Teaching a dance class for children is very different from teaching a dance class for adults. Some children may be shy, come may not want to be there at all, and some may want to kid around the entire time. To keep the attention of your pupils, you must hold their interest with creative and fun ideas.

 

Choose appropriate music for the age group you are teaching. Kid’s songs are great for a younger group while pop music works well for older children. Select a variety of songs with different tempos and different mood for different parts of the class.

 

Always begin with warm-ups. You can also instruct pupils to move their bodies to imitate different objects in nature, such as a tree bending with the wind. Once the class has warmed up, begin an activity that encourages people to move around. Running, hopping, and skipping will all get your student’s heart rates up. Similar to the warm ups, you may want to encourage your students gallop like a horse or hop like a bunny.

 

Switch on a piece of music with rhythmic beat. Encourage pupils to move to the music. This is one of the basics of dance, and students will have to gain this skill before they are able to dance at a higher level.

 

Challenge them also to follow a sequence of movements. For example, you might tell them to reach for the sky, bend at the waist, take two steps to the right, and then spin around. Young children may have difficulty with this task, so slowly build up the number of directions you expect them to follow.

 

Afterwards, help pupils cool down at the end of the class with a piece of music that gets slower and slower. Encourage pupils to dance quickly at the beginning of the songs and to slow down along with the music.

By: Marissa C. Cruz | Teacher III | Orani North Elementary School | Orani, Bataan