When we were first told we needed to create a lesson that combined dance and science, we were stumped. How on earth is that going to work? But after some brainstorming, the dance and science activity we created was a lot of fun.

We chose the grade 5 topic of Properties of Matter & Changes in Matter. For us this made the most sense because words associated with Changes in Matter also sounded like description words for dances, like melting, freezing, floating, etc.

Our first activity introduced (or refreshed) the concept of particles in solids, liquids, and gasses. Students may not know, and many adults forget, that particles in solids move as well as the particles in gasses and liquids. So we played a game where if we said gas, the particles (or students) needed to move quickly around the room like a gas particle. If we said liquid, the students would move slowly around the room like liquid particles. Lastly, if we said solid, the students would move, but only slightly with vibrations or shaking. This activity taught us that the particles in a solid are still moving slightly, even if we can't see it.

Our consolidation activity was fun because groups brainstormed the different ways something might have a change in their state of matter. How can something go from a liquid to a gas? from a solid to a liquid? from a liquid to a solid? etc. This is where we got those fun buzz words that sound like dance moves: melt, freeze, rain, drip, float. The students then used those words to create a dance sequence, showing the class at least 5 changes in matter.

This sort of activity would be a lot of fun to do at the end of this science unit so that students are able to demonstrate their knowledge and share the information that they remember. Also, by learning and practicing a tricky concept with movement, they will be much more likely to remember it later on in their lives.

Teaching dance is not something that is new to me. My first experience with teaching dance was when I was 15 years old and I was working at the dance studio I was a part of my entire life. I was teaching ballet and jazz to little kids who wanted to be there to dance, and many of them had already taken other dance classes before.

That was easy! Teach something to a bunch of kids who really really want to learn and are excited about it. However teaching dance in a school would be a lot more difficult. Dance is one of those subjects that students are either really into, or really really not into at all.

How was I going to motivate students to learn something that they were embarrassed to try, thought they couldn't do, or thought they were going to suck at? 

The Ontario Ministry of Education (2009) states that students are expected to learn the creative process to help them learn and apply knowledge and skills in the arts. All students have the ability to be creative and as educators we must support and guide students into reaching that potential, despite their previous notions about a subject.

According to the Ontario Ministry of Education (2009) "sometimes it is more about asking the right questions than it is about finding the right answer" (p. 19).

Dance is a subject that many students feel uncomfortable with at the start, but by going through the steps of the creative process, they will gain the confidence and the skills they need to succeed in dance. One of the most important things that an educator can tell a group of students in a dance class is that there is no right or wrong answer, everyone's movements and ideas count.



The creative process is something that is crucial to an arts lesson or unit, but it can be implemented within many subject areas. The creative process is so student centred; students are free to move from one step to the next within the process as they see fit, even moving backwards if they need to, all while receiving feedback and support from the teacher. This process is useful as students work through a dance lesson, but could also be extremely beneficial in an inquiry based literacy lesson or social studies lesson.

By guiding students to create their own answers and lead their own learning, teachers are allowing students to build the confidence and enjoyment in dance that may not have been there before.

Using this book and these activities students are able to develop character and role and develop their sense of observation and interpretation.

For my fourth blog post I wanted to talk about two of my all time favourite activities. These are the ones that I look back on and know for sure I want to use in my own classroom someday. Besides both of them being extremely awesome, the only thing they really have in common is the fact that they involve CHAIRS.


Instead of trying to explain their differences I'll just get right to it.

The first activity is called Hot Seating.

Hot Seating is an extremely popular drama activity that anyone who's taken a drama course has likely tried before. The idea of the activity is to have one student be in the "hot seat" and the other students ask them questions. The student in the seat does their best to answer all of the questions in their assigned character.
This activity is so awesome because it can be so easily changed up to work for whatever you are doing. You can have the hot seat be a character from a book you are currently studying, or you can use it to further develop characters for an upcoming play.  You can also choose to work in small groups so those in the hot seat aren't as nervous. A fun twist could be to not tell the questioners who the hot seat person is and through their questions they must figure it out.
In our drama course we did hot seating a couple of different times and each one was a unique experience. The activity really allows for students to develop their sense of character and role and to practice remaining in role. It also helps students to learn to "just roll with it". Students may be asked question they weren't really prepared for but by staying in role and coming up with an answer on the spot, they are rolling with it and developing their improvisation skills.

The next game is completely different. Where Hot Seating involves talking using questions and answers, The Great Game of Power involves no talking at all.

The Great Game of Power is a drama game that explores the various representations of power through visual images created using plain everyday objects. It allows for students to reflect, analyze, and discuss their thoughts as well as explore the relationship between observations and interpretations.
The game is played by placing 5 chairs in the centre of the room haphazardly and explaining to students that they need to rearrange the chairs in order to make one chair have more power than all of the others. After one student goes into the room rearranging them without saying anything, the class will look and observe, before another student can go in and create a new image with only one chair in power. There are no rules, students may stand on or sit on any of the chairs for their representation as long as they are being safe.



After everyone has run out of ideas, we stop and discuss the different representations. That is when students begin to make connections about what they saw and how they interpreted it. Students can recall different examples and say what they liked or what they didn't like and even ask questions to those who made certain choices.
This activity definitely stuck with me and it is one that I would definitely do with an intermediate class and that I may consider doing with juniors, depending on the class dynamic. For younger students I might try the same activity but with plastic cups instead to avoid any injury or issue.

Again as somebody who is not as confident in drama, these two activites were easily accessible to me and would be to other students who might not enjoy memorizing lines or creating skits for the class. They can either answer questions in the Hot Seat, or work with the drama materials around them in The Great Game of Power.

We then looked at a big speech bubble that said "POW" and they started to get the picture. 

Poetry is not everyone's favourite subject. In fact, I would argue that there are many students, and even adults out there, that really really dislike poetry. Poetry is definitely something that is not easy to teach. How do we get students to discuss the thoughts and feelings evoked by a certain poem? That's where drama comes in.

For our drama presentation we combined literacy and drama in the form of poetry and tableaux. We were able to take an inaccessible part of literacy; poems and poetry, and use a very accessible (anyone can do it!) form of drama; tableaux, and combine the two.

The presentation itself could not have gone any better! I believe that the poem was very powerful and because we were studying it in drama, the thoughts and feelings in the poem were really brought out. Our warmup activity of Statues tied in very nicely with our theme of Tableaux. Overall we were extremely satisfied with the presentation. But it's one thing to present your lesson plan to a group of fellow teachers, without the behaviour issues, classroom management, and differentiation to worry about. How well would our lesson hold up in an actual classroom with actual students?

I had the pleasure of being able to teach this lesson twice! Once with my fellow teacher candidates, and once with my grade 5 class.

Although this lesson had been created and intended for an intermediate drama class, it actually worked quite well with my grade 5s. They did however need some extra prompting on the themes within the poem and some overall class discussion before working in groups. They were still very receptive to this poem and the themes within it and worked very hard at creating their tableaux. We were unable to successfully do the tableaux with transition so we opted for simply tableaux 1, rest, tableaux 2, rest. I also chose to remove the writing in role aspect of the lesson because my class struggles greatly with their writing and I did not want that to interfere with the dramatic development. We instead offered words of support and understanding as a class discussion.

I believe that this poem can be accessible and relatable for anyone at any age which is something my grade 5s and I discussed. They agreed that anybody, at any age, in any situation might have days where they feel peer pressure or where they feel they need to put on a mask. My class was a little on the crazy side most days and I worried about this lesson becoming an opportunity for silliness but they surprised me and really showed me how mature they can be!

I've attached a copy of our presentation slideshow below for your reference:

To start off my Drama Portfolio, I'm going to start from the very beginning. Not the first week of classes beginning, but the thing that takes place at the beginning of every good drama lesson.. 

The Warm Up 

Everyone knows that an athlete needs to do a good warmup before doing a physical exercise. But did you know that actors and actresses also need to go through the warm up process prior to a play or even an activity? I most certainly did not.




Prior to this class my drama experience was rather limited. I had never been in a play or acted at all so I was pretty nervous going into this course. Thankfully however, each week would begin with a different drama warm up which not only helped us to become more comfortable and confident, it also helped us build our arsenal of drama activities for future lessons. 

In this blog post I will be highlighting a couple of my favourite drama warmups and activities. 

1. Circle Up & Home Base 

These first two I'm going to discuss together because I feel like they are so similar and have the same benefits. These act as such good classroom management tools that once implemented, a teacher can call "Circle Up!" or "Home Base!" and the students will immediately find their positions and be ready for the next instruction. The two work so well hand in hand as well because many drama games, activities, and warmups take place either in a circle formation or in a spread out formation. By having the two formations memorized and ready to go, transition time will be a lot faster than having to tell students to spread out, find your own space - not too close together - etc, etc. This technique takes all of that problem solving out of the equation and can be implemented in the first week or first day of class. 

2. Zip! Zap! Bop! 

Zip Zap Bop worked as both a drama game as well as a drama warmup. It made sure we were paying attention, able to think on our toes, collaborate with our class, and roll with the punches (especially when you get bopped multiple times in a row). This activity was a ton of fun and is definitely something I'll be using in my future classes. 

This week in our online modules, we looked at math in life as well as math and technology.



I think that currently, students are very easily able to see the connections between technology and mathematics. They are likely aware that it takes many mathematical concepts to create the iPods, cellphones, and computers that they all use on a regular basis. I do, however, worry that because technology is so readily available at all times, that students will fail to see the use for learning math skills; they will always have so many answers right at their fingertips.

This is why I really enjoyed the first topic of this weeks modules, math in life. This video encouraged us as educators to show students that math is all around them at all times. What was exciting to me, and hopefully would be exciting for students as well, was the fact that math exists not only in man made things, but that we can see math in nature too!

The Fibonacci Spiral 

Fibonacci was a famous Italian mathematician who discovered a spiral that we now call the Fibonacci Spiral. This discovery is so interesting and so exciting because it occurs in so many aspects of nature. We can see it in pinecones, snail shells, flowers, etc. These things haven't studied math, they create this pattern without trying.

The pattern works numerically by taking each number in a sequence and adding it to the previous number to create the following number.

1  1  2  3  5  8  13  21

1 + 1 = 2
1 + 2 = 3
2 + 3 = 5
...
8 + 13 = 21
etc.

Now you might be thinking, okay well how is this a spiral? It's not.. YET. The next step is to draw a square with an area of each of the numbers, placing them in a spiral.






If I were to teach students about the fibonacci sequence, I would likely begin by showing them images like these ones above, but without the lines drawn on them. I would ask students to brainstorm what they think the connection is between all of the images. I would then explain to them the formula and the concept for the fibonacci spiral.

I think it is truly beneficial for students to examine how math fits into the world around them and that they can use math without needing to take out a calculator.

That's all for this course!

I leave you with an adorable puppy, Happy Halloween!