Just this week I presented the 7th grade class the Art of Renaissance Dance. The dance I teach is a simple line dance but with some formalities like curtsies and bows, jester hops and turns, and the classic "Holy-Palmer's- Kiss" (palm-to palm). When the dance was first presented about 50% of the students were amenable, but getting the other 50% to engage was the challenge.
Just so happens, I LOVE a challenge and when considering the faces and body language I could potentially face daily during "dance week" I knew something had to be done! So I pulled out some Theater Games from my bag of tricks as a way to warm-up and motivate the students and it did wonders to win these guys over!
Theater Games are not limited to the performing arts. Theater games can be used as team building activities in any subject area because they are simple, cost nothing and reach all learning styles. If you try them, you will be amazed at the outcomes! New leaders will crop up out of nowhere, kids will want to speak out and share like never before and when done, your class will beg for more game time! So before you present a challenging concept or unit, try warming the kids up with Theater Games!
Here are some pic's my kids in action!
