Dance Party

Welcome to the classroom! We love to play, learn, create and sing together in the classroom, and we’d like to encourage our classroom friends to keep learning and playing at home once Caitie’s Classroom is over. We’ve put together activities and resources so the playing, learning, creating and singing doesn’t have to stop once Caitie says goodbye. Try these out at home or in your own classroom, and have fun!

In this episode of Caitie’s Classroom, we are having a dance party! We explore different kinds of dance, play with a dancing craft, pretend to be professional ballet dancers, and visit a modern dance class on a field trip. Below are some helpful resources so you can try out some of the activities from the classroom at home, as well as some new ideas for more learning and playing with a dance theme at home or in a classroom.

Craft – Colorful Dancing Spinners

Colorful Dancing Spinners Step by Step Instructions

Try making these colorful dancing spinners at home. You can practice colors by using different colored paper, and shapes by cutting the paper into squares, triangles, or even a star. When you cut the paper into different shapes, do they move differently? What if one was big and the other small? Can you make them dance fast? How long can you make them dance for? Try having a spinner contest and see which spinner will spin the longest!

Silly Dance Moves

Caitie likes trying out different ways to move, like wiggling and twirling! Ask your little ones what other kind of dance moves they can think of. Once you have tried a few, play some dancing games with those moves! Try playing Red Light, Green Light as you do one kind of dance move (wiggling, spinning, etc.) You can also play a game of Simon Says: Simon Says wiggle! Simon Says spin! Simon Says twist!

Here are some of favorite Super Simple songs with other fun movements in them:

Warm Up & Stretching

Caitie teaches us that when we are going to do a lot of movement, it is important to warm up. Follow along with Caitie as she sings Head Shoulders Knees & Toes. Here are some other fun version of this song:

Simon Says works great for a warm up game as well! And it’s great to practicing body part vocabulary. Simon Says touch your head! Simon Says touch your nose! Try purposefully making a mistake and see if your little ones catch on! Try saying Simon Says touch your knees, but actually touch your toes. See if they are listening, or just follow you. Remind them it’s a listening game, not a following game!

Dance Dice

When Caitie wants to explore different kinds of dance, she finds the Dance Dice! You can make Caitie’s Dance Dice at home with our free printable resource: Dance Dice Printable

You can also make your own version of a Dance Dice and put other kinds of dances on the sides. You can also put the simple movements that we tried earlier, like spin and wiggle, roll the dance and try each one!

When we play with the Dance Dice, we dance to different kinds of music. At home, try playing different genres of music and see how you are moved to dance to it. Why do you think some songs are better for dancing the ballet than disco dancing?

Field Trip to Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre

We are super lucky to take a field trip to The Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and dance with wonderful modern dancers! Try to follow along and dance with Caitie as she learns modern dance.

If you can, try taking a dance class at a dance studio near you! Some studios may offer drop-in classes for young dancers who want to try something new.

You can also search for videos online of dance performances to watch, and encourage your little ones to follow along. Do they have a favorite kind of dance that they like to watch? Why do they like it? Is it the same as the kind of dance they like to do themselves?

Let’s Pretend

With our book of pretending, we can pretend to be anything we like. In this episode, we pretend to be professional ballet dancers on a big stage. Encourage your little ones to close their eyes and listen to Caitie and music. Can they imagine themselves dancing in their heads?

If sitting still and closing our eyes is difficult for your little one, they can move along to Caitie’s words and act it out.

Try putting on different types of music and ask your little one to listen to it, then move the way it makes them feel. Ask them to imagine they are an animal, or anything at all as they move. See what they pick and how they move. Ask them why the piece of music made them imagine what it did.

Great Super Simple Dance Songs

To keep the dance party going, here are some other great dance songs little ones can follow along to from Super Simple:

We hope you have fun singing, playing, learning, and creating! We love to see photos of our friends having fun in the classroom and of their wonderful creations! You can share them with us a few different ways: