Join us as we travel through space past all the planets and then land on the moon for a beyond gravity experience. This creative movement dance lesson starts off with a warm-up, ends with a cooldown – but in between, we use creative dance and movement to go on an intergalactic adventure even meeting some life forms from another planet.
We creatively explore moving in ways that represent a rocket, walking on the moon, and how we think an alien life form might move their bodies when walking, dancing, running, and more. I have carefully selected music to help ignite the imagination and provide a beat and rhythm to dance to.
This class is great for anyone with an interest in not only space, but also dancing in general and is great for both young toddlers as well as older kids. As you can see in the video my children 8 and 10, loved being creative with their movement, and my 2-year-old when he had a chance to watch has never been so engaged following along at home – he especially loves the rocket!
Click here to go straight to a playlist on Youtube of dance classes by Dance Parent 101. Don’t forget to subscribe to get notifications as the library is growing and should have twenty videos up soon!
LINKS TO THE CURRICULUM
As I have a Bachelor of Education and have taught in primary schools in Australia, I am always looking at ways to creatively teach children and regularly used dance and movement in my classroom to enforce learning of concepts and material we were learning about in different areas of the school curriculum.
The following are some links and connections that can be made from this movement lesson to various other areas of learning!
Mathematics and Arithmetic
- For the younger years focus on the count down – counting backward from 10 and then from other larger numbers.
- Count stars, use star cutouts to practice addition and subtraction problems.
- Compare the measurements of the planets – their diameters, weight, distance from the sun, from each other.
- Investigate how the early astronomers used mathematics to uncover how far the sun and planets were away from each other without actually measuring them physically.
English and Literacy
- Space spelling list.
- Create a list of adjectives to describe Space and the planets.
- Create and draw what you think an alien would look like, then label your creation using as many adjectives and verbs as you can to describe its features and how it moves.
- Write a narrative or fictional story about an outer space adventure or what it might be like to live on another planet.
- Create your own imaginary planet and beings that live there and write an explanation to tell people everything they need to know about living there.
- Research and then write a report or explanation about your favorite planet.
- Write an argumentative or persuasive essay on whether you believe investing in space travel is justified in our world today.
Social Studies and History
- Investigate the different beliefs about our universe, myths and legends that were created to explain for example how the sun comes up in the east and down in the west or what people believed the stars to be etc..
- Research and develop a project based on the life of an explorer, astronomers, astrophysicist or scientist who made discoveries about space. How hard was it for the early pioneers to prove their theories when they could not actually go up into space?
Science & Technology
- Create your own rocket. (This could be simple and propelled by a balloon or be more technical and use fuel).
- Make a model of the solar system.
- Investigate Earth’s rotation and yearly voyage around the sun and how this compares to other planets in our galaxy?
- Explore and investigate questions such as – What is the future of space travel? and Will we ever live on another planet?
- Investigate the sun and how it produces heat and light and use this as a springboard into exploring the topics of heat and light.
Geography
- How and why do the stars look different depending on where you are in the world?
Art
- I found this really cool art activity on Pinterest which you can click through to from the picture.