Kids Make Dance – Grades Pre-K-2

Kathleen Isaac, Dance Educator

Title of Learning Experience: The Dance of the Scary Hole

Written by Kathleen Isaac ©2000
Based on Children’s Folk Dance from Denmark, The Scary Hole

LEARNING CONTEXT
Teacher/Learner: Teacher(s) as facilitator(s); students as dance learners, creators,
photographers, assessors, and dance advocates

Curricular: Grades Pre-K-1 - Dance, Music, Visual Art, Technology and Literacy
(Reading, Responding, Dancing and Recording)

School/Community: Students value dance, music and art, connecting it to what they know,
learn are able to do about being scared. By sharing their dances, students
reinforce and celebrate working collaboratively, making choices,
completing tasks, developing dance, good work habits and building
community by sharing accomplishments with others. These are core
values at P.S. 165.

STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN NEW YORK CITY BLUEPRINT FOR

TEACHING AND LEARNING IN DANCE PRE-K-12:
Dancemaking:
Develop Skills and Techniques
Through participation in dance classes, students achieve the ability to:
• Articulate body parts, shapes and actions.
• Execute basic locomotor (traveling) movements.
• Control traveling and freezing, starting and stopping.
• Replicate and recall movements and patterns.
• Move with a range of dynamics.
• Move in different levels, (low, middle, high) and directions (forward, back side, up, down).
• Execute simple basic elements of various dance forms.

Improvise
Students explore dance movement through improvisation, demonstrating the ability to:
• Work with focus and concentration.
• Invent original body movements in response to music, images, words, ideas or symbols.
• Distinguish a range of movement qualities to express feelings, characteristics, sensations and
environments.
• Vary the size of movements.
• Combine levels, directions and pathways with body actions.
• Respond to musical mood, tempo and beat.

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 Kathleen Isaac
Dance Educator
Lesson Plan – The Dance of the Scary Hole
©2000
Perform
Students perform, demonstrating the ability to:
• Recall, repeat and refine movement sequences.
• Dance with fullness of movement.
• Dance with expressiveness.
• Dance in coordination with a musical beat and mood.
• Understand appropriate performer and audience behavior.
Respond, Reflect, Revise:
• Evaluate informal in-class performances and video evidence of student performances, using
observation, discussion, drawings, video and simple rubrics designed by the class. Consider
questions such as: In what ways can dance look different to an audience from the way it feels to a
performer?

Developing Dance Literacy:

Apply Dance Vocabulary, Terminology and Symbols
Students develop a basic dance vocabulary, demonstrating the ability to:
• Use words and symbols to describe and name dance activities and ideas.
• Respond to action words and symbols with appropriate movement.
• Understand and demonstrate choreography ideas (e.g., solo, duet, unison).

Making Connections:
Understand Dance History and the social and Cultural Significance of Dance (Theatrical, Ritual &
Social Dance)
By actively observing the movement of other students, people and things; and learning dances from
various cultures and historical periods, students will:
• Apply dance concepts to the world outside the classroom.

Connect Dance to Other Arts and Disciplines

Through activities including other disciplines in dance study, students will illuminate understanding of
dance, demonstrating the ability to:
• Respond to other arts and disciplines in dance movement.
• Understand how other art media combine with dance.

Utilize Technology in Connection With Dance

Students respond to and discuss videotapes of student and professional dance performances,
demonstrating the ability to:
• Discuss the difference between a moving image and a photograph, and between dancing and posing.
• Use digital technology as a tool for assessing criteria for dance. *
• Use digital technology as a tool for making dance visible to the school community*
* These are not indicators from the Blueprint, but are indicators in technology specifically addressed in this lesson.

Connect Dance to Health and Well-Being

• Understand personal space and its relation to safety and well-being.

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 Kathleen Isaac
Dance Educator
Lesson Plan – The Dance of the Scary Hole
©2000

Working With Community and Cultural Resources

Share Dance Experiences in and Between Schools
Through in-school experiences in dance class, between classes or with visiting schools, students will:
• Understand that dance is part of the school day.
• Demonstrate dance learning to other students.
• Share dance learning with parents.
• Discuss dance with the classroom teacher.
• Share dance experiences with an older dance buddy.

LESSON (Session 1):

Teaching Points:
1) Dancers use their bodies to express emotions. They do this
without making any sound.
2) Dancers make dances based on their own ideas as well as ideas they
get from stories, and pictures.
3) When people read, talk, think, plan and make dances together, they are
creating a dance community.

Materials/Class Set-up:
• Class folder and a pencil are placed on floor.
• Some Things Are Scary, written by Florence Parry Heide is placed in front of room.
• Blank Chart Paper is hung or taped up, with markers available
• Music for warm-up (and dance making activity is accessible)

Motivation:
Dance Educator begins class by asking the children if they are ever scared of anything, and if so, to raise
their hand and share. Responses are recorded on a list or web. Students are asked to make a shape with
their body and an expression with their face, without making any sound that shows what it looks like to
be scared or frightened. Dance Educator turns his/her back, covers eyes, counts to three and turns
around to face children, who make silent shapes and facial expressions reflecting the feeling of being
scared. Some Things Are Scary, by Florence Parry Heide is shown and the dance educator states that
there is a book written about scary things that we will read either at the end of class or the following
week. The same process is repeated, with Dance Educator asking if the children are ever happy about
anything, and if so, to share what it is. He/she then proceeds to say that in this lesson, dancers will learn
to show both being scared (fear) and happiness, using silent body shapes and facial expressions.

Warm-up:
• Using the student-generated list of words describing things that are scary and happy, the dance
educator elicits movement ideas and combines them with body isolations, shapes, locomotor and
non-locomotor movement.
• Example:
Head - You are a big spider. Look all around to see if you can spot a fly. Look up, look down,
right, left, all around, and do you see one? Use your long, long spider arms/legs to reach and
pull that fly into you very, very tightly. Curl yourself up around that juicy fly and eat it up!
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 Kathleen Isaac
Dance Educator
Lesson Plan – The Dance of the Scary Hole
©2000
• Musical Suggestions: Danse Macabre by Camille Saint Saëns, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul
Dukas, The Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter Soundtrack) by John Williams
• After exploring several words, take a moment to practice freezing in silence, using scared and happy
facial expressions and body shapes on different levels.

Review of Prior Knowledge:

• Direction – forward and backward
• Time – quickly and slowly
• Locomotor Movement – skipping
• Pathway - circular

Development:
• Place a scary object, such as a stuffed snake, spider puppet, or a large picture of a scary object in the
center of the room. Remind students that they will listen carefully to directions, remembering that
dancers use their bodies and not their mouths to do this dance.
• Demonstrate a slow walk (long, slow strides) in a forward direction 4 times moving toward the
scary object. This takes 8 counts (each step taking 2 cts.). Ask students to quietly demonstrate this,
using the quiet, scared expressions they practiced in the Motivation section of the lesson.
• Demonstrate a quick (small, skittering steps) in a backward direction. This also takes 8 counts.
Students repeat.
• The slow forward strides towards the hole, and quick backward skittering steps away from the hole
are repeated. Depending on the class and their abilities, you may wish to repeat this more than once.
• The children are happy that they “got away” or weren’t stopped by the scary thing in the imaginary hole,
so they clap and skip in a large circular pathway, around the room in either a clockwise or
counterclockwise direction. One child follows the other, and no dancer passes another as they follow
around in the circular pathway.
• The above sequence is practiced and repeated as many times as time or the children’s abilities allow.

• Music Suggestion: Funeral March of the Marionettes by Charles Gounod

Culmination:
• Dancers are asked to sit in a circle, following the dance. Teaching points and concepts covered in
the dance are reviewed.
• All dancers are asked to show a body shape and expression representing “scared”, and a body shape and
expression representing “happy.”
• Dancers breathe together slowly, moving arms upward and downward slowly with breath. Repeat 3
times.
Word Wall/Vocabulary:
Fear Scary Scared Happy Happiness Body Shape Levels
Low Medium High Directions Forward Backward Up Down
Clockwise Counterclockwise Circular Pathway Silence Expression Community

Next Steps:
• Students will review dance, and create their own drawings representing things that are scary to put
inside the scary hole.
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 Kathleen Isaac
Dance Educator
Lesson Plan – The Dance of the Scary Hole
©2000

LESSON (Session 2):

Teaching Points:
1) Dancers can use props (The Scary Hole) when they dance to give
dance a personal meaning.
2) Dancers can use photos of their work to evaluate it.

Materials/Class Set-up:
• Class folder and a pencil are placed on floor.
• Some Things Are Scary, written by Florence Parry Heide is placed in front of room.
• Brainstorm or Word List is hung or taped up
• Music for Warm-up and The Scary Hold Dance is available
• Large Black Paper, shaped into a large round shape
• White drawing paper
• Markers or crayons
• 2 digital cameras
• Computer or Television Monitor

Motivation:
• Dance Educator reviews Teaching Points, explaining that the students will draw pictures that
represent things that are scary, and glue them inside the Scary Hole.
• Dance Educator reads excerpts of the book, Some Things Are Scary.

Warm-up:
• Warm up from Session One is repeated, and new movements are added, based on any new ideas or
insights from the book such as:
o Grabbing someone’s hand, thinking it’s your Mother, and finding out it’s not
o Skating down a hill when you don’t know how to stop
o Being with your Mom when she can’t remember where she parked her car
o Seeing something you don’t like on your plate at dinnertime.

o Musical Suggestions: Danse Macabre by Camille Saint Saëns, The Sorcerer’s

Apprentice by Paul Dukas, The Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter Soundtrack) by John
Williams
• After exploring several words or ideas, take a moment to practice freezing in silence, using scared
and happy facial expressions and body shapes on different levels.

5
 Kathleen Isaac
Dance Educator
Lesson Plan – The Dance of the Scary Hole
©2000
Formative Assessment:
• Students take individual or small group photographs of scared and happy facial expressions
to use for assessment, along with the Dance of the Scary Hole Rubric.

• Students upload images from digital camera onto computer or television and assess their
facial and body expression, using the third criteria in the Dance of the Scary Hole Rubric.
• Dance Educator uses rubric with students before they review the Dance of the Scary Hole,
reminding students that they will practice it, and try to achieve the highest level for all criteria.

Review of Prior Knowledge:

• Review the sequence of the Scary Hole Dance:
o Move forward SLOWLY, 8 counts towards the hole, taking big long steps, using facial
and bodily expressions of fear.
o Move backwards QUICKLY, 8 counts away from the hole, taking little tiny steps, using
facial and bodily expressions of fear
o Repeat forward and backwards movement.
o Skip happily around the scary hole, clapping to the beat (either clockwise or
counterclockwise)
o Begin again and repeat one or two more times.

o Music Suggestion: Funeral March of the Marionettes by Charles Gounod

Development:
• Place a large circle or oval of black paper, approximately 4 ft. X 4 ft. in the middle of the room.
• Pass out drawing paper and markers or crayons
• Ask students to draw a picture of something scary. If time allows, the students may glue their
pictures into the hole.

Culmination:
• Students talk about their pictures. Some students may want to write about their scary pictures. This
can be done on the drawing paper, or on another sheet of paper to be glued in the scary hole.
• Teaching points and concepts covered in the dance are reviewed.
• Dancers breathe together slowly, moving arms upward and downward slowly with breath. Repeat 3
times. End with bodies still and silent.

Word Wall/Vocabulary:
Any new words from the book, or words that are elicited from students
Digital technology
Digital cameras
Computer
Rubric

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 Kathleen Isaac
Dance Educator
Lesson Plan – The Dance of the Scary Hole
©2000
Next Steps:
Students will perform The Scary Hole Dance, take photos around the scary hole filled with the students’
artwork, and use The Scary Hole Dance Rubric to conduct self and peer assessment. Dance Educator
uses rubric to assess the students individually or as a class.

LESSON (Session 3):

Teaching Points:
1) Dancers can use digital cameras to take photos of their work and
look at the photos to evaluate their scared and happy body shapes
and facial expressions.
2) Dancing gets better with practice and revision, based on peer and
teacher feedback.

Materials/Class Set-up:
• Class folder and a pencil are placed on floor.
• Some Things Are Scary, written by Florence Parry Heide is placed in front of room.
• Brainstorm or Word List is hung or taped up
• Music for Warm-up and The Scary Hole Dance is available
• Scary Hole with student drawings glued on it is ready to be used.
• 2 digital cameras with batteries charged and ample memory available.
• Computer or Television Monitor
• Blueprint Indicators addressed in this lesson typed and printed out in large font, and glued to
construction paper

Motivation:
• Dance Educator reviews Teaching Points, and
• Dance Educator finishes reading, Some Things Are Scary if this was not done in Session 2.

Warm-up:
• Warm up from Session One is repeated, with new movements added, based on any new ideas or
insights from the book such as:
o Grabbing someone’s hand, thinking it’s your Mother, and finding out it’s not
o Skating down a hill when you don’t know how to stop
o Being with your Mom when she can’t remember where she parked her car
o Seeing something you don’t like on your plate at dinnertime.

o Musical Suggestions: Danse Macabre by Camille Saint Saëns, The Sorcerer’s

Apprentice by Paul Dukas, The Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter Soundtrack) by John
Williams

7
 Kathleen Isaac
Dance Educator
Lesson Plan – The Dance of the Scary Hole
©2000

• After exploring several words, take a moment to practice freezing in silence, using scared and
happy facial expressions and body shapes on different levels.

Review of Prior Knowledge:

• Place the Scary Hole with Children’s artwork in the middle of the room.
• Review the sequence of the Scary Hole Dance:
o Move forward SLOWLY, 8 counts towards the hole, taking big long steps using facial and
bodily expressions of fear.
o Move backwards QUICKLY, 8 counts away from the hole, taking little tiny steps using
facial and bodily expressions of fear.
o Repeat forward and backwards movement
o Skip happily around the scary hole, clapping to the beat (either clockwise or
counterclockwise)
o Begin again and repeat one or two more times.

o Music Suggestion: Funeral March of the Marionettes by Charles Gounod

Formative Assessment:
• Students take group digital photographs of scared and happy facial expressions as students
approach toward and retreat from the scary hole.

• Students upload images from digital camera onto computer or television, observe, reflect,
discuss and evaluate their facial and body expression, using the third criteria in the Dance of the
Scary Hole Rubric.

Development:
• Perform the Dance of the Scary Hole.

Summative Assessment:
• Using the Dance of the Scary Hole Rubric, students conduct self and peer assessment.
• Dance educator uses rubric to assess individual student and group student achievement.

Culmination:
• Dancers find a “safe” personal space in the room, where they breathe, relax, think happy thoughts,
and prepare their bodies for slowly getting up to exit dance room.
• Scary Hole Projects are hung in the hallway, along with the rubric and the Blueprint Indicators to
create visibility for the dance education program.

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 DANCE ASSESSMENT
RUBRIC FOR “THE SCARY HOLE” DANCE
2007© Kathleen Isaac
CRITERIA ☺☺☺ ☺☺ ☺ Notes/Next Steps

Able to walk Walked slowly Walked forward Was not able to

SLOWLY in a in a forward but was not able move slowly in a
FORWARD direction direction towards to go slowly forward direction
towards the Scary the hole towards the hole towards the hole
Hole
Able to walk Walked quickly Walked quickly, Was not able to
QUICKLY in a in a backward but was not able walk quickly or
BACKWARD direction away to travel backward move in a
direction away from from the hole – turned around backward direction
the Scary Hole and went quickly away from the hole,
forward away or was too
from hole distracted to follow
the directions
Able to make a Made a body and Made a facial or Made sound while
BODY AND facial shape that body shape, but making facial and
FACIAL SHAPE that showed being not both, without body shape
shows what it’s like to scared without sound
feel scared, any sound.
WITHOUT MAKING
ANY SOUND while
moving toward the
hole and away.
Able to SKIP and Able to skip and Able to skip and Unable to skip and
CLAP TO A BEAT in clap to a beat in clap to a beat, but clap to beat, but
a CIRCULAR a circular skipped outside able to stay in circle
PATHWAY, around pathway around the circle, into -or-
the Scary Hole the scary hole – other areas of the Able to skip, but
one child behind room not clap and had
the other in trouble staying on
circle circle
Able to make a Made a body and Made a facial or Made sound while
BODY AND facial shape that body shape, but making facial and
FACIAL SHAPE that showed not both, without body shape
shows happiness, happiness sound
WITHOUT MAKING without any
ANY SOUND while sound
skipping in a circular
pathway around the
Scary Hole.