Paper Plate Dancing

Earlier this year, I went to a Pre-K training and came back with some fantastic ideas. I love these trainings---I am always amazed by the plethora of ideas I'm able to incorporate into my already jam packed days! Upon my return, I passed out paper plates to the friends at circle time--one for each hand. I put on the theme song for "Hawaii 5-o" and began to dance! I started with the old dance, "The Swim" and just went free style from there. My friends joined right in. The plates seemed to give us a little bit different range of motion than we typically use when dancing. First of all, with the focus on the plates, little arms become a very active part of dance. This has become a highly requested activity for our large group time. We now "paper plate dance" to all types of music. We have used large plates and small dessert plates. Although both work well, for limited carpet space and smaller hands, we like the dessert plates. I take them up after the activity and save them for the next time. A very economical "prop" for large motor movement!

note: A few weeks ago, I wrote most of this post in my head. Just before I went to actually type it out, my friends discovered the "Black Eyed Peas" and the post, Do You Dance? morphed into something else completely.