Before you begin teaching students dance steps, have them practice moving to specific rhythmic patterns. First, clap out a basic, specific rhythm with your hands for students to repeat. Next, Add marches and steps to your rhythm pattern in addition to hand clapping. Have students step side to side, front to back and march in place to the rhythm. Practice moving in basic patterns to a variety of rhythms until your students have mastered moving in different directions to the beat.
Once students have mastered moving to a beat and know their right foot from their left, you can begin to work on line dances. Line dances include side-to-side steps, simple three-step turns and hops up and down. Choreograph your own line dance to a song with a steady, even beat or find a list of basic dances for kids online using resources like P.E. Central (pecentral.org). Make the steps of your dance mimic an animal's movements, like a "frog dance" with lots of hops or an "elephant dance" with slow, swaying movements. Learning line dance choreography helps sharpen kids' memory skills, especially if you have them practice the dance several classes in a row.
Circle dances can be fun ways to encourage creative movement, especially for children in kindergarten through second grade. Work on choreographed dance patterns that move in a circle or play a circle dance game. Begin the game by demonstrating your favorite dance step and having the students mimic your movement. The student next to you will then demonstrate his or her favorite step and students will repeat both your movement and the student's. Continue around the circle until you have created a whole dance combination out of every student's favorite step.
Follow the leader activities keep kids moving for extended periods of time and require sharp focus skills. Line students up and lead them around the room performing basic steps like skips, marches and gallops to a fun song. As often as you like, change the step or the arm position. You can lead kids in zigzag patterns or diagonals to help them practice staying in a straight line as they move. If you have a small enough P.E. class, alternate leaders so that everyone can take a turn leading the group.