Enhance Child Development Through Creative Movement this Halloween
All children require playful and creative experiences in order for them to feel engaged and inspired when learning something new. Additionally, for young children, their language is expressed through movement as seen in free, expressive, or creative play. Once you understand how these creative experiences support a child’s development in understanding self and relationships, emotional literacy, and aesthetic development, your curriculum will not only be richer in ideas but also more impactful in the classroom.
Here are 5 ways to bring the spirit of Halloween into the classroom and at the same time enhance your child’s development.
Halloween Freeze Dance
Play some Halloween music and call out a fun character. When the music is playing the children are dancing as that character. When the music stops they freeze into the shape of that character. Call out a new character for each round. Some character ideas are bouncing pumpkins, swirling ghosts, stomping Frankensteins, flying bats or creeping spiders.
Ghosts on Tip-Toe
In a big space ask the children to tip-toe behind a friend for 15 seconds forming one big tiptoe circle. After the children have tiptoed in the circle for a few moments shout out “fly away ghosts” at which point they will make ghost sounds, “fly around” and find a new friend to tiptoe behind.
Magic Wand Dance
Get your students to partner up and give each group a pencil. Tell them that the pencil is actually a magic wand. One partner in each group starts of with the wand. Tell your class that you are going to do a bit of magic and change your friends into frogs. At the same time everyone can chant “Magic Wand 1, 2, 3 - change into a frog in front of me!”. Their partner then moves around as if they were frogs. Then, the other partner gets a turn with the wand and you can select a new creature to turn them into.
Jack-o-lantern Poem
Together as a class chant the words: “Pumpkin, pumpkin round it sat. Turn into a Jack-o-lantern just-like-that!”
On the words “just-like-that” children can end the chant by making different pumpkins faces! First you can try a surprised pumpkin face and then a silly pumpkin face too. Follow it with a sad, sleepy, scary and happy pumpkin.
Dance of the Magic Mirrors
Children will first determine who is going to be “Leader” and who will be the “Magic Mirror”.
The Leader begins to dance and the follower acts as a mirror, trying to follow the leader’s dance movements. When the music ends children switch positions. The Leader now becomes the Magic Mirror, and the Magic Mirror becomes the Leader.
Sarina Condello is Together Classrooms’ Creative Dance Expert. Serena has traveled the world for over 30 years, teaching dance to thousands of children. She also stars as Belle in the Youtube Creative Dance series MOSI + MOO.
MOSI + MOO is creative programming on YouTube for children ages 2-7. It is curriculum-based and mindfully designed to enhance children’s locomotor, non-locomotor, and problem solving skills. MOSI + MOO offers hours of free physical edutainment including Nursery Rhyme Dances like Old MacDonald, and Dance Songs like the funny Monkey Swing or Wobbly Clown. They have an engaging series of fantastic Dance Parties, including our latest Halloween spookfest, where your classroom can dance like skeletons, ghosts, and jack-o-lanterns and then rock it out! They also offer incredible 20+ minute Dance Stories, where children can dance through the pages of an imaginary adventure storybook and problem solve using their newly learned dance motifs.
Subscribe today to get new creative dance videos every Friday! Check out the MOSI + MOO website, and follow them on Instagram for amazing classroom tips and more.