Mrs. Jenkins Class Visit 6: Starry Safari

Mrs. Jenkins class was learning about personal narratives and so for my dance lesson this visit I found a fun story that was told in the form of a personal narrative. The story we read was "Starry Safari" by Linda Ashman. It's a book about a little boy and his adventures while on a African safari, he sees herds of wild wildebeest and wallows in the mud with some hippos. This was a fun story and I really think the students enjoyed reading it and dancing it out. My only challenge with this lesson was in helping the students to move past pantomiming into more original movement. The differences comes in challenging the students to be like something rather than being something. There is a differences in moving tall and long like a giraffe rather than crawling around on all fours being a giraffe.  Overall the students did a great job in abstracting the movement and thinking creatively.