Folk Dancing

2nd and 3rd Graders are finishing up a folk dancing unit.  Students have been practicing keeping the beat, listening for phrasing, making cultural connections, and working together as we work our way through this unit.  All of our dances have been in longways sets, and students have learned to sashay, elbow swing, dosido, and "peel the banana."

After a few weeks of practicing our moves, 3rd graders studied a historical picture of people doing the Virginia Reel.  We talked about the similarities and differences between this picture and the dances we were doing.  Students made inferences about the time period and the reason for dancing.  Then, we noticed some qualities about the dancing in the picture that we wanted to copy in our dancing, including moving with a calm body and standing with good posture.  Students graded themselves on their dancing based on this discussion.

Check out some photos of our students enjoying these dances below: