Select a distinctive animal and practice its moves together. A cat might scratch, creep along a fence, arch its back. Let everybody try the moves while being coached. Then randomly place colored circles on the floor, one for each child. Tell the dancers to stay on their circle while they become the cats in the story you will tell. As the music plays, call out instructions: a kitten sleeping, then waking up and stretching; a cat poised, ready to jump; head low and still, back high, tail twitching, stalking a mouse; confronting a dog and arching its back and hissing; purring and winding around the legs of the person who will feed it. When the dancers have had fun with this, instruct them to find a partner with the same color circle. Assign partner A and partner B in each pair and call out a cat movement for partner A. Then tell the B group to do the same movement. At the next class, teach them to “mirror” when the cats copy each other’s movements.
Help young children link dance with telling a story by using Halloween for a special celebration. On the dance class before Halloween, invite all the dancers to come in costume and bring their parents or a guest as audience. Teachers and assistants can wear costumes, too. Do a modified class warm-up—forming a circle, walking, and skipping around the circle. As the children take seats around the dance floor, a costumed assistant does a dance pantomime while a teacher tells the story of what the costumed character is feeling. Then a teacher calls all the princesses to come forward and dance. As the accompanist plays, the princesses dance and the teacher suggests story lines and emotions to keep them thinking and moving. The pattern repeats until all the vampires, fairies and firefighters have had a turn. Class closes with a promenade around the room and enthusiastic applause.
For a beginner tap class of young children, have the whole class sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” tapping with one toe until the teacher calls, “Change!” at the end of a verse. The dancers tap the next verse with the other toe and continue to alternate feet. Talk about beat. Ask one child to demonstrate clapping a verse of “Twinkle” on the beat. Then introduce a challenge. This time have them tap verse one with the right heel; verse two with the right toe; verse three with the left heel; verse four with the left toe; verse five with the right toe and verse six with the left toe. Ask them which was harder and discuss how the tapping sounded. If the dancers are having trouble staying on the beat, clap loudly as they sing to help them hear it.