costumes, and perform for their classmates.

 

      Variation: Require that each original dance pattern be performed in a circle or square formation and that partners must perform simultaneous movement.

 

·        LET'S DANCE - Play lively music such as “March” by Prokofiev or the “Tin Soldiers March” by Tchaikovsky. Encourage students to parade to the music. Observe how children lead and follow. Do they walk in pairs or small groups? Do students join others or step/march alone? Creative costumes, decorated “big shoes,” or theme parades based on familiar characters from books or stories add to the excitement. Vary the type of marching, sometimes free-form and sometimes structured.

Variation: Bunny Bounce This dance uses simple jumping patterns. It may be performed alone, in pairs, or in small groups. Use the traditional “Bunny Hop” music for this dance or any music with similar tempo and rhythm (e.g., “Runaround Sue” by Dion, “All Shook Up” by Elvis).

Variation: Alphabet Soup Students form letters of the alphabet by moving, stretching, and bending with their bodies, then use the letters to spell words. Students can also form geometric or animal shapes. Pictures from news-papers or magazines of people using body shapes (e.g., wide, twisted, curved, narrow) can be used to create a bulletin board of body shapes and movement. End this activity with a rendition of the favorite disco number “YMCA.”

 

·        INCREDIBLE SHRINKING ROOM - Start with a large play area with clear boundaries. Students travel within the play area without touching
another player. After a predetermined time, stop the play and redefine the boundaries, making the play area smaller. Continue the activity, stopping and adjusting the boundaries to make the play area smaller each time. Afterwards, discuss how students modified their movement to avoid contact with others as the size of the play area changed.

 

      Variation: Use music to establish a tempo or speed of activity. Observe student activity and then ask: “How does a change in tempo impact your ability to avoid contact with another student?”

Variation: Monitor student contact to answer the following questions: Can the players travel 10 seconds without a touch? 20 seconds? 30 seconds? Ask students to explain ways they avoided contact with other students during the exercise.

 

·        DANCE TO THE MUSIC - The “Chicken Dance” and the “Alley Cat” are two popular social dances that clearly demonstrate changes in the duration and speed of movement. When teaching these dances, discuss the concepts of acceleration and deceleration, the speeding up of the dance, and then the slowing at the conclusion. Discuss and demonstrate the concepts of levels, pathways, space, and flow in relation to the dance.

Variation: Use a percussion instrument to establish a tempo. Students perform a particular locomotor or nonlocomotor movement to the beat. Change the movement and vary the tempo.