Grade 6: Movement (Dance)

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

It is expected that students will:

• use the creative process to develop dances, alone and with others
• refine dance patterns from a variety of dance forms, alone and with others
• select and perform complex movement sequences using elements of body awareness, space awareness, qualities, and relationships, alone or with others, with or without objects.

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Movement (Dance) in other grades click on an icon below.

Suggested Instructional Strategies

Strategies:

• Have students review a previously learned dance, or learn a new dance (e.g., folk, square, jazz, Aboriginal).
• Have students perform established modern, folk, or multicultural dances using a parachute, and modifying steps when necessary.
• Have students create dance sequences using a parachute to make shapes and movements.
• Have students perform dance patterns and combinations for various audiences (e.g., peers, parents, teachers).
• Have students make musical instruments from recycled items, such as bottles, boxes, and spoons. Create movement sequences to rhythms and sounds made with these instruments.
• Have students study other cultures and countries and perform multicultural dances.
• Have students put together a sequence of four movements in 4/4 time to demonstrate rhythm.
• Use simple items (e.g., ribbons, fans) as stimuli to create dances or perform an established dance pattern.
• Use themes such as sports, transportation, or monsters to create dance sequences.

Suggested Assessment Strategies

• As students engage in dance activities, focus your observations on one or more of the following:
  • qualities--how the body moves (e.g., time, weight, space, flow)
  • body awareness--what the body does (e.g., actions and shapes)
  • space awareness--where the body moves (e.g., directions, levels, pathways, planes, extensions)
  • relationships--to people and objects
• Have small groups demonstrate their understanding of 4/4 time by clapping or stamping. Notice how effectively they are able to keep the beat and maintain unison.
• After designing, practising, and performing a dance sequence, have students watch a videotape. With a peer or teacher, have students analyse their own performance as follows:
  • I demonstrated the following steps and skills:
  • What I did well:
  • What I will focus on next time:
• Record observations for each heading, such as:
  • each element flows smoothly into the next
  • body shape and control are evident
  • uses space appropriately for elements selected

Recommended Learning Resources

Print Material

• Assessing Attitudes in Physical Education: A Collection of Assessment Tools
• Creative Dance Experiences for Children - Volumes 1-4
• Inclusion of Students with Special Needs in Physical Education
• Quality Lesson Plans for Secondary Physical Education

• Teaching Beginning Dance Improvisation
• Teaching Folk Dance Activities

• Can You Speak Dance?
• Upper Elementary Children: Moving and Learning

Table of Contents

Province of British Columbia
Ministry of Education
Curriculum Branch © 1995 Copyright

Maintained by: Physical Education Coordinator

Revised: March 1996

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