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"Dance: The Yellow Submarine" (Amy and Stacey, Pre-K)
Creative Dance Lesson:
“Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles
(Amy and Stacey)
“Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles
(Amy and Stacey)
(This was for Art class, which explains the format. But in case anyone is doing some theme like this and this might be useful in some way... here it is!)
Details and Learning Foundations
Our class envisioned for this lesson is our pre-kindergarten class that we have visited, and will continue to visit, for our pre-internship. It is split into morning and afternoon classes, with approximately ten students (for most days) attending in each. Both classes are a fairly even mix between three and four year-olds, which makes for a wonderful combination of students. Hopefully, we will soon be exploring dance with them during our first block period!
Our classroom space is not particularly large, so the movements were envisioned with the small area in mind. While we do occasionally have access to a large gymnasium, it is not very frequent, and there are chances that either our morning or afternoon class will not have the opportunity to visit the room throughout the entire duration of our block period. As such, we wanted to create dances that could be adapted to both. In the classroom, our movements may be small, as students will be in close proximity; whispered voices and emphasis on sound effects could come into play here. In the gymnasium, the movements may be sweeping, and students may move around the larger space more freely, opening up other possibilities.
The foundations for learning are always being developed. As discussed in class, students should:
For the dance, our song selection is “Yellow Submarine,” recorded by The Beatles. It is a charming tune that many students may have heard before, but this dance will hopefully encourage them to look at it in a new light. The music has a slow and joyous rhythm that may lend itself to many different movement patterns. The goal with our dance is to lead students in these movements while still allowing them the opportunity for visualization and free interpretation.
Listed later on are our planned movements as they correspond with the song, which runs for 2:37 on the Yellow Submarine album. However, we do not want it to be entirely rigid; the goal here, in many ways, is to tell a story with the students. Before moving into the dance with music, work through the movement ideas with them as follows. Ask them if they would like to join you in creating a wonderful undersea performance!
Warming Up
Our hope, for this lesson, is to inspire our students to visualize a whimsical ocean experience. Where could this fit? Perhaps it would be well-suited to an oceanic thematic unit. If boats are being discussed in class, draw inspiration from there. Maybe underwater creatures have been a focus? Build on what the students are currently interested in. Discussion may serve as a good review.
Once we have warmed up the minds, we can begin to warm up the bodies. We will encourage our students to find their own “personal spaces,” lightly rocking back and forth with their arms extended to ensure that they will not bump against another student. Begin by moving our heads and our necks: move them side-to-side, in a circular motion, and up and down. Although this is a “warming up” exercise, the process of exploration can begin here! We can encourage the students to close their eyes during these parts, imagining they are surrounded by water. How does it feel to stretch in water? Does it make our head feel heavy, weighed down? Or do they feel free, like they are floating?
Encourage students to continue this visualization process as they warm up their other body parts. This includes the shoulders (move them in circular patterns, in both directions), arms (swing in a circular fashion, and move them across the midline), hips (swing them, moving in a circular pattern, in both directions), legs (swing them lightly back and forth, and bring one leg up, followed by the other), and toes (move up on tiptoes on one of your legs, then switch to the other one.)
Exploration
All students should still be in their “personal space” from the warmup activity. Ask them: who goes out to sea? How would we feel about sailing out to sea? Proud, bold? Bold strolling, almost marching, could be a good introduction. Practice this. Encourage big movements! We are walking towards the sea, ready to explore.
But what happens when we reach the coast? We could get out to our boat – but wait! We need to swim there, first! As the music in the song begins to almost “bob” in rhythm, so too can we. We are swimming against the waves, almost moving side-to-side. High, exaggerated movements are good. Swim with the arms! Maybe we can kick with our legs? We are trying to make it to our boat.
We are captains of our boat, now! What does a captain do? Students may have different interpretations. Proud stances are encouraged. Perhaps longing looks in the distance to chart a course? Remember to protect your eyes from the sun! Work on the midline at this section. Make fists, and move arms across the midline to stimulate rowing a boat. It is a wavy day, so we need to put lots of energy into rowing!
Look around. Encourage students to get closer to one another. (“And our friends are all aboard...” will correspond.) It’s happy on the sea with our friends! We might do a jig together: placing our hands on hips, we might kick, focusing on opposite directions. How else could we dance with our friends? It’s a concert! The song will play trumpeting, so freeze. Listen closely, possibly kneeling down with our hands to our ears to provide a visual cue for the students. Can they make the motions to play that very trumpet? Celebrate the music!
The chorus in the song repeats. For the initial repeating, mirror the movements as earlier. The music will again “bob” with the rhythm, which may lend itself to swimming (or moving in a boat) against the waves. However, now we can move into the deep sea. Ask students to dive into the water, making plunging movements downwards. What might we find down there? Beautiful fish, swimming by? (Look around!) Oh – look to the distance – that may be treasure up ahead.
Success! We may have found a treasure chest... circle around it. What should we do, deep-sea-divers? (Especially if this is a smaller class, everyone may be able to circle around the same point, imagining together.) Try to pick it up. But – wait – it’s heavy! Let’s all pull together, now... as hard as we can...
We can celebrate! Dance through the water, enjoying our find! Ask everyone to show off a “fish shape.” Be a fish, then freeze! Try this with other ideas. Be a shark: ferocious, quick movements. Be a jellyfish: loose, free glides. What other creatures might we see in the ocean? (Ask for student suggestions! Some could include octopuses, swordfish, whales, and so on.) As the song plays, call out for students to be one sea creature for a few moments, then the next, then a third. (They may act as whichever ones they choose, and interpret them however they like.)
Then, at the end, while the students are acting as their third sea creature, it is time to finish up... with a tidal wave! Crash down and wash everyone onto the shore (huddling them together on the ground) as the music fades out! (While creating and practicing this dance, we would not do this step, so that it is a surprise for the students later on.)
Exploration Table (With Corresponding Music Time)
Cooling Down
As the dance is finished, the students should all be sitting already in a circular group on the ground, wind down with them. Was that fun? They may evaluate the dance in this way, and possibly offer suggestions. Discuss some of the other things that we could do together in the ocean. Maybe that may lead to another dance for a later class! Allowing the students the opportunity to respond to the dance, in a variety of means (particularly at this stage, we may focus on the emotional or the associative levels.) We can do some light stretches while sitting, especially with our neck and our arms, to gently wind down the activity.
Details and Learning Foundations
Our class envisioned for this lesson is our pre-kindergarten class that we have visited, and will continue to visit, for our pre-internship. It is split into morning and afternoon classes, with approximately ten students (for most days) attending in each. Both classes are a fairly even mix between three and four year-olds, which makes for a wonderful combination of students. Hopefully, we will soon be exploring dance with them during our first block period!
Our classroom space is not particularly large, so the movements were envisioned with the small area in mind. While we do occasionally have access to a large gymnasium, it is not very frequent, and there are chances that either our morning or afternoon class will not have the opportunity to visit the room throughout the entire duration of our block period. As such, we wanted to create dances that could be adapted to both. In the classroom, our movements may be small, as students will be in close proximity; whispered voices and emphasis on sound effects could come into play here. In the gymnasium, the movements may be sweeping, and students may move around the larger space more freely, opening up other possibilities.
The foundations for learning are always being developed. As discussed in class, students should:
- Develop an awareness of actions, body, dynamics, relationships and space in the movement of dance. Students can experience these things and explore them.
- Explore moving with a variety of dynamic qualities.
- Move and clap in time to an external beat.
- Move freely in general space while maintaining personal space.
- Become familiar with locomotor and non-locomotor actions, and start and stop movements at will.
- Become aware of many different kinds of relationships the students can have with the teacher or another dancer, such as near, far, above, below, in front of, behind, and so on.
For the dance, our song selection is “Yellow Submarine,” recorded by The Beatles. It is a charming tune that many students may have heard before, but this dance will hopefully encourage them to look at it in a new light. The music has a slow and joyous rhythm that may lend itself to many different movement patterns. The goal with our dance is to lead students in these movements while still allowing them the opportunity for visualization and free interpretation.
Listed later on are our planned movements as they correspond with the song, which runs for 2:37 on the Yellow Submarine album. However, we do not want it to be entirely rigid; the goal here, in many ways, is to tell a story with the students. Before moving into the dance with music, work through the movement ideas with them as follows. Ask them if they would like to join you in creating a wonderful undersea performance!
Warming Up
Our hope, for this lesson, is to inspire our students to visualize a whimsical ocean experience. Where could this fit? Perhaps it would be well-suited to an oceanic thematic unit. If boats are being discussed in class, draw inspiration from there. Maybe underwater creatures have been a focus? Build on what the students are currently interested in. Discussion may serve as a good review.
Once we have warmed up the minds, we can begin to warm up the bodies. We will encourage our students to find their own “personal spaces,” lightly rocking back and forth with their arms extended to ensure that they will not bump against another student. Begin by moving our heads and our necks: move them side-to-side, in a circular motion, and up and down. Although this is a “warming up” exercise, the process of exploration can begin here! We can encourage the students to close their eyes during these parts, imagining they are surrounded by water. How does it feel to stretch in water? Does it make our head feel heavy, weighed down? Or do they feel free, like they are floating?
Encourage students to continue this visualization process as they warm up their other body parts. This includes the shoulders (move them in circular patterns, in both directions), arms (swing in a circular fashion, and move them across the midline), hips (swing them, moving in a circular pattern, in both directions), legs (swing them lightly back and forth, and bring one leg up, followed by the other), and toes (move up on tiptoes on one of your legs, then switch to the other one.)
Exploration
All students should still be in their “personal space” from the warmup activity. Ask them: who goes out to sea? How would we feel about sailing out to sea? Proud, bold? Bold strolling, almost marching, could be a good introduction. Practice this. Encourage big movements! We are walking towards the sea, ready to explore.
But what happens when we reach the coast? We could get out to our boat – but wait! We need to swim there, first! As the music in the song begins to almost “bob” in rhythm, so too can we. We are swimming against the waves, almost moving side-to-side. High, exaggerated movements are good. Swim with the arms! Maybe we can kick with our legs? We are trying to make it to our boat.
We are captains of our boat, now! What does a captain do? Students may have different interpretations. Proud stances are encouraged. Perhaps longing looks in the distance to chart a course? Remember to protect your eyes from the sun! Work on the midline at this section. Make fists, and move arms across the midline to stimulate rowing a boat. It is a wavy day, so we need to put lots of energy into rowing!
Look around. Encourage students to get closer to one another. (“And our friends are all aboard...” will correspond.) It’s happy on the sea with our friends! We might do a jig together: placing our hands on hips, we might kick, focusing on opposite directions. How else could we dance with our friends? It’s a concert! The song will play trumpeting, so freeze. Listen closely, possibly kneeling down with our hands to our ears to provide a visual cue for the students. Can they make the motions to play that very trumpet? Celebrate the music!
The chorus in the song repeats. For the initial repeating, mirror the movements as earlier. The music will again “bob” with the rhythm, which may lend itself to swimming (or moving in a boat) against the waves. However, now we can move into the deep sea. Ask students to dive into the water, making plunging movements downwards. What might we find down there? Beautiful fish, swimming by? (Look around!) Oh – look to the distance – that may be treasure up ahead.
Success! We may have found a treasure chest... circle around it. What should we do, deep-sea-divers? (Especially if this is a smaller class, everyone may be able to circle around the same point, imagining together.) Try to pick it up. But – wait – it’s heavy! Let’s all pull together, now... as hard as we can...
We can celebrate! Dance through the water, enjoying our find! Ask everyone to show off a “fish shape.” Be a fish, then freeze! Try this with other ideas. Be a shark: ferocious, quick movements. Be a jellyfish: loose, free glides. What other creatures might we see in the ocean? (Ask for student suggestions! Some could include octopuses, swordfish, whales, and so on.) As the song plays, call out for students to be one sea creature for a few moments, then the next, then a third. (They may act as whichever ones they choose, and interpret them however they like.)
Then, at the end, while the students are acting as their third sea creature, it is time to finish up... with a tidal wave! Crash down and wash everyone onto the shore (huddling them together on the ground) as the music fades out! (While creating and practicing this dance, we would not do this step, so that it is a surprise for the students later on.)
Exploration Table (With Corresponding Music Time)
| 0:00 – 0:19 (In the town where I was born / Lived a man who sailed to sea / And he told us of his life / In the land of submarines) | The beginning music starts out fairly quietly. Big stretches; looking around the town. Marching down to the ocean. Proud walking, or marching! We are excited to explore. |
| 0:20 – 0:35 (So we sailed on to the sun / ‘Til we found a sea of green / And we lived beneath the waves / In our yellow submarine) | The music begins to “bob.” Simulate this. Make swimming motions, side-to-side; arms will be high, with bold movements. |
| (0:36 – 0:52) (CHORUS: We all live in a yellow submarine / Yellow submarine, yellow submarine / We all live in a yellow submarine / Yellow submarine, yellow submarine) | Act like a captain here! Focus on the midline. Making fists, move arms across the midline to “row,” alternating sides. Take pauses to point or stare off into the distance, protecting your eyes. |
| (0:53 – 1:03) (And our friends are all aboard / Many more of them live next door / And the band begins to play...) | Dancing with our friends. Gathering students closer, dance with our legs, possibly kicking in time. Imagine other dancing we might do with one another. |
| (1:04-1:10) (Trumpeting) | Let’s play music! Trumpeting motions: Fist-to-mouth, extending arm outward several times, then placing the opposite hand-to-mouth and repeating. (Or other student interpretation.) |
| (1:11 – 1:27) (Chorus repeats) | Back to swimming. Dive with the students. Going deep underwater: great arm movements, pulling us forward. Look around with our heads to see underwater treasures. Move towards a possible treasure in the distance. |
| (1:28 - 1:44) (Muffled speaking and instrumental break) | Circle around the “treasure chest.” Cautiously approach it, and all together, try to lift. It is heavy, so continue trying, as best as we can. |
| (1:45 – 2:37) (As we live a life of ease / Every one of us has all we need / Sky of blue and sea of green / In our yellow submarine) (Chorus repeats and fades out) | Celebration! Dancing, swimming around the water. Joyous movements. Emulate various sea creatures: ask students to show you three different animals. At the end: tidal wave! Sweep all of the students together, “onto the shore.” |
Cooling Down
As the dance is finished, the students should all be sitting already in a circular group on the ground, wind down with them. Was that fun? They may evaluate the dance in this way, and possibly offer suggestions. Discuss some of the other things that we could do together in the ocean. Maybe that may lead to another dance for a later class! Allowing the students the opportunity to respond to the dance, in a variety of means (particularly at this stage, we may focus on the emotional or the associative levels.) We can do some light stretches while sitting, especially with our neck and our arms, to gently wind down the activity.
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