Community is KEY!

"When you build feelings of belonging and safety in your classroom, you increase your ability to engage students' minds. This atmosphere supports the efficient and effective delivery of curriculum content to students." Evan White

Building a sense of community is very important in every classroom environment. Students need to feel they are in a place that is risk free, where they can build the confidence to try new things and express their ideas. If the students feel a sense of respect and tolerance for each other, they are more like to be willing to expand their views and try new things. Movement and dance are a perfect way to build that sense of community. By working together to dance or solve a problem, lines of communication are opened and children find it easier to relate to one another.

(Image found here)

"Bringing physical language into the classroom offers children a rare chance to look at one another, to see each other, and learn how to show respect for each other's differences in a nonthreatening arena. Kinesthetic learning encourages an acceptance of difference because no two people have the same bodies or move alike. When it comes to self expression, moreover, there is no 'right' or 'wrong' movement." (Griss, S. (1998). Minds in Motion. NH:Heinemann.)

Here is an example of a quick activity, that gets your student up and moving, as well as working together toward a common goal.

The Human Knot:

Objective:
1. The students will practice cooperative learning skills.

2. The students will find a solution to the group’s “knot”.

Procedure:
Ask a group of 6 or more people (even numbers works best) to form a circle. Each person should hold out their right hand and grab the right hand of the person cross from them as though the two were shaking hands. Then each person should hold hands (left hands) with a person standing next to them. Each person should be holding hands with two different people.

Goal of the Game:
The goal of this warm up is for the students to untangle themselves from their situation so that a human circle is formed.

Rules:
The physical hand to hand contact that you have with your partner cannot be broken in order to facilitate an "unwinding movement". Sometimes the people in the final circle will end up facing alternating directions. This is OK.
If the group has been struggling with a knot for a long time, offer "Knot First Aid." Let the students decide amongst the group, which grip needs first aid. This pair of hands may then be temporarily undone and re-gripped in order to help the group.

(Lesson plan found here)