Just Dance

Teachers, parents, bored individuals, anyone looking for a dance workout at home!

I have an announcement for you!

Are you aware that there are tons of bootlegged just dance videos on YouTube?  (Not that I condone bootlegging in any way)

I discovered this in an offhand way a few weeks ago while I was looking for a song to do as a warm up with the dance team I coach at work.  Ever since then I've been utilizing just dance videos into a lot of my teaching.

I teach creative movement and theatre, so I can easily fit the videos into my lesson plans.  I use these videos as warm ups, to get ideas for dance moves, and most often as a reward. 

In my classroom I have a chart that keeps track of the behavior of each class that I see throughout the week.  When a class gets 5 stars (5 days of excellent behavior) they get 10 minutes of a reward.  Ever since I introduced the 'Just Dance Dance Party' my students have gone crazy for it!

I understand that most teachers do not teach dance and theatre, but you could use these videos in a ton of other ways!

Ways to Use Just Dance in Your Classroom

As a reward: A certain percentage of good behavior in a week, great reviews from all specials teachers in a week, meeting a class set average on a test, or for getting 20 compliments from other teachers.

As a brain break: Learning can be exhausting, and those little (or big) brains deserve a break every once and a while!  Most of the videos on YouTube are only 2 minutes, put 2 of them on and you've had a 5 minute fun brain break!  The kids get moving, get their minds off what they've been learning, and allow them to come back to work fresh.

As a recess alternative: I remember when I was substituting that rainy or cold days were absolutely miserable.  The students needed that 30-45 minutes of play to get out a lot of their energy.  What do you do when you cannot have recess because of weather reasons?  When I was student teaching, my wonderful cooperating teacher would have a dance party on rainy days.  She would put on the radio and the kids would all get a chance leading the class.  If you have a smart board or a projector you can stream these off YouTube and give your a students an actual workout.  Not only will it get the energy out, but your students will have a blast!

If you want to check out this awesome resource for yourself just head over to YouTube and search for 'Just Dance' if you teach middle-high school or 'Just Dance Kids' if you teach elementary school.

Magazine Holder

I need all sorts of organization in my classroom.  There are coloring sheets, magazines, scrapbook paper, construction paper, lined paper, graph paper (you get the picture).  Browsing through educational websites to find ways to organize all these things can be quite discouraging however.  Most items you see in educational stores are quite expensive and hardly seem to fit all of your needs.  What to do? Make your own!

What I have for you today is a pictorial tutorial on how I made my own organizers out of cereal boxes!

Step One

I took a regular 12" ruler and drew an angled line across my cereal box.  I didn't use any specific measuring tool for the angle, just fiddled around until I found an angle I liked.

Step Two

Next I cut off the four flaps at the top, then cut down the line I had drawn on the cereal box.

Step Three

Use the piece you just cut as a template for the second side so they match.  I laid out the cut piece and drew my cutting line so that both sides would have the same angles.  After you have cut both sides you can cut the small piece running up the middle with a straight line in the middle.



See! Three sides cut out!

Step Four

Measure out the amount of wrapping paper you will need, just as you would if you were wrapping a present.  Start with one side of your box on the edge of your wrapping paper, and keep flipping it until you have measured out each side.

Step Five

Now start wrapping it up like a present!

Step Six



I trimmed about half an inch from the top and bottom to make sure I wasn't folding up an absurd amount of excess wrapping paper.

Step Seven



I wrapped the bottom of my cereal box just like I do when I wrap gifts.  Everyone has their own way of wrapping gifts, use your own judgement for how you wrap yours.

Step Eight

The last thing you need to do is trim away the excess paper at the top of the box on the angle.  I cut small slits on each corner, folded the tape into the box,  and taped them down.

Note to crafters: I discovered that the size of the Life Cereal box was too small to comfortably fit magazines inside.  I plan on repeating this project again, but I will use larger cereal boxes.

Who Are We?

When I'm looking for bulletin board ideas for my classroom I often get frustrated.  I teach dance and theatre and those subjects aren't often taught on an elementary level.  Most of the board ideas I see are for boards outside classrooms that display the classroom demographic and names of all the students. 

I've been looking for ideas for the bulletin boards in my classroom and this is one that I came up with!

This board is a display of some of the work my theatre students are doing.  One of the first days of class I let each student pick out  one prop or costume piece and I took their picture.  The next day their journal entry was to create a character, different from themselves, who was in the picture.  Students had to write the name of their character, how old they were, what they like to do, what they did for a living, and any other details they wanted to add.

This was a great assignment for a theatre class because it allowed them to create their very own characters, but this assignment could be tweaked to fit any English Language class.  Not everyone has a prop box or closet of costume pieces to choose from but not to fear! 

Students could bring in a costume piece or favorite piece of clothing from home.  Instead of one writing assignment it could become two.  The first would explain why the student chose that particular item, for the second the student would take their picture and create another person (or animal) to write about. Another option would be for students to swap items.  Students could explain why they love what they brought and see how it can be transformed.

For the actual bulletin board I wanted to create something dynamic.  The walls in my classroom are really white, and there is a lot of white space right now.  I love the way teal and red look together, and I was lucky enough to find these matching speech bubbles at my local education store. (A tip from me to you, laminate everything in your classroom!)

Stay tuned with some more ideas to bring the arts into your classroom!