Creative Dance Unit on Rocks Grade: Second Written by: Chelsea Alley Unit Objective: By the end of these

four lesson plans, students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the difference in how the three types of rocks are formed and their characteristics through physical performance and creation of a piece that showcases the differences. In doing so, students will also demonstrate an understanding of dance concepts light and strong weight, bound and free flow, explosive and sustained energy, far-reach and near-reach, and positive and negative space.
Utah Core - Science Standard 2: Earth and Space Science. Students will gain an understanding of Earth and Space Science through the study of earth materials, celestial movement, and weather. Objective 1: Describe the characteristics of different rocks. a. Explain how smaller rocks come from the breakage and weathering of larger rocks. c. Sort rocks based upon color, hardness, texture, layering, particle size and type (i.e. igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary). Utah Core Fine Arts Standard 3: Students will develop an understanding of their environment. Objective 3 Investigate the properties and uses of rocks. a. Describe rocks in terms of the parts that make up the rocks. b. Sort rocks based upon color, hardness, texture, layering, and particle size. c. Identify how the properties of rocks determine how people use them. d. Create artworks using rocks and rock products.

Materials Needed: Hand Drum; CD player; CD with creative dance music; tape (outline a square in the middle of the room), pictures of rock types Vocabulary Words: metamorphic, igneous, sedimentary, porous, fossil, pressure, magma, particles, light weight, strong weight, explosive energy, sustained energy, bound flow, free flow, positive space, negative space, far-reach, near-reach Assumptions: It will be assumed that as second graders, students will have a couple years of previous exposure to creative dance through an elementary program and will be at a normal development level for their age, showing ability with gross motor skills and beginning to work together. Assessment: Throughout the unit, informal assessment will be constantly forming the direction of the class. At the end of the unit, students will be assessed in their ability to distinguish and perform concepts discussed with clarity and purpose.

Creative Dance Lesson Plan on Rocks Part I Grade: 2 Length: 35 minutes Written by: Chelsea Alley
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Student Learning Outcome: By the end of this 35 minute lesson, students demonstrate and understanding of the formation process and characteristics of sedimentary rock through physical performance using light and strong weight. Behavioral Expectations/Warmup: (3 minutes) 1. Keep space all around you, dont touch the walls or objects in the room, and dont run into each other. 2. When I say, freeze! and beat the drum, freeze right where you are as fast you can. Dont move a muscle! Lets try a few times . . . Experience/Identify: (3 minutes) How many of you ever notice the rocks outside? Do you collect rocks? When I was your age, I really liked to collect rocks. I still have some that are my favorites! Rocks are so interesting. Show me with your fingers how many types of rocks there are. [3]. Today, we are going to learn more about a specific type of rock and how it is formed. Can you make a shape with your hands that shows layers? If I say layers is a characteristic of todays rock, would you have any guesses as to which one well be exploring? Sedimentary! Explore/Investigate: (12 minutes) Spread out in the space. Close your eyes and imagine wind blowing over the earth. In your mind, look closer and closer until you can see tiny particles in the wind. There is some dirt and dust caught up in the wind. When you hear the music, begin to move like the dust caught in the wind. Move as lightly as if the wind could blow you around. You are floating through the air. You are turning and rolling, so small and light, the wind is carrying you all across the land. Now the wind has stopped and the dirt has fallen into water. On a low level, move as if you are dust flowing down a river in the water. Now, if you cross through the tape square in the middle of the room, you must settle lightly down into an interesting shape in the square. Do not touch each other this means you will have to creatively use each others negative space to make your shapes and fit everyone in! You have been moving very lightly, which is a type of weight we use in dance. Now, however, there is more and more dust and dirt piling up in this square; some small rocks are even there. The pressure is getting greater and you must move instead with strong weight, because you are no longer a little dust particle. This whole class of dust and dirt particles is compressing, becoming one rock! Gently put your hand the back of the person next to you. The square is getting smaller and smaller, slowly, as a group, you must pull together. You have a strong connection to the ground and to each other. You are no longer freely and lightly floating around. You are becoming stronger and stronger in your weight and force. Think about the interesting layers you can make with each other. Can an arm layer on top of a back? How about a head over a head? Etc. Freeze! Class, you have just become a sedimentary rock through pressure and layering! Now

sedimentary rocks easily break apart. When you hear my drum, roll away from the group until you find your self-space and make a small, rock-like shape. Most of the sedimentary rock formations in our world have fossils in them! Sedimentary rock is the only kind of rock that can have fossils. Why do you think this is? [Things get buried in the layers of accumulating particles and the pressure petrifies them or their imprints and imbeds them in the rock.] Right where you are make an interesting shape, frozen and fossilized. Make a plant-like fossil shape. Make an animallike fossil shape. Look around at all these fossils! When I beat my drum, find two other people to stand in a circle with. Who is the shortest person in the group? When I beat my drum, this person will make an interesting fossil shape while the other two use their negative space and body parts to make creative layering shapes around them. Switch through partners. Create/Perform: (12 minutes) With the partners you are with now, create a dance that begins spread out and far away from each other. Explore levels and pathways with light weight. End in a connected, layered shape. Perform two groups at a time. Students watching will look for interesting middle movement and creative interconnected shapes. Connect/Analyze: (5 minutes) How are sedimentary rocks formed? Do you like moving with light weight or strong weight better? Why? Where else in our world can we see the forces of pressure?

Creative Dance Lesson Plan on Rocks Part II Grade: 2 Length: 35 minutes Written by: Chelsea Alley
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Student Learning Outcome: By the end of this 35-minute lesson, students will demonstrate an understanding of the formation process and characteristics of igneous rock through physical performance with bound and free flow, explosive and sustained energy qualities. Exploration/Investigation: Begin with explosive vs. sustained energy quality explorations. Stay as still as you can in a small shape on the floor until you hear the drum. The second you hear it, explode! Then settle back down in a sustained way. When the music is loud, move only explosively, when it is quiet, your movement is sustained. Try it the other way around. Next, explore bound and free. Bound Land and Free Land Discuss process of magma and cooling into rock Explore shapes that are porous that have air pockets or negative space in them.

Creation/Performance: Students will create a dance that begins with an explosive moment and moves through free flowing sustained movement. The dances will end with a transition into bound movement and a collaborative frozen shape. Connect/Analyze: Where else do we see bound and free flow in our world? What about explosive and sustained qualities? What was your favorite way to move? Why?

Creative Dance Lesson Plan on Rocks Part III Grade: 2 Length: 35 minutes Written by: Chelsea Alley
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Student Learning Outcome: By the end of this 35-minute lesson, students will demonstrate an understanding of the formation process and characteristics of metamorphic rock through physical performance with far-reach and near-reach shapes.

Exploration/Investigation: Far-reach and near-reach On the beat of the drum, make an interesting shape (twisted, angular, curved, or straight). Then let it breathe and expand as much as you can until you are as wide-spread as you can be. You are a balloon that has been blown up! Now, there is a leak, let the shape shrink smaller and smaller until you are in the most compact shape you can be in. Discuss the formation process of metamorphic rock with pressure and heat, compacting and forming. When the drum gets faster, there is more heat and pressure in this room. Let it press you down until you are in a compact shape with mostly positive space and very little or no negative space. Create/Perform: (12 minutes) Students will create a dance that begins with a high level, far-reach shape, moves through bound flow, and ends in a near-reach, low level shape. Connect/Analyze: (5 minutes) Where else in our world do we see far-reach and near-reach shapes? Which one is your favorite?

Creative Dance Lesson Plan on Rocks Part IV Grade: 2nd Length: 35 minutes Written by: Chelsea Alley Student Learning Outcome: By the end of this 35-minute lesson, students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the differences between the three types of rock and distinguish them through movement. They will also demonstrate their understanding through the creation of a piece that showcases each. Exploration/Investigation: Have students draw from a bag the pictures. Each one represents a different rock type. Use it as the next movement formula. Tape pictures on the ground around the room. As students move through the room and get close to a picture, they must begin to move with the related dance elements and formation process. When the drum beats, make a rock shape (layered, porous, compact) Spread out in the room, make a decision now about which rock type you will choose to dance through. When you hear the music, use the dance elements we talked about to explore new ways of moving and end in your interesting rock shape. Create/Perform: Students will create a piece in groups of three where each dancer represents one rock. Showcase the difference in their formation processes and characteristics through shapes and movement. Connect/Analyze: What was your favorite way to move? What is your favorite type of rock? Do we as humans ever experience pressure, or explosive energy, or sustained energy, or bound and free flow?