Our Favorite Ways to Teach Dance Concepts to Preschoolers and Early Elementary Aged Students
Teaching dance to young children can be an incredibly rewarding experience. At this age, dance is about more than just learning steps—it's about exploring movement, building coordination, and fostering creativity. One of the best ways to nurture these skills is by teaching fundamental dance concepts—such as space, time, energy, and body awareness—through fun, engaging activities. Whether you're working with preschoolers or early elementary students, these concepts are essential for helping them develop a solid foundation in dance. Below, we’ll share our favorite strategies for introducing these dance concepts to younger students, along with some easy-to-implement activities that will keep them moving and learning!
1. Teaching Dance Concepts to Preschoolers
Preschoolers are just beginning to understand their bodies and how they relate to space. At this age, the focus should be on hands-on exploration, play, and sensory experiences that engage them in the concepts without overwhelming them with too many rules. Here are some strategies and activity ideas for teaching preschoolers:
Focus on Exploration and Play
Preschoolers learn best through play, so make sure your activities feel like games rather than structured lessons. Use storytelling, music, and fun challenges to keep them engaged.
Incorporate Visual and Auditory Cues
Preschoolers are still developing language and cognitive skills, so using visual and auditory cues helps make abstract dance concepts more concrete. Think of colors, shapes, and sounds that represent different movements or qualities.
Use Props and Tools
Props like scarves, balls, or ribbons can help illustrate concepts like space and energy in a way that feels tangible to younger children.
Activity Examples for Preschoolers
Space Concept – "Shape Explorers"
Objective: Explore how to use space and create different shapes with the body.
How: Play "Shape Explorers" by asking the children to make shapes with their bodies. Start with simple shapes like a “star,” “circle,” or “triangle.” You can use a hula hoop or tape on the floor as a visual marker to show where to start or end each shape. Encourage them to experiment with different levels (high, medium, low) and directions (forward, backward, side-to-side).
Variation: Use a fun story where the children are "explorers" finding different shapes in a magical land, and they must freeze in the shape of a mountain, a tree, or an animal when they "discover" it.
Time Concept – "Freeze Dance"
Objective: Introduce the idea of rhythm, timing, and stopping and starting on cue.
How: Play some music and have the children dance freely. When the music stops, they must freeze in place! To make it more engaging, give them a variety of poses to freeze into (e.g., a statue, a tree, or an animal). You can also vary the speed of the music to help them understand different tempos.
Variation: Add a "slow" and "fast" version to the game so they experience different speeds of movement.
Energy Concept – "Animal Movements"
Objective: Introduce the concept of energy by using different animals to explore movement qualities.
How: Ask the children to move like various animals. Have them move like a bunny (light, hopping), an elephant (heavy, stomping), or a butterfly (gentle, fluttering). After each movement, talk about how the energy felt different depending on the animal’s movements. Encourage them to mimic these movements with different levels of force—gentle or strong—while moving through space.
Variation: You can also give them color-coded scarves, where blue means "light and gentle," red means "strong and bold," and green means "smooth and calm."
2. Teaching Dance Concepts to Early Elementary Aged Students
As children move into the early elementary years, they begin to refine their motor skills and understanding of movement. At this age, they can handle more complex concepts, and you can introduce structured activities that emphasize coordination, rhythm, and collaboration. Here are some strategies and activities to use with early elementary-aged students:
Provide Structure with Creative Freedom
At this age, children benefit from having a balance between structured learning and creative freedom. Incorporate dance games that encourage critical thinking and problem-solving but allow for personal expression.
Build on their Knowledge
Early elementary students are starting to understand time and space in more abstract ways, so you can build on concepts like rhythm, levels, and direction by linking them to their daily experiences and the stories they enjoy.
Focus on Collaboration
Group activities and partner work will help them develop social skills while reinforcing concepts like space, relationship, and body awareness.
Activity Examples for Early Elementary Aged Students
Space Concept – "Direction and Pathways Relay"
Objective: Explore different pathways and directions through space.
How: Create a "relay race" where the children must move through different pathways, such as a zigzag, curve, straight line, or spiral. Call out different directions (e.g., “move forward,” “move to the side,” “jump backward”) and have them explore those movements. Challenge them to use both low and high levels and change direction quickly. This exercise teaches spatial awareness and agility.
Variation: Have the students work in pairs, where one child guides the other through the different pathways without speaking, fostering communication through movement.
Time Concept – "Musical Statues with a Twist"
Objective: Reinforce rhythm, timing, and self-control.
How: This activity is similar to “Freeze Dance” but with more focus on rhythm and timing. When the music starts, children move freely to the beat. When the music stops, they must freeze in a specific pose, like a tree or a star. Add challenges such as "freeze on one leg" or "freeze while balancing a beanbag on your head." By adding rhythm-based variations, students can better understand how their bodies respond to time and music.
Variation: Have students move to the beat of a slow song, and then switch to a fast-paced tune to experience contrasting tempos.
Energy Concept – "Mood Dance"
Objective: Explore how energy and emotion affect movement.
How: Play a variety of music pieces with different moods (fast/slow, loud/soft, happy/sad). After each piece, ask students to create a dance that matches the mood of the music. For example, when the music is slow and soft, they might move in smooth, flowing motions. When the music is upbeat and fast, they could create sharp, energetic movements. Discuss how the energy of the music affects the way they moved.
Variation: Have them perform their "mood dances" in small groups, allowing them to collaborate and express the mood through group choreography.
Body Concept – "Body Part Isolation Challenge"
Objective: Develop body awareness and isolation of body parts.
How: Lead students in a fun challenge where they isolate different body parts and move them separately. Start with head, shoulders, arms, and legs—ask students to wiggle, shake, or stretch each body part without moving the others. Then, increase the complexity by isolating movements of the fingers, toes, or hips. This activity helps students become more aware of their bodies and how they can control different parts.
Variation: Create a dance routine with these isolated movements and challenge students to perform it with precision and creativity.
Conclusion
Teaching dance concepts to preschoolers and early elementary students is a wonderful way to nurture their physical, cognitive, and creative development. By introducing concepts like space, time, energy, and body awareness through fun, interactive activities, children can begin to build a solid foundation for future dance learning. Whether you’re using animals to explore energy, or guiding students through a relay to understand space, these activities will help young learners connect with dance on a deeper level, setting them up for future success in any movement discipline. Most importantly, don’t forget to keep it fun—after all, dance is about joy, creativity, and self-expression!