Last week I ran the Story Story Dance! class with the preschoolers and it went surprisingly well. The class sizes were much smaller than the kindergarten group, which I think just works better, about 10 students. When it got to be that time in the class to start handing out the props that go with "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything" by Linda Williams, I handed the props to two students at a time and called them up to do the movements; the rest of the students mirrored their movements from their story squares. Next, I did something I did not do with the other two classes - I took back the props after they were done and lined them up in front of me on the floor in the order they appeared in the story and the students rejoined the group in the half circle. Though I have double of everything, I would put out one of each to go along with the story, and put the second matching prop away. Each time the story reviewed all the clothes and their corresponding movements, I would point to, or pick up the prop, and the students did (and said) the movements from their story squares. This worked great. I was not sure how this was going to work with the little ones, but laying the props out as we went along was really the way to go. And after the story - monster mash dance party!
I have been writing a lot about this book and the props because these were my first classes using the book this way. For me, trying something new is kind of exciting because I really have no idea what's going to work, how the children will respond, or if they are going to like it at all. I knew that they would like all the little props, but did not know at the start which way would be the best way to incorporate them. Sometimes the best way to plan for something is not to plan, but to let things happen. That is the approach I took with this. Each class experienced the story and props in a different way, no one cried, no one got hurt, and I think most of the students (who knows maybe all of them) had fun.
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