Animal Frolics
Why this lesson is important:
Animal frolics is a celebrative expressive process that allows students a great freedom to express and enjoy themselves moving, interacting with each other, and with the teacher.
while also respecting other students and respecting limits.Animal frolics allows and encourage various primative movements that give exercise, coordination.
Animal frolics allows and encourages practing a range of emotional expression
Animal frolics allow kids and teachers to interact in a more primal play.
Animal frolics is at times a structure that allows students and teachers of exercise their emerging musical and movement skills
Some Classic Animals
- Frogs: squatting, hopping, sounds
- Turtles: on all fours, when a musical signal is given all students go in to their shell. When the beat restarts, students come out of their shells and crawl.
- Birds: flying with wings out, flocking usually following an adult.
- Dinosaurs: large muscle strong movements
- Dragons: like dinosaurs but might breath fire.
- Beaversmay build dams or chew down trees, slap their tails to warn others.
- Opposums: play dead to handle danger.
- Elephants: have trunks, the trumpet with their trunks.
- Giraffe: reach to the tree tops for the tenderest leaves.
- Snakes:
- Roly-Polys: are cued by walking beat and a rolling beat. Students learn to roll on cue. They learn to not roll over other studnets.
- Unicorns / Pegasus: horse like movements
- Lions: roar and students are still expected to care about other students even when they are being a lion.
- Monkeys: love to talk with each other in monkey language.
- Lizards: crawl on their bellys.
- Bears: walk on hands and feet, knees off the ground. (builds upper body strength)
- Orangatang: move with two hands together and two feet together.(builds upper body strength, and upper /lower body coordination.)
- Spiders:
- Crabs: crawling ; standing
- Jelly Fish:
- Dolphins / Sharks:
- Kangaroos: great hopping
- Dinosaurs: large muscle strong movements
Animal Frolics - Danger Games- these emphasise natural defensive strategies of the natural world. These strategies are largely encoded in our nervous system. By enacting these strategies, students can be empowered by them.
Turtle:
Oppossums:
Roly Poly:
Cat and Mouse: usually adults are the cats, students are the mice. Note I arrange a safe area where students who don't want to play, can stay safely out of the game.
Stand up the to the Bear
Level 2
One or several students act as musicians for the students that are moving.
Level 3 Cycle Stories
Frogs: can start as frogs eggs and develop into frogs.
From caterpillar to butterfly
From apple seed to apple tree
From acorn to oak tree
Combine classes or groups
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