Creative Movement Curriculum project

Theme: Animals

Mandy, Suzzie, HeatherStephanie V, Jena J

Activity #1Stretching and

Warming Up

StandardsTheatre Education• B.4.2 Create a human or animal character through physical

movement with sounds and/or speech, using facial expressions

Physical Education• D.4.4 Use physical activity as a means of self-expression Science• F.4.1 Discover how each organism meets its basic needs for

water, nutrients, protection, and energy in order to survive

Geography• A.4.2 Locate on a map or globe physical features such as

continents, oceans, mountain ranges, and land forms, natural features such as resources, flora, and fauna; and human features such as cities, states, and national borders

 

Enduring Understandings

• Children will understand why animals move the way they do.

• Children will understand what body parts help different animals move.

• Children will understand that different animals move in different ways.

• Children will understand that they can move their bodies to imitate various animals.

Essential Questions

• Why do animals need to move?

• How do you think different animals make their bodies move?

• How can you move your body like your favorite animal?

• What part of your body do you use when moving like “a certain animal”?

Knowledge

• Children will learn why animals need to move.

• Children will learn the ways different animals move.

• Children will learn how they can manipulate their bodies to imitate animal actions.

Skills

• Children will engage in problem solving as they figure out which part of their bodies can move like specific animals.

• Children will move their bodies based on their perception of how animals in the book moved.

Dispositions

• Children will value the role of movement in animal’s lives.

• Children will value the way they are able to move their bodies to imitate animal actions.

Core Performance Task: GRASPS

Goal: Students will understand how animals move their bodies, and how they can mimic animal action through their own movements.

 Role: Provide instruction and guidance as students discover how and why animals use their bodies to move in specific ways.

 Audience: Students will participate with classmates.

 Situation: Lessons are designed for students to participate by using their bodies. A book that portrays the active movements of specific animals will be shared to jump start similar movements by students.

 Purpose/Product: Students will have a better understanding of why and how animals use their bodies.

 Relationship to Enduring Understandings: Throughout the lesson students will use their enduring understanding to show their competence as to why animals move a specific way. The core performance task ensures that students are introduced to actions of animals in motion and guided in using their bodies to portray or imitate similar movements.

Assessment

• Throughout the lesson students will be assessed on their ability to follow direction, and how they are able to use their bodies to depict actions or movements similar to the ones portrayed in the book.

• They will also be assessed based on their answers to questions asked throughout the activities and their participation in the activities.

Activity #2 Animal Action ABC

Humpback Whale

Whale Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z81k6u7pc4Y

• Habitat: Oceans and seas of both Northern and Southern Hemispheres

•Playful & curious

•Often jump (breach) out of the water and at times they wave their flappers and slap their tails

•They even sing

•Tail is very special. Each has a unique pattern of black and while colors, different in every whale – much like a fingerprint in humans

Japanese Crane

Crane Dance Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12dMBoRYpxs

•Habitat: Marshlands in China, Siberia, and Korea, and on Hokkaido (northernmost island of Japan)

•Has long, graceful legs

•Spends Winter in areas that are very cold

•To stay warm, will stand on one leg; the other is tucked into the feathers on its body, after a while it switches legs

•Well known for their beautiful dance

• As they bob their heads, bounce, whirl, and leap they sometimes pick up objects with their beak to throw in the air

• They like to dance at all times of the year, often if one cranes starts to dance the whole flock with follow

Jaguar

Jaguar Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRfzUdqeJhQ&feature=related

• Habitat: Rain forests and grasslands in Central and South America

• Home in both the jungle and the savanna

• Like to bathe and swim, so they never stray far from water

• Hunt animals that are found in and near water

• Can climb trees but generally do their stalking from ground level

• They are the only big cat not known to roar; instead they grunt

Macaw(Scarlet &Green winged)

Macaw Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ljm1ZmdySo

•Habitat: Tropical rain forests of eastern Panama, most of Northern South America, and Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay

•Fly with slow wing beats

•Travel in flocks through rain forest where they collect clay

• Clay gets rid of poisons found in seeds they have eaten

• Also eat nuts and fruit

• Once female and male pair they stay together for life

Impala

Impala Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM_IPt033HI

• Habitat: Open woodland, savanna, and sandy bush country in western Africa

• Graceful animals of the antelope family

• Males have beautiful shaped horns

• When they sense danger, they run away effortlessly

• They can easily leap over bushes and one another; can spring high into the air and jump far distances

Red Kangaroo

Kangaroo Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DZnx1mGyq4&feature=channel

• Habitat: Inland plains of Australia

• Well known for their great ability to hop

• When traveling at a slow pace, it can jump 4 to 6 ft at a time; when frightened can leap more than 30 ft

• They fight to test their skills and strength; wrestle, hug, box, and kick

• When kicking, it keeps its hind legs on ground for support

Penguin(Adelie & Macaroni)

Adelie Penguin Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-_9EWYAbbI (start at 1:30)

• Habitat: Adelie - Coast of Antarctica and many of the Antarctica islandsMacaroni – Outer and inner islands around Antarctica

Adelie• Stand upright to walk and run on land and ice• Can slide across snow like toboggans• Use small flippers to swim, up to 15 mph• Pop up out of water to heights of 6 ft

Macaroni• Got their name because of bright yellow crests over their eyes• Live in colonies • Prefer to live by hills and cliffs• Can’t fly

Mallard Duck

Duck Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHevNn-AVQg

• Habitat: Bodies of water (bays, marshes, ponds, and ditches) in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia

• Often one of the first birds you might have see

• Mingle with domestic ducks in parks

• Males have beautiful green head feathers most of the year

Cougar

Cougar Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HADjWBd_TUY

• Habitat: Mountainous, forested, and swampy areas in the western U.S and Canada, bush country with small isolated populations in Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, and Louisiana

• Secretive and mainly stay by themselves

• If two of them share land they will seldom be there at the same time; avoid each other, so they rarely fight

• Main food deer and elk, will eat smaller animals such as coyotes, porcupines, beavers, birds, mice, etc

• Sometimes eat berries, grasses, and grasshoppers

Chameleon(Parson’s)

Chameleon Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q90DGRJjdtw

• Habitat: Rain forests in Madagascar

• They can change color

• Amazing features: each of eyes is able to move separately

• Tongues can shoot out to farther than the length of their bodies

• So even though they are slow they can catch food from a distance

Extension

Body Poetry Animal Action Cards

Activity Guide: http://www.roylco.com/instructions/eng_ins/1239217722.pdf

Activity #3Moving Like Animals

To Music

Activity #4Animal Charades

Extension ActivityThe Mitten