That's What It's All About!

Have you ever done the Hokey Pokey with kids?  What about The Chicken Dance?  Electric Slide?
Kids love these dances and adults love them as well.  Whenever I go to a fancy party ( wedding, Bar Mitzah, etc.) I am always amazed that adults jump up to do these dances led by the MC. 

When I got married a pleaded with the band NOT do any silly party dances.  I wanted a romantic and classic feel.  They did it anyway.  The funny thing is the dance floor was packed with people in fancy outfits flapping their arms like chickens. I realized that party dances (dances that already have choreography or are led by someone) give people permission to be silly, to dance with abandon.

See if you can find a moment this week to have kids and adults of all ages dance together.  Lead the dance so your dancers don't have to think, they just have to follow.  Dancing together as a community is fun as well as creates bonds between generations.  Get silly, dance with abandon no matter what your attire is for the day. 

Some fun party dances:

• Hokey Pokey
• Chicken Dance
• Electric Slide
• Cha-cha slide
• Limbo
• Macarena
• Cotton Eye Joe
• The Twist
• YMCA

See if you students/ kids can teach you a party dance.  Maybe you can create your own!
Keep dancing with the kids in your life, flap your arms, put your elbows in and shake 'em all around because that's what its all about!

Sincerely,
Stacey

Dancing In The Rain

Have you ever seen the movie Singing in The Rain?  One of my favorite scenes in the movie is Gene Kelly dancing, stomping, kicking, jumping, splashing, and twirling in the rain.  How many children can relate to this scene?   My guess is most every child can.

The thing about dance is that it is a kinesthetic connection to what you are experiencing. 
Gene Kelly didn't just stand still and sing about the rain, he explored it and everything he could possibly do in it.  For a child, this is how he or she learns.  How does it feel, sound, taste, smell?  How can I make it move?  What happens if I jump in it?  What if I splash really hard?

When I teach, I try to connect the lesson to what the children are learning in school or I try to connect to what they are experiencing around them.  This way they are able to connect what they are learning cognitively to what they are experiencing physically.

Well, since April showers bring May flowers, I thought about the wonder of rain and that iconic scene in Singing in The Rain.  For kids who are afraid of rain, thunder and lightning, exploring rain in a classroom or studio can be a safe way to become comfortable with all the elements of a thunder storm.

Dancing in The Rain Activity

1.  Come up with a the list of words that describe what you see and feel before a rain fall

•  angry clouds, puffy clouds, air blowing, sun disappears, rumble...

2.  Come up with all the list of words that describe rain falling down

• Splash, drip, drop, drizzle, plop...

3.  Come up with a list of words that describe what you see and feel after the rain

• Drippy, quiet, puddles, rainbows, sticky mud...

4.  Now you ready to perform your "Dancing in the Rain" dance.  You have a beginning before the rain,  a middle the rain, and an end after the rain.

You can even video your dances and watch Gene Kelly's dancing in the rain section of Singing in The Rain and then watch your classes' rain dances.


Have fun dancing in the rain with the children in your life!

Sincerely,
Stacey

In continuing participation in the Why Dance Matters event, dance matters because dance is a learning tool.  For proof, just watch a child dance in the rain!

Why Dance Matters

This post is in honor of Arts Advocacy Day and the online event Dance Matters going on April 12 through May 3rd.

Dance can be...
a form of expression
a way to get the sillies out
a medium for physical fitness
a way to share common ground
a tool to interact with others.

Dance can...
 make time fly by
 make a moment more intimate
 make a moment more universal
push you to the limit.

Dance now...
with others
by yourself
in your room
outside
in the grocery store
while waiting for a bus, the subway, a loved one.

Dance is...
a voice
unspoken
loud and clear
subtle
quiet
obvious
abstract
a way to say what can not be said any other way.

Dance...
today
tomorrow
next week
with emotion
with spirit
with a friend
with a stranger
with a relative
with a child

Dance matters...
to me.

Ask the children in your life:

1. How does dance feel in their bodies and in their hearts?
2. Why do they like to dance?
3. Do they like to dance by themselves or with others?
4. Where is there favoirite place to dance?
5. What kind of music do they like to dance to?
6. Can they make up a special dance and share it with you/the class?

For more information on the Dance Matters event check out: http://danceadvantage.net/2010/04/08/why-dance-matters/


Have fun exploring why dance matters to you and the children in your life!

Sincerely,
Stacey

SPRING, SPRONG, SPROING!

Here in the northeast we have been having beautiful spring weather. With "spring" in mind, action words are so much fun to explore with your kids/class. One of my favorite books to read in the spring is "Bugs, Bugs, Bugs" by Bob Barner. There are lots of action words to pick out and fun spring pictures.

"Butterflies that flutter in the sky,
spotted ladybugs that go creeping by..." 
Can you just visualize the children in action?

You can make an action word list with your class by picking action words out of books you are reading or come in with a premade list. You can even have an action list that you add to every week. Then take the words and get moving! Try taking the children's favorite action words, put them in a sequence and have them perfom their "action dance". Integrating vocabulary into the body helps with comprehension, literacy and story telling. It is also silly and fun!

Here are some of my favorites:

Bend
Bounce
Burst
Creep
Drip
Droop
Explode
Float
Flop
Grow
Hang
Melt
Pop
Rise
Shake
Spring
Twist
Wilt

For an extensive list visit: http://www.leapinglegs.com/download/LL_ActionWords.pdf

Have fun bending, melting and twisting with the children in your life!

Sincerely,

Stacey

Audience Appreciation

I am going to participate in a Passover Seder tonight. For anyone who is not familiar with a Passover Seder, it is a dinner where everyone at the table participates in reading out of a special book called the Hagadah. It tells the story of the exodus of the Jewish people out of Egypt. There will be 24 guests celebrating Passover tonight and each of us will take a turn reading out of the Hagadah.

As I think about the Seder, I keep coming back to audience participation, and the importance of teaching this concept to children when they are very small. We tend to think that the person dancing on stage is the one who is actively engaged. But this is not true at all. Yes, of course the person on the stage is engaged but the audience member is just as engaged. The audience member is a critic, observer, and a part of the experience.

The Role of the Audience

1. To listen. We listen with our eyes and ears.

2. We are quite so we don't disturb the dancers and other audience members.

3. We watch. We look for shapes, levels, steps. We watch for images.

4. We think. We feel. What did the dance remind us of? How did the dance make us feel?

5. We share. We tell the dancers what we saw and liked.

6. We applaud. We thank the performers for sharing with us.

Sometimes it is hard to sit and be still and not be the one on stage. But when the audience has a job to do, they have the tools to focus and give feedback. They have the tools to be apart of the performance and have the opportunity  to use the dance skills they are learning by observing.

When I am sitting at the Passover table tonight, I will be an audience member and "performer." I will speak, listen, observe, think, and share.

Children at every age can be audience members and start practicing this very important job.

Have fun being an audience member with the children in your life!

Sincerely,

Stacey

Dance Treasure Chest

I love keeping a dance journal.  I started this in college.  I wrote down thoughts, inspirations, technical corrections, concepts, anything and everything that I encountered in a day.  It helped me process what I was experiencing.  And some of those thoughts became dances. And some dances I saw encouraged me to right down my thoughts.

Dance Notebooks
I bought small notebooks, pencils and colorful erasers for the children in one of my classes and asked them to write about what the learned, experienced, and what their favorite activity was in class.  These students are 6 and 7 years old.  Some of them asked me if they could draw a picture of their experiences and my answer was an absolute YES!!  They were very excited to each pick a notebook (they were various colors), a pencil and a colorful eraser to go on top of the pencil.

After they were finished writing I asked them one at a time to read what they wrote.   Some entries were very detailed and others were about a sentence. It was special for me to hear each child read about their own personal movement experience and it was also a great assessment tool.

If your child/students are not old enough to write down some words or sentences you can have them draw a picture about their movement adventure.  They can describe the picture for you. 

For examples of this check out http://www.leapinglegs.com/literacy.html

There is more than one way to learn from an experience.
By doing and then redoing in a new way, like writing about it or drawing a picture or talking about it, you develop a deeper understanding of the kinesthetic experience.  Having a special notebook to process the experience is just as important, it is like the dance treasure chest that holds all the gold!

Have fun moving and writing/coloring with the children in your life!

Sincerely,
Stacey

Free Dance is Freeing

I believe a person receives a gift every time they dance; the gift of body ownership and a sense of control.  Children do not get to make many choices in their day.  They don't choose when to wake up, what they are going to eat, what they will be doing at school, and what time they go to bed.  Adults might not get to make as many choices as they would like either!  But when you dance you are the one in charge!

You can choose to wiggle your hips, swing your arms and tap your toes.  You get to find your own rhythm, create your own pathways through the space and choose your own steps. You can raise your arms up to the sky or reach them down to the ground.  The possibilities are endless; the choice is for each dancer to make.

"Free dance" is an important part of any dance experience.  This is a time when you decide and find out how you like to move.  What feels right for your body, what feels natural and safe?  It is important to remember that giving children the time to explore and move freely is essential to developing a sense of self.  It can promote body awareness, self expression and self confidence.

Our Favorite Thing
I like to make a circle with my class and have one child at a time go in to the center and dance.  I call this time "Our Favorite Thing."  Each child shares their favorite way of moving.  We clap along and practice being good audience members.  If a child is shy, he or she can invite another friend to dance.  This is their special time to shine.   

In a day filled with so many unknowns that you can not predict, so many rules and schedules it is great to let loose and explore what is yours alone; your body.  Find at least one moment a day to dance freely, without rules, with the children in your life.  It will do your body and your children's bodies good!!

Have fun moving any way you like with the children in your life!

Sincerely,
Stacey

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

I love the wind.  I love feeling the air on my skin.  It makes my body feel alive.  I love teaching movement with the wind as a tool for body awareness.  It is the perfect tool.  We are normally not aware of our skin like we are aware of our knees bending or our arms swinging.  It is hard to be conscious of the back of your neck or the front of your shins.  But when a strong brisk breeze blows by you can feel every ounce of your body come alive.  The hair on your skin stands up as if to shout "We are here!" like the Whos did in the book Horton Hears a Who!

In feeling all sides of the body, in essence your three dimensionality, you become aware of all the directions your body can move.  The wind can blow forward, back, side, and side and so can you.  The wind can twist and turn, so can you.  A kite can take flight and so can you.

Movement Activity

1. Talk about the wind with your child/class.  It travels in all directions.  How do we know?  We can feel it.  We can feel it whooshing by our legs, it sometimes can push us forward or back with its force.  We can see it when our hair gets whipped about or when it picks up a piece of litter and lifts it off the ground.  Let's see if we can travel in all directions like the wind.
2. Give each child a scarf.  (If you don't have a scarf, use a tissue.)  Can they move their scarves forward and back?  Can they make their movements bigger and smaller?  Can they move through the space with big sweeping forward and back movements?  Next try side (right and left) and back.  Can they twirl and spin with the scarf?  Can they move from low to high and high to low?
3. Make a circle and have one child go into the circle at a time.  Watch as they do their wind dance.  Have the children pretend to blow softly, moving their scarves gently, directing the dancer to move gently and slowly like a calm breeze.  Then have the children move their scarves fast and furious like a blustery wind.  The dancer in the middle then should react with gusto!

Have fun moving up down and all around and off the ground with the children in your life!

Sincerely,
Stacey

Keeping the Beat

I just got back from exhibiting at the eastern regional AAHPERD convention.  For those of you who have never heard of AAHPERD it stands for American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.  There mission is to "promote and support leadership, research, education, and best practices in the professions that support creative, healthy, and active lifestyles."
Check it out at www. http://www.aahperd.org/

I had a wonderful time meeting educators from all over the East Coast who are dedicated to bringing  movement programs and possibilities to kids and adults.  My booth was next to the American Heart Association.  They were promoting their Jump Rope For Heart Program .  Here is more information about the program taken straight from their website http://honor.americanheart.org/site/TR/JumpforHeart/NAT-JumpNational?fr_id=1240&pg=entry

• The American Heart Association, with its partner the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, launched Jump Rope For Heart as a national fund-raising and education program in 1978. More than 30,000 schools jump in each year to help fight America’s No. 1 and No. 3 killers – heart disease and stroke – and teach kids the importance of physical activity and a healthy heart. Jump Rope For Heart continues to educate students about living a heart-healthy lifestyle.
• Jump Rope For Heart develops rope-jumping skills that are fun for everyone while promoting the value of physical activity and teamwork. Students learn about the seriousness of heart disease and stroke, the lifelong benefits of physical activity and the importance of living a heart-healthy lifestyle. The program also teaches students to set and achieve goals and shows them how they can make a difference through volunteering and community service.

Jumping Rope Teaches Rhythm
I remember when I was 10 I learned a jump rope tap dance routine.  It was crazy hard and fun.  The most interesting thing about jumping rope is that it helps to teach rhythm.  Many people tell me they can't dance or they have no rhythm.  What they really are saying is that they are self conscious about how they move and have never been taught that they don't have to move like anyone else.  There is no right or wrong way to move the body - just choices and possibilities!

When I teach rhythm to students I use jump ropes, balls and hula hoops.  Why? Because you need to keep a beat in order to do these activities.  When you jump rope you natural keep a beat, the same with bouncing a ball or moving a hula hoop!  Everyone can keep a beat, but it is easier when you are not thinking about the beat but doing an activity.

Try using balls, jump ropes and hula hoops and see what fun you can have. And thanks to Donna, my first dance teacher, for teaching me to jump rope and tap dance, I will never forget it!

Keep moving up down and all around with a beat and a jump!

Sincerely,
Stacey

How to Get From A to B

Have you ever heard kids sing "Don't step on the crack or you'll break your mother's back?"  Well, if you haven't let me explain.  Kids love to step over cracks in the sidewalk, pavement, floor tiles, you name it.  I don't particularly love the phrase (especially because I am a mom and don't need any back problems!)  This game as silly as it is, is great for movement exploration.

When choosing to move from point A to point B, the possibilities are endless. You can choose to move in a straight line, a curve or a zig-zag pathway.  Or you can choose different steps to get there: hop, skip, tip- toe, jump,etc.  You can move fast or slow.  You can choose to move in different levels (high, middle and low) and you can choose to move over cracks, around cracks and through them.


Movement Activity:
Dancing On, Over, Around and Through
I love painter's tape.  It is such an easy tool to use.  The tape can be applied to the floor easily, and it comes up without a mess, won't leave a mark and takes seconds to remove.  Especially if you work in so many different spaces, it can be invaluable because you can mark off you movement space ( I make a square and call it the movemet square.)

This activity uses painter's tape to makes "cracks" on the floor.  You can design zig-zags, curves and straight lines on the floor.  You can do shapes or even letters or numbers. The choice is yours.

1. Design the floor with various lines, shapes and letters.  Ask the kids what they see.  Observation is a great skill and children can learn a lot by verbalizing what they see.
2. The children can dance on any of the lines.  See if they can walk on the lines.  After they have mastered this challenge ask them to jump, tip-toe, skip, etc.on the lines. 
3. Next,  change the tempo.  It's fun to continue an activity and change the music.  Ask the kids if they notice a difference in their movements with the different tempos and music selections.  Observations are always encouraged!
4. You gueseed it.  Try it again moving in different levels.  Is it harder to move in one level then another?
5. And lastly can they jump over lines, can they move around them without touching them and can they run, hop, skip and leap through them? 

Like many activities, you can choose to do some or all of the steps.  Never be afraid to repeat activities either.  Kids learn by repetition and master skills by practice. 

Have fun and let all the moms out their know what you are exploring in case they feel a twinge in their backs!

Keep exploring and observing all the up down movements with the children in your life!

Sincerely,
Stacey

Body Awareness and the Power of the Breath

My daughter had a snow day from school last Wednesday.  We sat on the couch and watched the snow fall, it was quite beautiful and I was amazed that my very active child was cuddling with me for so long.  I got off the couch to do some chores and she just sat on the couch all cuddled up.  This was quite unusual.  I would love to say that she was taken with the snow and the peacefulness of the moment but when I touched her forehead I knew otherwise.  She was sick.

You often hear the expression "you have to listen to your body" and it is the truth.  It also relates to last week's Friendship Dance post.  We have to learn how to listen.  To quite ourselves enough to connect to what we are feeling.  Adults do anyway.  My daughter was trying to tell me all week that she was tired.  I first thought she had the Monday blues.  I then thought she did not get enough sleep.  NOPE.  She was listening to her body.  Her body was tired.

As parents, teachers, friends, etc. we need to embrace the cues our body gives us and we need to connect to the cues that our children, students, friends' bodies tell us as well.  My daughter lacked her usual pep, was whiny and lost her patience very easily.  All cues.

What I learned from this experience is LISTEN.  Not only to the words (which she expressed very well) but to body language!

Some children don't have the words to express themselves.  Sometimes it is due to age, language difficulty or a non-verbal disability.  Using the body becomes an extremely important tool, a necessity to communicate with others.  The body is truly a tool of communication.

Body Awareness Activity

1. Lie on the floor with your arms by your sides and your legs straight out. Breathe deeply and concentrate on your chest rising and falling.  Rising with each inhale and falling with each exhale.  You can have students put a small doll or a bean bag on their chests to watch it rise and fall.
2. Focus your breath now in your belly.  You can place your hands on your belly or the doll.  Watch/feel it rise and fall.  Feel how slowly your belly rises and falls. 
3. Jump up and run around the room, or in place for one minute.  Lie back down and watch/feel your chest rise and fall.  Feel how fast your belly rises and falls. 
4. Your breathing speeds up when you speed up.  It slows down when you slow down. 

Enjoy this simple activity and see what words kids use to describe their breathing before and after the activity.  Did they know that their breath was connected to how they moved?


A Few Words About Breath:
The act of breathing is part of the autonomic nervous system.  We breath automatically, we don't have to tell our body to do it, it does it beautifully on its own.  Breathing, however, is the only part of the autonomic nervous system that our body can control.  We can speed it up and slow it down on our own.  We can also use this to our advantage. Have you ever been startled? Your breathing speeds up.  To calm yourself down, you consciously slow your breath down.  When we clue into another person's breathing we can gain important information about the person.  Learning to clue into the breath is a wonderful mind-body tool. 

Keep moving up down and all around with the children in your lives!

Sincerely,
Stacey

Celebrate Valentine's Day with a Dynamic Friendship Dance!

What does it mean to be a friend?  Ask a child this question and you will get some wonderful answers!  Around Valentine's Day I always ask this question to my students.  And through our discussion we wind up talking about feelings and sharing our feeling with another person.  Which leads to my next question.

When you listen to another person do you talk when he or she talks?
No, you are quiet and you have eye contact.  In movement we can show this by staying very still when our partner is moving.

How do we know when we are happy, sad, surprised or mad?
We feel it inside our bodies.  We have to pay attention to how our body feels because it tells us amazing things. Our body can be light, heavy, quick, slow (sustained), bound or free. 

Happy can feel light and free.
Sad can feel heavy and slow.
Surprised can feel quick.
Mad or angry can feel bound or tight.

Dynamic Friendship Dance
When we clue in to how our body feels (mind-body connection) we learn a lot about how we feel.  We can share how we feel with others and our friends can share with us how they feel.

1. Explore the dynamics of each emotion with your class or children.  Move around the space light and free like a helium balloon, carefree and at ease. Feel like balloon is deflated, slowly sinking to the ground.  Everything gets heavy; arms, legs, shoulders, back.  Next, clap your hands or beat a drum.  When the class hears the sound see how fast the can jump into a new shape. And finally, see how tense and tight they can make that shape squeezing every muscle in their body (knees, toes, neck, tummy shoulders,etc.)
2. Depending on the age of the kids you can do the partner dance in a few different ways.  If they are able to work in partners great. Otherwise you can pick one child at a time to partner with the class. Ask the first partner to choose a quality of movement (or you can say an emotion as long as they know they are not acting out the emotion but showing how the emotion makes their body move.)  The other partner (or class) stays very still then repeats the movement as best as they can to show they were listening.  Repeat this with the other partner picking a different quality or emotion. 
3. Share your friendship dances with the class. Sometimes I have kids share with the class one at a time or I have a few partners up and moving.  Ask the audience what they saw, and what they liked.  It is never to early to develop good audience manners!

Keep moving up, down and all around with the ones you love!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Sincerely,
Stacey

Baby It's Cold Outside

Here, in the Northeast, you can't go outside without bundling up covering up from your head to your toes.  Even with all my layers I am still shivering!  The wind is bitter, the air is cold and the ground icy.

So, in this cold weather how can we all stay warm?  By moving of course! 

I really dislike wearing a coat, hat, gloves, scarf, etc.  I can't feel my body and usually feel like a walking closet.  Here is a fun activity to keep your little ones warm while they get dressed, and will encourage body awareness when all are body parts are covered!!

And if you live where the sun is shining and the ground is not frozen solid, you can pretend with your little ones you are going on a trip to the north pole!

Bundling Up

• Make a big pile of the clothes your child will be wearing.  If you are in a dance studio or classroom you can pile up a bunch of costumes or ask the kids to bring in a bunch of extra clothes for this activity.
• Ask each child to find one article of clothes to put on.  After the child puts the clothes on, he or she has to move the body parts the clothes is covering.  For example, if the child put on socks, then he or she will have to do a "sock dance."  All other body parts should be still while the feet go to town.  When the child puts on pants then the pants dance begins; legs, knees, and hips have there turn to move, shake, bend and jump.
•  What happens when the hat goes on? How about those mittens?
• When all your layers are on and you are about to go out into the cold try a full body shake, twist and bend.  Ask the kids if it is easier to move with more or less clothes.  Body awareness is about clicking in to our body, feeling and being aware of each experience.  Notice the differences.  Are there are similarities?  Can you wiggle your nose the same before and after you bundled up?
• The same game can take place after coming in from the cold, when you take all those layers off!! 

More on right and left brain activities
Last week I wrote about my pinched nerve and thank goodness I can report I am typing with both hands this week.  The experience left me analyzing how often I use my right arm and hand.  As a teacher, I try to have the children use both sides of their bodies equally and I was quite surprised at my own body discovery. 

I also encourage movements that cross the midline. Basically, when you cross the midline, or center of your body, you engage both right and left sides of the brain.  So, you are creating not only movement intergration but brain intergration as well.   This is great for all learners of all ages and abilities.  For more information on this check out this website: http://www.drjean.org/html/monthly_act/act_2006/03_Mar/pg04.html


Bundling up the Midline
In exploring our bundling up exercise, see if you can encourage your children to exploring their mitten dance down to low level crossing their right arm to their left foot or their sock dance tapping their left foot over their right foot.  See how the dance changes and becomes more challenging!

Have fun dancing with your snow bunnies inside, outside, up and down together!

Sincerely,
Stacey

Left, Right, Left

It has been about two weeks since my last post. Unfortunately, I have apinched nerve in my neck and had to tajke some time off from tje computer and just about everything erlse. You can tell by my typos, I am only using my left hand to type at the moment.

What this experience has taught me, is how much I utilize my right hand and arm. From brushingf my teeth, to opening a door, to brushing my hair I am a true righty. When I teach, I encourage the children to use both sidfes of their bodies equally. Did you know that when you use the right side of the body, the left side of the brain is activated and vice versa. So, having a balanced body is important for mastering all sorts of physical skills as well as brain power!

I will go further into this concept in a future post, for my left arm/right brain is in over dtrive at the moment.

Here are some fun activities to try with children to challenge our one arm/one side tendencies.


Right/Left Challenge

• Hold a scarf with your right arm and make big circles, making sure to cross the middle of you body. Try it high over you head and low on the ground as well. Then switch arms and have the left arm perform big beautiful circles.  Finally, with a scarf in both hands do this activity one more time.  I call this "making rainbows."

• When teaching, we usually start everything to the right first. Do everything to the left first. Notice if this is harder for you or the kids!

• HIGH FIVE - left hand, right hand then both hands after various activities throughout the day.

Simply activities - but not so simple. Learning, activating the brain and the body IS as simple as becoming aware and finding new was of exploring the body but performing the tasks takes practice, patience and a good sense of humor!

Keep moving up down and all around to the right and left!

Sincerely,

Stacey

Movement ABC's and 123's for Toddlers and Preschoolers

It was so exciting when my daughter took her first steps. When she let go of my hands and teetered away. As she got older I wanted to help her discover more about her body, facilitate body awareness and help her with her gross motor skills. But how was I going to do this?  The answer I discovered was simpler then you might think. 

I moved with her!

As your child masters different skills like rolling, crawling and walking it is important to “review these skills.” It might seem silly at first to get on the floor with your child and roll with her. You might think that she already knows how to do this but movement is a layered experience, which means we relearn the same concepts over and over and each time we relearn it we get better at it. Crawling is a contralateral movement and so is walking.  (Contralateral movement is when the right arm and left leg are moving simultaneously and vice versa. So mastering crawling will help a child master walking, running, leaping, etc.)

Cool isn’t it?

Another example is when my daughter as a baby rocked on her hands and knees before crawling. She was practicing pushing from her feet, the same concept that she re-explored when she learned to walk and jump.

Why move with your child?

Well, first it is great bonding time. You are performing an activity together and communicating non-verbally. You get to experience what your child just discovered and believe it or not rolling, creeping and crawling is good for you too! We never stop relearning skills! And lastly, if you start moving with your child at a young age, you are setting up great habits that will last. Exercise/moving will always be a special time together.

Here are some essential skills for the both of you to review and rediscover:

• Rocking on hands and knees
• Rolling
• Crawling
• Finding new ways of pushing and pulling yourself around the floor on your belly and back

And for my teachers reading this blog, I have done this in preschool classrooms as well to squeals and delight!

Think of it in terms of mathematics.

You can’t learn to divide or multiply before you add and subtract.  The same thing is true for the body.

My daughter and I had some of our best giggles rolling on the floor together.  Let me know what you and your children re-discover together! 

Keep moving up down and all around!
Stacey

Ready, Set, Don't Move!

I am sure we have all said to a child at some point in our life, “Stop moving” or “don’t move.” And I am equally certain that a majority of the requests were met with more wiggling. What does it mean to actually not move, what skills are you asking a child to use by being still?

The first thing is to change the understanding of not moving. When a person does not move or otherwise “freezes” he or she is using a great amount of muscle and brain power. I tell my students that they are in charge of their bodies. Their brain has the power to tell their bodies what to do, and there muscles have the ability to make this happen. Instead of not doing, I ask them to do. Do something amazing while you stop moving, have superpower control over your body. Connect your mind and body together to “freeze” and become as still as a statue. The other thing I confide in them is that this is a very difficult task. When you stop moving, gravity wants to take over. Your muscles have to fight gravity in order to keep still. This means your muscles are working just as hard as if you were doing jumping jacks or push-ups.

Next, I ask them to become aware of how there body FEELS. I ask my students to put their hands above their heads and then not to move. I cue them with “you are in charge of your body,” “your brain tells your body what to do” and then we wait. I compliment them on how hard their bodies and minds are working to keep their body still. Then I ask “how do your arms feel?” Their arms will feel tired, and might even feel sore from working so hard. I tell them the muscles in their arms are fighting gravity; gravity wants to pull them down. The longer their arm muscles resist gravity, the stronger they become!

They are basically doing isometric exercises.

Then I ask them “what is the muscles job?” This is an important question because if you ask a child not to move, then the child needs to know HOW not to move. This is the job of the muscles. I ask them to tap on their upper arm or bicep muscle and then I direct them to bend their arm at the elbow a few times. The muscle made the arm move by contracting and lengthening. Muscles are in charge of moving bones or keeping bones still. The more we activate our muscles the stronger they get!

One more fun activity I do with my students is I ask them to stand very still on one foot. At first kids get very silly and fall down a lot. They might even say that they have a hard time balancing. Then I give the control over to the students. I tell them “you are in charge of your body. If you feel you are falling tell your brain to tell your body to put your foot down.” The result is amazing. Not only do the kids balance longer but they quietly put their foot down if they are falling and try again. Permission and personal control are powerful things.

With little control children have in their lives, the power of controlling their bodies is a very important one. And instead of telling a child “don’t move,” give them permission to use all the muscles in their body at once. This can become empowering, fun and can help them develop important body skills. So, the next time you say “don’t move” explain to the children in your life how hard this actually is, how much brain and muscle power this takes, and how much they are doing by not doing. They’ll want to impress you with their amazing not moving abilities!

This activity works on muscle control, balance and body awareness.

Keep moving (or not moving) up down and all around together!
Stacey

A New Year for New Adventures (How About a Space Adventure?)

Hi. I am very excited to share a post entitled 10 Questions with Stacey Pepper Schwartz on www.4dancers.org.  I was honored to be interviewed and wanted to share this article with you.  While you are there check out this site, it is full of wonderful resources and information.

In other news, I am looking forward to a New Year and sharing many movement adventures with you. Here is a little adventure you can take with the children in your life and see if you can reach the stars.

Space Adventure: Become space explorers! 

1. First before you explore outer space, explore the space all around you.  Stay in your spot and reach your arms as far as you can.  Reach and stretch one leg and then the other.  How about an elbow or a knee?  Can you reach high, middle, low, underneath yourself??
2. Next see how high you can jump.  How high can you reach.  Try to stay up as long as you can.  What is pulling you back down?? GRAVITY! (the force that pulls us to the earth)
3. Next, put on your space suits (pull on your pants, pull on the arms, zip up the suit from low to high and make sure you twist the helmet on.
4. Crouch down low and count down - 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 blast off!  Travel through the space exploring all the various places in the room until you land on planet NO-GRAVITY!
5. Now explore the first step of this adventure again, this time without gravity. You will have floating arms and legs, elbows and knees.
6. Now, explore traveling through the space, slowly floating since there is no force to push against.
7. When you and your explorers are ready crouch down and blast back to earth!

Enjoy your adventure.  You are working on the concepts of space, time and force. Have an out of this world New Years!

Keep moving up down and all around together!
Stacey

Give the Gift of Movement, No Batteries Required!

As a movement educator, I teach parents and teachers how to incorporate movement and dance into everyday activities.  Not just for overall health, which is crucial, but for other essential learning concepts and life skills like spatial awareness, body awareness, creativity and gross motor skills.

So here is a challenge I present to you. Everyday give the gift of movement to the children in your life as well as to yourself. Integrate movement ideas into the lives of you and your children. Sounds hard? It’s not and I will give you the tools you need.

Movement is broken down into four basic elements: body, space, time and energy. Today let's focus on the body. It is important to understand how your body moves. You may be thinking that you already know how your body moves but do this simple 1 minute challenge with the children in your life and see how you do!

Answer these 5 simple questions:

1. How many body parts can rotate or circle? What are they?
2. How many can bend? What are they? How many can bend in more than one direction?
3. How many can swing? What are they?
4. How many can stretch? What are they?
5. How many can do more than one of these suggestions. What ones can do the most? What body parts can do the least?

By completing these questions together with your children, you are discovering your bodies range of motion, enhancing flexibility and muscle control.

See how many people you can get going on this one minute challenge! Moving can be great fun, especially when you are discovering new things together. 

Keep moving up down and all around,

Stacey

A Letter From Leaping Legs

Welcome to my blog! I call this blog “Letters From Leaping Legs” because my company Leaping Legs has its own website but I do not get a chance to write directly to parents and teachers about the infinite possibilities movement can play in the lives of children, adults, families, schools and communities and so this blog was born.

To give you a little background information about myself, I started this journey as a dancer and choreographer. I had a career ending injury, so I thought, and did not know what to do with the rest of my life. As I delved more into what dance really meant to me, I continued my education and received a Master of Arts from Teachers College, Columbia University in dance education. And as my body healed I realized that dance was so much more than just performing. That movement was so much more then grooving with the music, even though this is loads of fun. Movement is a vehicle to experience the world.

I hope this blog will help inspire, encourage and give you ideas on how to create enriching kinesthetic learning experiences for the children in your lives as well as yourself.

Thanks for opening my letter and I hope you enjoy the letters to come. Keep moving up down and all around together!

Sincerely,

Stacey