Children’s Creative Dance CrossCurricular Connections for
Arts/Academic Achievement!
April Johnson-Mozzetti Elementary Physical Education and
Dance Specialist Dayton Public Schools
Kemp PreK-8 Elementary School
National AAHPERD Convention April 23, 2013
Charlotte, North Carolina
Presentation for The National Dance Association
Benefits of Cross-Curricular
Instruction
• Makes learning holistic for children so they can
make connections from the academic classroom
to the movement experiences in dance and
physical education class.
• A holistic interdisciplinary learning environment
accelerates cognitive knowledge for student
academic achievement to improve test scores.
• Students develop learning blocks of vocabulary,
subject concepts, reading and writing skills in a
holistic learning environment.
Benefits of Cross Curricular
Teaching
• Integration teaching techniques help to better
utilize the instructional process by taking a more
in depth study into all subjects by making cross
curricular connections to promote meaningful
learning experiences for all students.
• Another benefit of interdisciplinary teaching is
that students have a chance to work with
multiple sources of information, thus ensuring
they are receiving a more inclusive perspective
than they would from consulting one textbook.
(Wood, 1997)
Benefits of Cross-Curricular
Teaching
• Integrated instruction also allows for authentic
assessment. (Barton & Smith, 2000)
• Integrated instruction promotes the constructivist
method of teaching where students take their
prior knowledge and expand upon it.
• The most common method of implementing
integrated interdisciplinary instruction is the
thematic unit, in which a common theme is
studied in more than one content area. (Barton &
Smith, 2000)
Benefits of Cross-Curricular
Teaching
• Implementing interdisciplinary curriculum units
helps children acquire targeted concepts and
skills of various disciplines more effectively.
(Jacobs, 1991)
• Cross curricular links are crucial to learning as
learning depends on being able to make
connections between prior knowledge and
experiences and new information and
experiences. (Crown, 2006)
Benefits of Cross-Curricular
Teaching
• Cross curricular learning helps develop
metacognitive learners and metacognitive
learners are able to adapt their learning to
new situations. (Crown, 2006)
• Examines the notion of integrated studies
as a way of organizing the curriculum in
schools. (Kerry, 2011)
A to Z Thematic Teaching Themes!
• Animals, Africa, balloons, beach, bugs,
color, desert, dinosaurs, elephants, fish,
forest, fossils, grass, hip-hop, ice, insects,
jump, kites, lights, mammals, machines,
newspaper, Olympics, plants, quill, rabbits,
sea, solar system, sports, trees, turtles,
umbrella, victory, water, woods, x-ray,
yarn, and zoo.
Bugs and Butterflies Thematic
Cross-Curricular Activity
Bugs and Butterflies Language Arts
Cross-Curricular Connection
• Children’s Literature-The Very Quiet Cricket by
Eric Carle
Bugs and Butterflies Word Wall
.
• Abdomen, ant, antennae, bee, beetle,
butterfly, bug, caterpillar, chrysalis,
compound eyes, cricket, dragonfly, eggs,
firefly, grasshopper, honeybee, insect,
ladybug, larva, legs, locust,
metamorphosis, monarch, mosquito, moth,
nymph, owl butterfly, praying mantis,
pupa, roach, swallowtail, termite, thorax,
walking stick, wasp, wings, worm, yellow
jacket, zebra butterfly.
Bugs and Butterflies
• Students write about what kind of bugs
they like or don’t like.
• They can write about what kind of
movements the bugs do in order to move
and survive.
• Students can make comparisons between
different types of bugs and what their main
function is in our world.
Bug and Butterfly Math
Connections
• Classify the bugs into movement
categories such as ants and ladybugs can
crawl. Butterflies and dragonflies can fly.
Caterpillars and worms can slither. Add to
this list.
• Have the students create bug math
problems such as ten butterflies are flying
and then five more come to fly. How many
butterflies are flying all together?
Bug and Butterfly Math
Connections
• Classify the bugs into movement
categories such as ants and ladybugs can
crawl. Butterflies and dragonflies can fly.
Caterpillars and worms can slither. Add to
this list.
• Have the students create bug math
problems such as ten butterflies are flying
and then five more come to fly. How many
butterflies are flying all together?
Bugs and Butterflies
• Hempitera is a bug and they have a hypodermic
needle like mouth to extract fluids from plants or
animals. Leafhoppers, milkweed bugs, and bed
bugs are part of this group.
• Invertebrates are insects that have an
exoskeleton, a three part body of head, thorax,
and abdomen. They have three pairs of legs,
compound eyes, and one pair of antennae. The
cricket, wasp, and moth are insects in this group.
Bugs and Butterflies Science
Connection
• Arthropods are different from bugs and
insects. Their skeleton is on the outside of
the body. They have a segmented body
with jointed appendages.
• They are the largest animal species in the
world which includes spiders, butterflies,
flies, ants, and bees. They dominate the
land, sea, and air.
Bugs and Butterflies Social Studies
Connections
• Location of bugs, butterflies, and insects
and where they live on state map.
• Location of various species and where
they live on the USA map.
• Do bugs, butterflies, and insects help and
or hinder our farmers?
• Where are these farms located in our
area?
Bugs and Butterflies Arts
Connections
• Music-Firefly Song by Owl City and
Creative Classical Music
• Art-Draw pictures of your favorite insects,
bugs, and butterflies.
• Dance Props-Beanbag bugs, dancing
color scarves, and flowers.
• Theater-Tough to be a Bug-Disney
Bugs and Butterflies Creative
Movement Study Words
• Bend, climb, crawl, creep, curl, fall, flutter, fly,
hang, rise, slither, soar, spiral, spin, stretch,
sway, swing, twist, turn, and wiggle.
• Across, around, backward, curved, diagonal,
fast, forward, high, low, medium, over, sideways,
slow, straight, under, through, and zigzag.
• Directional, pathway, levels, and space concepts
of movement.
Bugs and Butterfly Introductory
Activity
• Make a list of the bugs, butterflies, and insect
words that the students are familiar with.
• Then play “Magic Scientist” with the students
using the word wall words and add new
vocabulary words to the list.
• “I am the magic scientist and I am going to turn
you into a grasshopper hopping and leaping in
the grass!” Then the students perform that
movement.
Bugs and Butterfly Main Lesson
• Students are in small groups and they will create
a movement sequence of the bug or butterfly
species.
• The students will create a movement pattern
reflecting on two or three different kinds of bugs
and butterflies.
• Teacher can use clue cards with bug and insect
information for vocabulary building.
• Use creative music and or props.
• Students can write their movement compositions
in their journals.
Bugs and Butterflies Concluding
Activity
• Bugs and Butterflies Story!
• All the bugs and butterflies are resting in the
forest at night for their very busy day!
• The sun comes up and the bugs and butterflies
begin to move around in the forest.
• They crawl, climb, flutter, fly, and twirl about.
• They look and find food.
• Soon the sun is going down and it is time to rest
again after a very busy day in the forest!
Bugs and Butterfly Assessment
Procedures
• Can the students read and understand the
bug and butterfly vocabulary off of the
word wall?
• Can the students perform the axial and
locomotor skills that bugs and butterflies
can perform?
• Can the students create safe movement
sequences alone, with a partner, and in
small and large cooperative groups?
Assessment
• Have the students reflect upon their
creative dance learning experience and
write about what they have learned in their
journals.
• Teacher may use learning board to write
about what the class learned through the
dance experience.
Rainbow Thematic CrossCurricular Connections
Rainbow
Rainbow Language Arts CrossCurriculum Connections
• Children’s LiteratureColor Dance by Ann
Jonas
Rainbow Word Wall
• Angles, arc, blue, clouds, cloudy, color,
curved, drops, green, indigo, light, lighting,
orange, puddles, precipitation, rain,
rainbow, rays, red, refracted, reflected,
spectrum, sky, storm, sun, thunder, violet,
weather, wet, and yellow.
Rainbow Language Arts
• Students can write about their favorite
color of the rainbow.
• Why is this your favorite color?
• What does this color represent?
• Write about when you have seen a
rainbow in the sky?
• What did you like about it?
Rainbow Math Cross-Curriculum
Connections
• Make a graph chart of each color and
have students list objects or things of that
color.
• The sky and blueberries can represent the
color blue.
• Apples and a fire truck can represent the
color red.
• A banana and the sun can represent the
color yellow.
Rainbow Science Cross-Curricular
Connections
• Rainbow are formed with water droplets
viewed from a certain angle relative to the
sun’s rays.
• Study the different types of rainbows such
as night rainbows, multiple rainbows,
supernumerary and monochrome
rainbows.
Rainbow Social Studies CrossCurricular Connections
• Locations of where you have seen
rainbows in our community.
• Where does it rain the most in our country
and in the world?
• What other social implications does the
rainbow represent in our culture?
Rainbow Arts Cross-Curriculum
• Music-Somewhere over the Rainbow and
creative classical songs.
• Art-Paint the colors of the rainbow.
• Dance-Colored scarves and streamers of
the six different colors of the rainbow.
• Theater-Wizard of Oz
Rainbow Dance Creative
Movement Study Words
• Accelerate, dash, dart, decelerate, drop,
fast, slow, splash, straight, strut, whirl,
zigzag, and zippy.
Rainbow Introductory Activity
• Read the Color Book and talk about the
various colors.
• What things in our world are the various
colors that represent the rainbow?
• Divide the class into groups of the six
colors of the rainbow to create movement
sequences.
Rainbow Cross-Curriculum Main
Lesson Activity
• Divide the students up into small cooperative
groups of the six colors of the rainbow and a
group for the wind, rain, thunder, and lighting.
Have another small group to represent the sun.
• All groups will choreograph a movement
sequence focusing on the creative words.
• Use color streamers, color scarves, and dance
props to represent each weather element.
• You may make paper raindrops, lightning, and
sunshine props.
Rainbow Concluding Dance Part I
• Bring together all the students who just
choreographed their small group dances using
the dance literacy words.
• Assign each group a home space on the dance
floor where they are to be located for the dance.
• You may use a cone to mark the home space to
keep students behind it until they are called out
to perform in the creative dance.
Rainbow Concluding Dance Part II
• All the various groups will have a home space for the
large group creative dance.
• Teacher will call out each various color to perform their
creative dance choreography to the music.
• First the wind, thunder, lightning, and raindrops will
dance first.
• Then the teacher will call out each different color
to come out and dance. Teacher calls out blue to dance
and then they go back to their home space. Then the
teacher will call out the yellow etc.
Rainbow Creative Dance Part III
• After each of the six color groups perform their
creative movement dance sequences the
teacher will call out for all groups to dance.
• All the colors of the rainbow and the wind, rain,
thunder, and lighting all dance in harmony.
• The teacher will call out for the sunshine to
come out and then all the dancers will gently fall
to the ground. The sun will stop the
thunderstorm and the rainbow will fade away.
Rainbow Assessment
• Students reflect upon their learning experiences
and their new knowledge through the journal
writing experience.
• They are expected to use both new vocabulary
and movement literacy terms in their writing
assessments.
• What new things did they learn in the creative
dance experience?
• Teacher can use a learning board to ask the
entire class what they achieved in class today.
• Teacher will write it out for all students to see.
Fun In The Jungle Thematic CrossCurricular Activity
Jungle Language Arts CrossCurriculum Connections
Jungle Word Wall
• Africa, alligator, ape, bears, birds, bugs,
canopy, cheetah, chimpanzee, cockatoo,
creature, crocodile, dirt, discover, explore,
insect, fish, flowers, frog, elephant,
giraffes, jaguar, leopard, lion, lizard,
monkey, mud, ostrich, parrot, plants, rain,
rhino, snake, swamp, tiger, trees, turtle,
water, wilderness, and zebra.
Jungle Language Arts
• Who is the Beast? Read the book and list
the animals from the story.
• What are the nouns and verbs in the
story?
• Study various poems about the jungle and
or jungle animals.
• Learn new jungle vocabulary words and
their definitions.
Jungle Cross Curricular Math
Connections
• Create jungle animal story math problems
for addition and subtraction.
• There are twenty lions sleeping. Nine
lions decide to get up and hunt for food.
How many lions are left sleeping?
• What would be the measurement of a
particular jungle animal’s height and
weight? Explore the findings and create a
chart.
Jungle Cross-Curricular Science
Connections
• Jungles are overgrown with wild tangles of
vegetation and dense forest.
• Jungles and rainforests are similar, but while
rainforests have thick canopies of tall trees that
block out light, jungles allow more light in,
making it easier for plants to grow.
• The extra light creates dense areas of plants
and vegetation that can be difficult to navigate.
• Jungles are often found surrounding rainforests.
Jungle Cross-Curricular Science
Connections
• Jungles are home to a wide range of plants and
animals.
• Over half of the world's species live in a jungle
environment.
• Jungles are usually in warm places with high
rainfall.
• The word ‘jungle’ comes from a Sanskrit word
meaning ‘uncultivated land’.
• The saying “The Law of the Jungle” comes from
Rudyard Kipling’s collection of stories called The
Jungle Book, published in 1894.
Jungle Science
• While lions have the nickname “The King
of the Jungle” they typically live in
savannah and grassland.
• Tarzan is a famous fictional character who
is raised by apes in African jungles.
• Information from Fun Jungle Facts by
Science Kids Webpage.
Jungle Cross-Curricular Social
Studies Connections
•
•
•
•
Location of the jungles in Africa and Asia.
How many jungles are in our world?
What countries are they located in?
How do the jungle animals effect those
who live near them?
• Where are the local zoos in our community
that house jungle animals?
Jungle Cross-Curricular Arts
Connections
• Music-The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The
Tokens Disney Lion King.
• Art-Paint and make jungle animal masks.
• Dance-Dancing color scarves and animal
mask for creative jungle dance.
• Theater-Lion King by Disney.
Jungle Creative Words
• Arc, balance, bend, chase, crawl, dart,
dash, flee, float, flutter, fly, hang, hide,
hunt, jump, leap, move, play, prance, ran,
run, sleep, spin, splash, stretch, sway,
swim, swing, turn, twist, walk, and zip.
• Levels of low, medium, and high.
• Shapes of wide, narrow, long, short, and
twisted.
Jungle Introductory Activity
• Who is the Beast? Read the book and list the
animals from the story.
• Have the students act out each animal and list
the movements that the animals perform.
• Write the information on the learning board.
• How do the animals in the story interact with
each other.
• Have the students write this information and
their journal and reflect upon the movement
story.
Jungle Main Lesson
• Have the students work with a partner to
create a movement sequence of the jungle
animal that they are to perform in the
dance.
• Students need to reflect upon the creative
word wall list for movement ideas.
• Students may write down their movement
sequences in their journals or teacher
made worksheets.
Jungle Concluding Activity
• Have the students take the floor with their
partner and dress up in costume.
• Students will perform a large group
creative and cooperative dance to the
song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight!”
• Students need to cooperate with everyone
during the dance.
• Students must be safe, responsible, and
respectful at all times!
Jungle Assessment
• Can the students perform the creative
animal movements, steps, and sequences
of the cooperative dance?
• Do students cooperate and work together
as a group?
• Do the students share ideas when
choreographing their dance sequences?
• Are the students safe, responsible, and
respectful at all times?
Cross-Curricular Teaching
References
• Barton, K.C. & Smith, L.A. (September
2000). Themes or motifs? Aiming for
coherence through interdisciplinary
outlines. The Reading Teacher, 54(1), 54
– 63.
• The Importance of Cross-Curricular
Teaching 2006 Crown Copyright
• Jacobs, Heidi Dr. “The Integrative
Curriculum” Instructor September, 1991.
Cross-Curricular Teaching
References
• Kerry, Trevor. (2011). Cross-Curricular
Teaching in the Primary School.
Routledge, New York.
• Wood, K. (1997). Interdisciplinary
instruction: A practical guide for
elementary and middle school teachers.
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Merrill
Cross-Curricular Teaching
References
• Kerry, Trevor. (2011). Cross-Curricular
Teaching in the Primary School.
Routledge, New York.
• Wood, K. (1997). Interdisciplinary
instruction: A practical guide for
elementary and middle school teachers.
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Merrill
Dayton Public Schools
and Kemp Elementary
• Thank you to our wonderful students!
• Thank you to our wonderful staff!
• Thank you to the DPS Board of Education
for their support!