American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

 Issue: Nov/Dec 2005

Creative Movement from Children’s Storybooks: Going Beyond Pantomime
Ritchie Gabbei & Heidi Clemmens

Abstract:
Movement education lessons, such as pantomiming children’s storybooks, are often used in physical education—yet pantomime is just the beginning. Once prerequisite skills in the Body, Space, Effort, and Relationships (BSER) conceptual framework are established, students may begin the creative process. Although professional dance educators usually structure the elements of dance differently, the BSER framework is more often understood by physical educators. Included in this article is a description of a creative movement learning sequence in lesson plan format.

As a result of participating in the pantomime, students will be able to use expressive movements to accurately represent actions that the teacher reads from a storybook. Performing impromptu creative movements that represent a story is a good lead-up to the more involved creative process. As part of a small group, students will be able to use movement creatively to develop and present a portion of a story that includes unconventional movements in a smoothly performed, creative-movement sequence. Utilizing this lesson sequence is a good way to provide students with a rich learning experience that integrates language, creativity, problem solving, and skill into physical education.

Article category: Cross-Disciplinary Connections