Get Students Moving at Home or at School by Showing Off their “Signature Moves”
by Margot Toppen, Founder and CEO of EduMotion
In honor of International Dance Day (April 29, 2020), Active Schools partner EduMotion is offering a Signature Moves Dance Contest for schools around the world. Whether or not you decide to enter the contest, you can sign up for a free lesson plan and engage your students in this fun activity.
The project can be completed either at home or in school, with an individual lesson plan designed to keep students active while schools are closed. Music and dance are a great way to boost energy and bring some joy to long days at home!
Visit edumotion.com/dance-contest to request a lesson plan and get started.
To complete this project, students brainstorm words or phrases that reflect their values, personality, and characteristics. They then translate some of those ideas into four simple “signature moves” and create a dance using a sequence of these moves. The lesson plan includes a storyboard template to help students plan and document their work.
Through this activity, students learn to use movement as a language to communicate and express identity. Additionally, they are challenged to organize their ideas to create an expressive sequence of movement.
The contest is being presented in partnership with Active Schools, and the talented team at Love In A Big World has donated an official song for use in videos (you can download the song from the contest page).
For teachers who want to take the project a step further, there is also an opportunity to virtually connect with classrooms around the world to share moves and ideas via the Empatico platform.
The deadline to submit videos as part of the dance contest is April 18, 2020, with winners announced on International Dance Day. Everything you need to get started can be found at edumotion.com/dance-contest.
