Creative movement class for children

3 to 6 years olds

45 min

Theme: Creating landscapes through movement and imagination

Before starting the children can move freely in the space and connect with each other.

When all the participants have arrived we gather around in a circle.

Sometimes we call this “a pizza”: we are sitting in a circle, our feet and toes meeting in the centre.
I ask how their day has been, and sometimes a child has something urgent to say, for example what
happened in the kindergarten or that her birthday is coming up soon.
Then I explain a little bit about the theme of the day’s class.

What is a landscape? What kind of different landscapes comes in mind?

The island

Then I tell the children to go to their own island, which means that the children spread freely
around the space to find their own spot to sit or stand on. While spreading their arms and moving
them around they can see if they are too close to someone, the walls etc. Then children sit on the
floor and I ask them one by one to visit the other islands and make a friendly gesture or gently touch
the person living there.

Landscapes

We move together in the space while imagining different landscapes and grounds like being in the water, on the sand, on the rocks, in the forest. We explore each image and also specify each landscape while moving and through using levels; on the floor, crawling, on fours, skipping etc. While describing and saying more details children have their own exploration going on as at the same time we are moving as a group.

The explorer

Each child is leading the others to her or his own imaginative landscape. The child begins to move in the space according to the own chosen image. The others follow the explorer and move like her.

Then after this short travel the explorer tells what the landscape was.

Landscape dances

In groups of 3-4 children decide what landscape they will create in their improvised dance. The others watch the dance and try to figure out what the landscape is. If help is needed in deciding the landscape, I show pictures/drawings of landscapes (sea, field, forest) as examples. For the music I ask whether they want peaceful or upbeat music. After the approx. 3 minutes dance the dancers will tell what their chosen image was.

Relaxation

In pairs the other one lays down on her stomach and relaxes while the other one draws an image on her back. Then they tell what the image was. Changing roles.

In the end of the class children gather again into a circle, this time we are standing hand in hand.
We end the class by jumping together at the same time.