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Back to School with Newspaper Dancing

Hurray!  We are back in school and back to making music!  This week my students learned how to do the newspaper dance.  We started with a section of the paper, unfolding it and laying it flat.  This was our "dance floor".  Students then could dance in their space.  Before we started, each group decided what they considered to be "dancing".  Most groups said that to be dancing you had to move your arms and legs in some fashion.

And so the dancing began...
Back to School with Newspaper Dancing – A great idea to a first day icebreaker or anytime fun! Use music, movement, fractions and fun to get students smiling and dancing. Supplies are easy! Music and newspapers. A playlist and more ideas for dancing and movement for music class or the regular classroom are included.
Now, as fun as that was...it was just getting started.  Next, we stepped off the newspaper and folded it in half and stepped on again.  After a while, students had to move in very creative ways to stay on the newspaper.
Back to School with Newspaper Dancing – A great idea to a first day icebreaker or anytime fun! Use music, movement, fractions and fun to get students smiling and dancing. Supplies are easy! Music and newspapers. A playlist and more ideas for dancing and movement for music class or the regular classroom are included.
We had a great time defining "dance", practing making the fraction 1/2 and movin' and groovin' to some great tunes.  With older students we created math sentences like "We are standing in 1/8th of the space that we started on."

Some of my favorite tunes to use with this activity:
"I Like to Move It" by Crazy Frog
"Thank God I'm a Country Boy" by John Denver
"Get Jiggy Wit It" by Will Smith
"Happy" by Pharrell Williams
"Best Years of Our Lives" by Baha Men
"The Twist" by Chubby Checker
"Goofy Goober Rock" by Spongebob
"Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles
"Everything is AWESOME" from the Lego Movie
"Boot Scootin' Boogie" by Brooks and Dunn

Are you looking for movement ideas for that first week of school?  How about ribbon dancing?  You can create really inexpensive ribbons or streamers with plastic table cloths and pencils (or chopsticks or dowel rods or something of similar size.  Check out THIS blog post to learn how to make them.  Then check out these:

This collection includes cards with pictures and cards with word prompts to use with your students.  Pass out your scarves, ribbons or streamers and start the music.  Then hold up the cards and let students choose how to interpret them.

I also love to use other sets of movement cards that don't always have one correct way of being interpreted.  I have several sets of Freeze Dance and Creative Movement cards that you might be interested in.

Back to School with Newspaper Dancing – A great idea to a first day icebreaker or anytime fun! Use music, movement, fractions and fun to get students smiling and dancing. Supplies are easy! Music and newspapers. A playlist and more ideas for dancing and movement for music class or the regular classroom are included.



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Back to School with Newspaper Dancing – A great idea to a first day icebreaker or anytime fun! Use music, movement, fractions and fun to get students smiling and dancing. Supplies are easy! Music and newspapers. A playlist and more ideas for dancing and movement for music class or the regular classroom are included.
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36 comments:

  1. UnknownJune 22, 2012 at 9:31 PM

    Awesome idea! Thank you so much for sharing. I have seen this with hoola hoops but newspaper is so much easier!
    stop by some time :)
    www.busy-beeny.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fancy Free in 4thJuly 9, 2012 at 11:32 AM

    Thanks for sharing!
    I am your newest follower! I am a new blogger and love connecting with other upper grade teachers!
    Layla

    Fancy Free in Fourth

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousAugust 4, 2012 at 10:17 AM

    Great idea! I'm going to try this!

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  4. AnonymousAugust 23, 2012 at 12:52 PM

    Great idea! Would you share some of the tunes that you moved to?

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  5. Tracy KingAugust 24, 2012 at 11:56 AM

    Gettin' Jiggy Wit It by Will Smith
    Rock Around the Clock
    Fun, Fun, Fun -Beach Boys
    Wipeout
    Thank God I'm a Country Boy
    We Got the Beat
    That's the Way I Like It
    ...there were more I just can't remember them! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. School System Occupational Therapist in VirginiaAugust 30, 2012 at 8:43 PM

    Wonderful idea and very tangible way to reinforce "personal space." Karen

    OTinPublicSchools.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. eshetchayilSeptember 1, 2012 at 7:49 AM

    Love this idea, so stealing it! Please please please post about your lap packs - I'm a music teacher without a classroom, and this looks like something that could be really helpful!

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  8. UnknownSeptember 1, 2012 at 8:32 AM

    What a wonderful idea I can share with my daughter's second grade teacher. I can also work this into a fractions lesson for my preservice teachers.

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  9. UnknownSeptember 1, 2012 at 8:34 AM

    What a great idea. I will have to share this with my daughter's second grade teacher. I can also work in a fractions lesson with my preservice teachers.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousSeptember 15, 2012 at 7:43 AM

    I am an elementary school counselor and love this idea. I have done hula hoops, but the kids would love to be able to dance as well as learn the personal space lesson. Thank you
    Judy

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  11. AnonymousSeptember 20, 2012 at 3:35 PM

    As a Pre-K teacher we talk about "personal space bubbles"...this would be a great way to illustrate and have them understand it in a visual way...thanks for the idea.

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  12. UnknownMarch 29, 2013 at 11:01 PM

    Excellent idea with minimal resources! Thanks for sharing! Lisa from Blackburn Primary School Melbourne, Australia

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  13. UnknownMarch 29, 2013 at 11:02 PM

    Excellent idea with minimal resources! Thanks for sharing! Lisa from Blackburn Primary School Melbourne, Australia

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  14. UnknownJuly 14, 2013 at 8:31 AM

    This is a great idea. I plan to use it in my social skills classes to help us defeat the Unthinkable, Space Invader. I just started a blog, look for a link to your great idea there!

    http://behaviordefeatingstrategies.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  15. Katie KnightJuly 24, 2013 at 10:04 PM

    Smart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First Graders need this!
    XOXO,
    Katie
    Teacher to the Core ~ Teaching Tips, Tricks, and Mommy Magic

    ReplyDelete
  16. Seeking SelfJuly 25, 2013 at 11:50 PM

    Fun and creative way to reinforce the concept of personal space!Thanks for sharing.

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  17. UnknownSeptember 4, 2013 at 3:47 AM

    great idea! thanks for sharing:) definitely using it for my movement class:) would love to hear more ideas too:) thanks again:)

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  18. crystalannieSeptember 21, 2013 at 10:15 PM

    This is genius! Thank you so much for sharing your ideas!

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  19. UnknownMay 19, 2014 at 8:07 AM

    This is a great activity that could also connect with the musical, Newsies! They dance on newspapers in the Broadway version!

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  20. Amelia De MelloJuly 12, 2014 at 12:43 PM

    Fun, creative, purposeful. Love it!!! Thanks for sharing!

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  21. UnknownAugust 3, 2015 at 12:52 AM

    awesome idea..I'm so going to try this... thx for sharing :)

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  22. Musicchick581August 20, 2015 at 4:41 PM

    I'm going to try this with grades 1 and 2 the first week of school. (3rd grade has chorus first half of year so we don't begin with music class until Feb.) But, I'm so greedy for time with them since we meet once a week that I feel like this is lacking in substance for my kids, so I'm going to add a rhythm reading element to review from last year. When the music stops, they freeze and have to do some rhythm reading performance as well. Did you use the entire song or just parts of different songs? How long did you play until they changed their paper? And, how long was the full activity? Thank you in advance!

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  23. Tracy KingAugust 21, 2015 at 7:01 PM

    This is a great back to school activity for a couple of reasons. First, it allow students to move and be silly in a controlled manner. To prep them you discuss what dancing and creative movement can look like. Refer back to this conversation throughout the year when someone is just tapping a toe or is going crazy running around the room. Secondly, it can be scary to get up and get moving. This is a great way to get kids thinking about their personal space, which just happens to fit nicely onto the newspaper before it is folded. Use this alllll year long as a reference to what their personal space area is. So, it may lack in-depth theory or music reading, but the substance comes in the groundwork you are laying for future activities.

    I select different pieces of music throughout the activity. By using different genres/styles students get to experiment with different ways to move (ballet, headbanging, disco, etc...). You don't have to do it this way, but I like to mix it up. I play anywhere from 20-45 seconds for each turn and then we fold our papers and begin again. We talk about the fraction we are making each time in the older grade. Younger students just work on folding in half. This activity takes about 8-10 minutes. Well that's not true! LOL. With some groups it takes three turns and then everyone is out. *giggle* I usually PLAN 10 minutes and we just play as much as we can in that time.

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  24. AmyAugust 23, 2015 at 7:19 PM

    Great Idea! Would this be too "silly" for my 6th graders? You know how they can be silly one minute and then think it's totally uncool the next lol.

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    Replies
    1. Tracy KingAugust 23, 2015 at 10:31 PM

      I don't know. For mine it was VERY competitive. I'm not sure if that was the best, but it did keep them all dancing and trying to the end. Even when there was NO way they could stand on the newspaper because it had been folded so small, they tried!

      Delete
  25. AnonymousFebruary 4, 2016 at 7:47 PM

    I can't wait to try this with my preschool class! I know we will have a wonderful time learning and dancing! Thank you!

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  26. AnonymousMarch 8, 2016 at 3:15 AM

    Overall that's amazing thoughts.

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  27. UnknownApril 30, 2016 at 1:00 AM

    Amazing Idea! I work with young adults and this can also work to get them going.
    Thank you.

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  28. AnonymousAugust 7, 2016 at 4:10 PM

    Any ideas to keep the paper from tearing to shreds. I tried and the paper tore very easily. Love the idea, though!

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  29. UnknownJanuary 4, 2017 at 5:55 AM

    This is a wonderful experience. Wow, its so relaxing

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  30. UnknownJanuary 4, 2017 at 5:57 AM

    This is a wonderful experience. Wow, its so relaxing

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  31. UnknownFebruary 11, 2017 at 12:32 PM

    I LOVE this idea! Totally incorporating into my fractions unit! Thanks!

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  32. UnknownFebruary 13, 2017 at 3:38 PM

    This is such a great game! I currently am a student teacher and this game will work perfectly in my practicum class! They love to dance and adding on the concept of math is a plus! Thank you for sharing my learners will love it!

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  33. Mónica LópezApril 6, 2017 at 11:43 AM

    Thanks, I love this idea to introduce fractions. I´m so oexcited to do it with my students because I know they´ll LOVE IT. I would like to do it right away but I have to wait until Easter week.
    Thanks a lot for sharing!!!

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  34. UnknownJuly 19, 2018 at 4:38 AM

    Thanks for sharing. I'm going to use this with my class to introduce fractions.

    ReplyDelete

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