This creative movement lesson designed for 3rd grade explores balanced and unbalanced forces using elements of dance.
Learning Objectives/Goals
Students will use movement to learn about and explore where they see wave patterns in the world and the differences in wave amplitude. They will learn group corporation skills by making a pattern of shapes in smaller groups and sharing their creations with their peers.
Materials Needed
Waves: Physical Science for Kids by Andi Diehn. A drum. 3 large examples of high, medium, and low amplitude (3 additional examples of wavelengths for lesson extension)
Introduction
Introduce yourself and RDT. Set up boundaries, physical (like the dancing space) and non physical (like making sure they listen to instructions and have an open and creative mind about class today). Introduce what the lesson today will be about: “today we will be exploring wave patterns in the world around us through creative movement.”
Warm-Up
This warm up uses the book - Waves: Physical Science for Kids by Andi Diehn. You can find a link for this book on Amazon. Ask the students where they see waves in the world, use that corresponding page in the book to explore movement. You can select certain pages to explore if they don't give you enough ideas. Here are examples for each page:
-Wave hello!
- take that wave and explore that in other body parts like your elbow or your head and so on.
-Tumbling and turning like you’re inside an ocean wave
- floating up and down, up and down to one side of the room and back again.
- Pantomime tossing a ribbon in the air and “follow” it down in a waving motion
-human wave in different configurations
-Ripple back and forth like and flag in the wind
- Bounce up and down like when you’re on a trampoline
-Make a curving or wavy shape when they hear the sound of the drum. Have them change their shape each time they hear it again. - Stomping fast and slow around the room like an earthquake
-Wave goodbye like you did for hello
Investigate
Amplitude is how high the curve or peak of the wave is from baseline or flat/stillness. Show the large drawings of 3 different amplitudes high, medium, and low. Explore high, medium, and low shapes with the class changing their shape with the sound of the drum. Once they have explored their high medium and low shapes a few times move to next exercise. Divide the room into 3 different sections in the shape of a triangle; one each point representing, high amplitude or moving on a high level, then medium, then low. Have students move through these sections using movement words, you can use words you already established in the warm up like floating or rippling. They can move through these sections high to low or low to high. Ex: start at the high amplitude corner and swing on a high level to the medium amplitude corner. Once you reach the medium amplitude corner the movement word changes and they change to moving on a medium level.
Create
Divide students into groups of 4 to 6 and have students create connecting group wave amplitude shapes on a high, medium, and low levels. They can put them in any order they want.
Reflect
Have each group show the class their 3 shapes and ask the students if they were able to determine what order the group decided to put their amplitudes in.
Extension to the Lesson
If you have more time or an additional class with the same group you can extend this lesson by adding in the concept of wavelength. Go back to your traveling in a triangle with your high, medium, and low corners but this time introduce various speeds. Use 3 different drawings of wavelengths. Wavelength is how close the peaks of each wave are to each other. The closer they are, the faster the wave. You should use a wave drawing for Fast, medium, and slow. Have the students explore moving from corner to corner still on a high, medium, or low level like you previously established but now layer on whether they are moving fast, medium or slow. Ex: start at the high amplitude corner and swing SLOWLY on a high level to the medium amplitude corner. Once you reach the medium amplitude corner the movement word changes and they change to moving on a medium level and change their speed, you could have them change to fast or medium movement. Once you’ve explored that a few times have them return to their groups they made their amplitude shapes in. They now have to add in a transition in between all their shapes, using a movement word and moving fast, medium, or slow. They can again put them in any order they would like Ex: from their high shape they can melt slowly to their low shape or from their low shape the can hop quickly to their medium shape. Once again have each group share their work with the class and have the students guess what order each group put their elements in.
Follow-up Resources
