Monday, February 15, 2010

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.

6 comments:

  1. That's funny Ayn. I do that all the time: sit down to write one post and a different one comes out!

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  2. Thats so true - its like when you give everyone scarves to dance with and everyone suddenly gets all floaty. I love the image of you all getting your groove on with paper plates to Hawaii 5-0!

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  3. Haha - I went to a HighScope training years ago and that was the first time I was introduced to the idea of dancing with paper plates. I am glad you reminded me of how fun this can be. I also tend to go off in unexpected directions when writing blogs:)

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  4. I love the simplicity of this. Thanks!

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  5. This sounds like such a fun activity!! Thanks for sharing!

    And thanks also for stopping by my blog and taking the time to leave such a nice comment!!

    Mari-Ann
    Counting Coconuts
    www.countingcoconuts.blogspot.com

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  6. We love plate dancing, try the Can Can music (Johann Strauss Orchestra, Always Vienna), it is a lot of fun thanks to all of the different elements within the music.

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