This activity is a fun way for children to practice leading others and following the directives of others as well. Choose one child to come to the front of the classroom. Play some lively music and instruct the student to move to the music. Encourage the student to perform repetitive movements with his head, arms, hands, body, legs or feet so the rest of the class can easily imitate his movements. After a minute or so, allow the student to choose the next person to come to the front. Sometimes students can get in a rut with this activity by only performing motions that they saw the last child do. You can encourage originality by offering an incentive. For instance, you might give a sticker to each child who comes up with her own unique movement.
This activity helps to reinforce students' understanding about various people and animals. Have your students stand in various locations around the classroom, with each child far enough from the others to have space to move. You might want to remind your students not to talk or touch during this dance activity. Let your children know that you will be playing music and calling out various characters. When they hear the name of a character, they should move as if they were that character. You can use this activity to review units of study such as early America or animals in the rain forest. Call out a character such as "George Washington" or an animal like a "monkey." Use characters that fit with what your class has been studying. Vary the music so that the kids get to move to different genres and tempos. Emphasize that there is no absolutely "correct" way to interpret a character and that students should use express their individuality in their movements. Later ask different students to explain why they chose certain steps to represent certain characters.
This is a very creative activity for children who have been exposed to a few kinds of dances already. Divide your group up into groups of three to five students. Tell the children that they will be composing a performance. Give each group a list of elements that must be present within the performance. Examples of these components might include a leap, a skip, a movement with a prop, a low level movement (near the ground), a high level movement, a medium level movement, an imitation of an animal, a movement performed by the group as a whole and a movement performed by an individual. Give each group a set of props that they can use. Examples include ribbons, hoops, balls and instruments. Encourage the groups to create their own accompanying music with the instruments. Allow the groups about an hour to come up with their routine, as well as a brief outline of what will happen. Return as a whole group and allow each small group to perform their routine in front of the class.