Body Movement by Landon Taylor Wheeler
Objective: Students will demonstrate their awareness of body movement by performing an observation
presentation.
Class Level: Beginning
Main Concepts: Body Language, Facial Expressions, Gestures, How Movement is Affected by
Different Circumstances and Elements
1994 National Standards:
CONTENT STANDARD 1: Script writing by improvising, writing, and refining scripts based on personal experience and
heritage, imagination, literature, and history.
CONTENT STANDARD 2: Acting by developing, communicating, and sustaining characters in improvisations and informal
or formal productions.
Lesson Plans
Lesson 1: What is your body doing when you move?
Students will demonstrate their understanding of how the body moves by successfully completing a
basic anatomy quiz.
Lesson 2: Mirroring Movement
Students will demonstrate their ability to observe and mimic movement by successfully mirroring
another student’s movement.
Lesson 3: Gestures/Facial Expressions
Students will demonstrate their ability to pick up on and understand gestures and facial expressions by
performing a silent skit.
Lesson 4: Body Language/Posture
Students will demonstrate their understanding of body language and posture by being able to identify
how a person is feeling based on their body language.
Lesson 5: How different ages move
Students will demonstrate their ability to move as if they were a different age by being able to identify
what age-range each peer is acting out.
Lesson 6: Movement with Props
Students will demonstrate their ability to move with props by incorporating a prop into their movement
around the classroom.
Lesson 7: Movement with Music
Students will demonstrate their understanding of how music influences movement by choreographing
thirty seconds of a dance to a selected song.
Lesson 8: Presentation of Another’s Observed Movements
Students will demonstrate their understanding of how movement is used every day by completing a
report of another’s observed movement and presenting their observations in class.
Lesson 1: What is your body doing when you move?
Objective
Students will demonstrate their understanding of how the body moves by successfully completing a
basic anatomy quiz.
Materials Needed
You will need to have posters of human body prepared and a quiz worksheet for each
student. Classroom should also be prepared with blocks and ramps set up around the room.
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook
As students come in the room, ask them to put all of their stuff down against one wall and have them
line up against another. Be sure that you have set up blocks and ramps all over the room, including
through the center of the room. Have one student come up to the front of the class and go join the rest of
the students in the line against the opposite wall. Then ask the first student, “Mother may I take
______” and begin a game of Mother May I. Don’t let the students try to move around the obstacles,
but have the students move over them! Play a couple rounds of the game (about 10 minutes).
TEACHING PRESENTATION:
 Halfway through the last game, have students sit where they’re at, where ever they’re at. If
students are sitting behind blocks and you can’t see them, invite them to move around the block
so that everyone can be seen.
 Ask the students what they’ve been doing for the last 10 (or so) minutes.
 Playing Mother May I
 Goofing Off
 Ask them “What were you doing, more specifically?”
 Hopping like Bunnies
 Skipping
 Running
 Taking Giant Steps
 Taking Baby Steps
 Climbing over blocks
 Running down ramps
 “So, you were moving around the classroom and over obstacles?”
 Ask students how they were able to move. “How does your body move? What is your body
doing when you move?”
 Move with muscles.
 Ask for two volunteers. Have these two students hold the two poster boards. This will begin the
more lecture oriented part of the lesson. Let students ask questions and give comments as
needed.
 Go over the functions, properties and types of muscles. Go over the major muscles.
 Thank your two poster holders and have them sit down. Hang the posters up on the wall.
 Have students pair up. Ask them to decide who is number one and who number two is. Tell the
students that number one will be the identifier and number two will be the dummy. Ask the
identifying students point on the dummy where a certain muscle is.
 Go through all of the muscles
 Deltoid
 Pectoralis major
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Biceps brachi
Rectus Femoris
Gastrocnemius
Do not do “gluteus maximus” for the sake of avoiding sexual harassment
accusations. Make a joke out of it saying something along the lines of “I’m sure
you all know this one. There are songs that even talk about it! So since you
know it so well, we’re going to just skip over this one.”
 Go over the muscles more than once. Have the students switch roles so that both
can have turns identifying and being the dummy.
Ask for another volunteer. Have the student come up in front of the class. Ask them to point out
on themselves where a certain muscle is. Use one volunteer per muscle.
Have all the students find seats again in the classroom. Take the posters down. Hand out the
anatomy quiz, identical to the diagrams on the posters minus all the answers. Have students fill
out the worksheet, but don’t tell them that it’s a quiz. Let them fill it out in teams or by
themselves.
CLOSURE:
Go over the quiz with the students. Let them ask any questions about the worksheet. Have them turn in
the worksheet.
ASSESSMENT:
Students will turn in the worksheet for an assessment. Students will also be assessed on their
participation in classroom activities.
Author's Notes
See attached for poster outlines and quiz worksheet. Information for posters and quiz worksheet can
also be found at http://www.bioedonline.org/slides/slide01.cfm?&tk=5&jy=627&29481
Lesson 2: Mirroring Movement
Objective
Students will demonstrate their ability to observe and mimic movement by successfully mirroring
another student’s movement.
Materials Needed
You will need a worksheet for each student to record observed body movement. Talk to the P.E. teacher
at the school before the lesson and arrange for your class to come in and watch for 10 minutes.
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook
When students walk in, silently begin mimicking their movement, how they walk, and their facial
expressions. Mirror different student’s movements. If this is near the beginning of the year, select a few
students you know won’t be offended or embarrassed to mimic.
TEACHING PRESENTATION:
 Wait for students to notice and ask you what you’re doing. Respond by asking, “Did you know
that that’s what you look like when you move? Do you ever think about what you look like
when you move?” Begin a discussion of movement.
 Last class, the anatomy of body movement and how the body moves was
discussed. Begin discussion with a review of what we learned last class. Then start
talking about what your body looks like when you move. How do you look when you’re
running versus when you’re walking versus when you’re sitting? How are those
movements different?
 Give each student a body movement observation worksheet. Instruct the students that you are
going into the school gym and they are to watch how the other students are moving and how they
move in response to the different activities they are doing. Let them know that they are to record
what they observe. On the worksheet, there are different categories for them to observe. They
can work by themselves or in groups, which ever they would prefer.
 Spend 10 or so minutes in the gym observing.
 Bring students back to the classroom (depending on the class, retake attendance). Ask them
what they observed. Ask them to demonstrate what they observed.
 Ask students if it is easier or harder to mimic someone’s movement than their own. What
difficulties arise in imitating movement?
 Start playing a game of Simon Says by saying “Simon says turn all of your observation
worksheets in to the front of the class.” Continue the game, and then say, “Simon Says
________ is the new Simon” and have the students lead each other in Simon Says.
 Do not limit the Simon Says activities to “touch your nose.” Let the students explore the
whole classroom and all ranges of movement.
 Put the students into pairs. Tell them that they are to pretend that they are each other’s mirror
and that they are to mimic what the other person is doing. Have a pair of students demonstrate
what they are to do for the whole class before letting the whole class begin the activity.
 Walk around the room, evaluating the mirroring.
 Depending on time, have the students switch partners to gain more practice.
CLOSURE:
Is it any more difficult to mirror someone instead of imitating them? What are the difficulties? Why
would you ever want to mimic or mirror someone’s movement?

The goal of this discussion is to get students to think deeper about the activity that they’ve done
and to find the value and purpose.
ASSESSMENT:
Students will receive some points for filling out the observation worksheet. Students will be assessed on
their participation in the mirroring activity. If they participated and actively tried to mimic their
partner’s movements, than they get participation points.
Lesson 3: Gestures/Facial Expressions
Objective
Students will demonstrate their ability to pick up on and understand gestures and facial expressions by
performing a silent skit.
Materials Needed
You will need a list of strong, known characters for the students to draw from. You will need situations
or objectives for students to create silent skits around. You will also need different emotions for the
students to create facial expressions out of.
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook
Ask for four volunteers. Have the volunteers each draw a character out of a hat. Tell the other students
that they will be observing a party and that they are to guess who each of the characters are. Ask the
students what kind of party it should be.
TEACHING PRESENTATION:
 The game will proceed similarly to the game on Whose Line Is It Anyway? Have one of the
students who is a character be a host. Instruct the four students that they are to impersonate their
characters specifically through facial expressions and popular motions that they use.
 Have each of the three other students come in one at a time and then exit one at a time.
 After the party is over, ask the students who they thought the characters were. Ask them how
they knew who the characters were.
 Gestures!
 Begin a discussion about gestures. What are gestures? Why do we use gestures?
 You can recognize a character because of their gestures. Gestures make a character more
real.
 Ask the students to come up with some examples of characters with famous gestures.
 Ask for another volunteer. Have the student draw an emotion out of another hat and show the
class the facial expression they would make for that emotion.
 Ask the class, “What do you see here? What’s going on in this student’s face?” Have
students guess the emotion.
 Take many volunteers to do this same exercise.
 So, we not only use words to communicate, but we also use gestures and facial expressions.
 Tell the students that they are not to take anything with them, but that they are to follow you out
of the classroom. Take the students on a field trip around the school.

If the class is during a lunch period, take them to the cafeteria. If not, take the class
around different classrooms where people will be talking.
 Ask the students to watch specifically for gestures and facial expressions.
 Take the students back to the classroom. Ask for volunteers to demonstrate the facial
expressions and gestures that they saw.
 Ask the other students “What do you see?”
 Break the students into groups of 4-5. Have them select an objective for a skit out of a hat. They
will perform this objective silently for the classroom.
 Instruct the students that they are not to use any dialogue, only facial expressions and
gestures.

Give the students 10 minutes to work on their skits. Let them know that there is a time
limit. Walk around the groups to give instruction and to give assistance as needed.
CLOSURE:
Ask for volunteer groups and have the students perform their skits for each other.
 Ask the other students after each group is done performing “What gestures did you see? What
facial expressions did you see?”
Ask students, to recap, how gestures and facial expressions can be helpful in theatre and every day in
communication.
ASSESSMENT:
Students will be assessed on their participation in their group skits. If they participated and used, or
made very strong attempts to use, facial expressions and gestures, they will receive full credit for the
day.
Lesson 4: Body Language/Posture
Objective
Students will demonstrate their understanding of body language and posture by being able to identify
how a person is feeling based on their body language.
Materials Needed
You will need enough photocopies of the Body Language Worksheet for every student as well as video
clips of different characters do demonstrate emotion through body language for the worksheet and an
projector.
Possible Movies to Use and Characters to Focus On:
Indiana Jones (Indiana, Father, Nazis)
Ten Things I Hate About You (Kat, Patrick, Bianca, Joey, Cameron and Michael)
Star Wars I (Anakin, his Mother, Obi Wan)
Life is Beautiful (Father, Mother and Son)
Dead Poet’s Society (Mr. Keating, Neil Perry, Todd Anderson, Charlie Dalton, Knox Overstreet
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook
When all the students are in the classroom, without speaking, turn off the lights in the classroom. Set up
a projector on the ground to project a large area of light against an unblocked wall. Then, still without
speaking, bring 4-5 students up to stand in the light. By the time you have gotten the 4-5 students to
stand in the light, the others should be quiet and wondering what is going on.
TEACHING PRESENTATION:
 Whisper to the students standing in the light that you are going to give them 10 extra credit
points if they help you with this activity.
 Ask the other students how they think the students in the light are feeling right now from what
they can see of their shadows.
 Once you have let a few students respond tell the rest of the class what you already told the
students in the light.
 Ask the students standing in the light how they were feeling.
 Did the class get it right? How did they know? Or why didn’t they get it right?
 Begin a discussion about body language.
 What is body language?
 Body language lets us communicate how we are feeling, or our attitudes, without
words.
 When do you use body language?
 Every day! All the time!
 Why is body language helpful?
 It lets us communicate how we feel without words.
 Have the students in the light then demonstrate a few examples of body language
 Happy, Sad, Excited, Tired etc.
 As for more volunteers to do the same activity. Repeat a few times to allow many students to
explore body language. If time permits, let all students participate.
 Go back to the discussion about body language
 Ask if there are any questions about body language. (Check for understanding.) What do
they notice about trying to portray or understand body language?
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What are the differences between gestures and body language?
 Gestures are character specific, make a character more real, specific traits that
help audience members remember a character. Body language shows a character’s
emotions.
 How would we use body language in theatre? Why is body language important?
 Audience members won’t know how our characters our feeling if we don’t show
them. Audience members in the back can’t see our faces, so it’s important that we
use body language to show our character’s emotions.
Ask for a volunteer. Have them demonstrate any emotion. Ask the class what they see. Have
them guess what emotion it is. Repeat with different students.
Pass out the Body Language Worksheet and tell students to watch the body language in these
different scenes. Instruct students to fill out the worksheet for each clip they watch, including the
name of the character and their observations, and most importantly to write down each
character’s emotion.
Play the different clips from the same movie or various movies and allow students time to
respond.
CLOSURE:
Discuss the answers as a class.
 Why did students get the responses they did? What different aspects indicated certain emotions?
ASSESSMENT:
Have students turn in the worksheets as their assessment. Points will be awarded based on completeness
of worksheet, not on correctness.
Lesson 5: How different ages move
Objective
Students will demonstrate their ability to move as if they were a different age by being able to identify
what age-range each peer is acting out.
Materials Needed
You will need slips of paper with various numbers on it to hand to the students as they enter the
classroom. You will also need various simple scripts for each student:
2 Simple Script Options:
Person 1: Hey
Person 2: Hey
Person 1: What are you doing here?
Person 2: I could ask you the same thing.
Person 1: I wanted to give you something.
Person 2: What?
Person 1: This
Person 1: Excuse me
Person 2: Yes?
Person 1: Did you see that?
Person 2: I saw something
Person 1: Are you going to do something about it?
Person 2: Maybe
You will need a TV, DVD player and a copy of the first Harry Potter movie
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook
As the students walk into the classroom, hand each of them a slip of paper with a number on it. Tell the
students that they cannot show it to anyone!
TEACHING PRESENTATION:
 Ask students, “What are the differences between an old man and a baby?”
 How they look
 What they can do
 How they move
 How do they move differently?
 Ask students how a teenager moves compared to a parent
 So, different ages move differently. Why?
 Muscles aren’t as limber when you’re older.
 Have the students watch a clip from the first Harry Potter movie that includes the students and
Dumbledore (a clip that includes as many ages as possible).
 After watching the clip, ask the students what they saw. How did Dumbledore move
differently than Ron?
 Put the students into pairs. Hand students a simple script and give each pair an age to act out the
script in. Give the students 5 minutes to prepare their script.
 Have the students perform their scripts for each other.
Ask the other students “what did you see?” Have the students in the audience guess the
age range of the students who did the acting. Ask them why they made the guess. What
movements specifically clued them in to the age of the people doing the acting?
Tell the students that the number on the sheet of paper they received when they walked into class
is their new age. Ask the students to pair up and tell them that they are going to act out the same
script in their new ages. Give them 5 minutes to prepare.
Ask for volunteer pairs to perform their scenes.
 Ask the class what they saw as the different pairs were performing.
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CLOSURE:
What was difficult about moving as a younger or older person? Would knowing how and being able to
move as a different age ever be valuable? When, where and why?
ASSESSMENT:
Students will be assessed on their participation in the different age scenes. As long as they make a good
effort to act a different age, they will receive points for participation.
Lesson 6: Movement with Props
Objective
Students will demonstrate their ability to move with props by incorporating a prop into their movement
around the classroom.
Materials Needed
You will need a prop for each student and a lot of extra props (at least one extra one per each student)
set up on tables in the classroom. You will also need an projector as well as ideas for emotions for the
students to demonstrate with their props.
Excited
Boa
Emotions Ideas:
Love
Strong
Book
Anger
Tray
Hurt
Cup
Possible Props:
Sadness
Teddy bear
Phone
Tired
Cane
Camera
Madness
Walker
Purse
Misery
Hat
Umbrella
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook
Hand each student a different object (prop) as they enter the classroom. Ask the students to find a seat
with their prop
TEACHING PRESENTATION:
 Set up the classroom in the same way that it was set up for the Body Language lesson with the
projector shining a big block of light onto a blank wall.
 Ask for volunteers to come stand in the light. As they come up to stand in the light, be sure that
they bring their object/prop with them. Tell the students in the light that this object is now an
extension of them. Ask the students in the light to show you an emotion, but tell them they have
to use the prop to help express it.
 Allow time for all students to experiment on how they move with their props in the light.
 After all students have had the chance to experiment with their movement with a prop in the
light, turn the lights in the classroom back on and ask the students how the props influenced their
music.
 Was it more difficult to move with their object? Why?
 Ask students,
 What is a prop?
 A prop is an object you move with.
 Technically, a prop is any object held, manipulated, or carried by a performer
during a theatrical performance. (wikipedia)
 When do we use props?
 On stage in shows.
 Every day (your backpack is a prop to help you in your role as a student)
 Have students switch props with ones that you have set out on the table or with each other. They
cannot keep their original prop.
 Tell the students that they are at a party and must interact with each other at the party while using
their prop. They cannot hold their prop idly at their side. Have the students line up with their
prop in hand. Have 5-6 students start out at the party. As you ding a bell, the person who has
been there the longest switches out with the next person in line.
 This will allow other students to observe how others use their props.
 Allow the option for students to come back into the party (re-rotate through the
line). They must use a new prop each time they come back in.
CLOSURE:
 Ask the students what is different about posing with a prop versus interacting with people while
holding a prop.
 Why is it important to be able to move with props?
 Props make moving more difficult because you have to think about more than just how
you move your body.
ASSESSMENT:
Students will be assessed on their participation in the prop party. They will be assessed on their use of
their prop. If they used the prop, or attempted to use the prop, then they will receive full credit. If they
just hold the prop at their side, they won’t receive participation credit.
Lesson 7: Movement with Music
Objective
Students will demonstrate their understanding of how music influences movement by choreographing
thirty seconds of a dance to a selected song.
Materials Needed
You will need a stereo or some way of playing music for the class. You will also need to have a simple
dance prepared to teach the students and 3 different songs students can use to choreograph their own
dance. Choose 3 songs from popular culture that the students know well. Be sure the 3 songs are
different in feel or genre.
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook
Have music playing before the students even walk in the classroom. As they walk in, ask them to put
their stuff down against a wall or on a chair and start moving. Switch the songs every 20-30
seconds. Include different styles and tempos to get a variety of feeling and movement.
TEACHING PRESENTATION:
 Ask the students how moving to different songs made them feel. Is it easier to move to some
songs than others? Which songs are more fun to move to? Why do we move when we hear
music?
 Allow students to share their opinions.
 Ask students to get into 3 (or so) lines. Begin by teaching some simple dance steps.
 Box step
 Pivot Turn
 Grape Vine
 Ball Change
 Step Touch
 Sugar
 Kick Ball Change
 Tell them that now that we’ve learned some basic steps, we’ll be learning a simple dance called
a Chorus Line.
 Teach students the dance.
 Tell students that they will now get to practice what they’ve learned. They can get into groups as
big as 4 or they can work by themselves. They can choose from one of three songs and must
choreograph 30 seconds of the song using steps we’ve learned. Let them know that they will be
performing the dance, so they might want to work in groups so that they don’t have to perform
by themselves..
 Allow the students 10-13 minutes to choreograph. Monitor time to allow more or less, as
is needed.
 Ask for volunteers to perform their dance. Allow time for all students to perform their dance.
CLOSURE:
 After all students have performed, ask students how moving to music is different from moving
around every day. Ask students how the different pieces of music influenced their choreography.
 At the end of the lesson, give the students their assignment for next time: They are to observe
another person for half an hour. They are to specifically identify the gestures, facial expressions,
posture and body language of their observed person based on their age and situation. The
students are to compile their observations into a 1-2 page typed report. They are also to include
their written observations made while observing the person. They are to come ready with the
report and ready to present their observations next class.
ASSESSMENT:
Students will not be assessed on their dancing ability, but rather on their participation. If they moved to
the music, they will receive points. Whether or not the steps were correct, if good effort was put into
their dance, they will receive points.
Lesson 8: Presentation of Another’s Observed Movements
Objective
Students will demonstrate their understanding of how movement is used every day by completing a
report of another’s observed movement and presenting their observations in class.
Materials Needed
You will need one final scoring rubric for every student.
Lesson Directions
Anticipatory Set/Hook
Have the classroom set up as close to an auditorium as you can with a stage in the front of the classroom
and the chairs set up in rows. Have the students silently find their seats. If you have some sort of
protocol for how to decide which order students will perform in, please use it (ex “batter’s box” for
who’s up next). If no protocol is in place, have students draw numbers as they come in the classroom
and that is the order they will present in. Students can trade numbers if they want.
TEACHING PRESENTATION:
 Ask students who is going first or who has number one. Remind the students before they present
that they are to share with the class who they observed, how old the person was, and what the
situation was. Also, remind them that to enhance their presentation, they should use examples of
what they observed by mimicking or imitating the movements and gestures of the person they
observed.
 Allow the students each 2-3 minutes to present what they found.
CLOSURE:
Ask students what they learned by observing another person’s movement. Ask them what they learned
by mimicking their observed person’s movement.