Dance Party Fridays

I got elbowed in the face during Dance Party Friday, morning edition. 

It's gotten out of hand. We started pretty calm at the beginning of the year, with your disco points and everything, but now we've got attempts at break dancing and overtly sexual awkwardnesses. One of my favorite dancers--the one who hops and giggles--didn't even know what to do when it was her turn. She tried something semi-breakdance, semi-shimmy until she gave up and bunny hopped around the circle.

Things just aren't what they used to be.

Stripping and Molting

Today we did the molting dance.

This is when you pretend to come out of your larval exoskeleton, after you ate too much and got too big for it. You wiggle and wiggle.

Scanning the room, I thought it was pretty cute.

And then I saw evidence of serious miscommunication: one student, belly exposed past the button, had her arm in her shirt and was about it take it off. Yikes stripes!

Unexpected skin exposure never goes over well. Too many squeals to handle before lunch.

Best of Tuesday

Arts Week is just jam-packed with highlights:

• We saw a Hip Hop dance group this morning. They were unbelievable. One dude spun on his head for an improbably long time. Also, they had a lady breakdancer. She's my hero.
• During the dance part, one student of mine kept yelling, "You Michael Jackson! Michael Jackson! You Michael Jordan! Michael Jordan! You on fire, on fire, on fire!" 
• We saw a very inspirational Bronx-based modern dance troupe. 
• My 5th and 6th graders had their first day of filming. We followed the performance group to the subway station, where they were handing out free lollipops to "sweeten" everyone's day. The footage is a little Blair Witch, but it'll be the jam. These kids rock.
• After school, the other first grade teachers and I had to make stuffed animal butterflies. Using a hot glue gun sounded better when I was a kid.

Tomorrow is the Spring Gallery showcase. Oo la la.

omg, dance party friday

Today was the danciest day ever. 

It started off with dancing and singing in a circle, like most Friday mornings. One kid in the middle, everyone else on the edge. Today was a little subdued because my co-teacher and I decided to seriously crack down on behavior. No whispers, no dilly dallying. I had to warn one kid against doing "the worm." And we had our hopper, who hopped all around the circle, giggling. One kid just stood in the middle and stared at his arch nemesis in class. Neither danced. Little awk, little Wild West.

Then, fast forward past recess, the kids went to dance class.

Fast forward again to the ART PARADE! I scrambled around and found the box of musical instruments, so we banged on them and danced around the school and on the street. We passed a pretty stationary robot, a live-action visual artist, a Bronx-based dance troupe, and the lady dressed like a butterfly.  

Then, down to the cafeteria for an African dance troupe with djembe and everything. Great drumming, great dancing. They had an audience participation part, where 4 of my students went up and danced with them. I always love the kids who spend most of time out of sync, looking around at everyone else to see what to do. They're troopers.