Introduction
This webquest will teach students the importance of dance while exploring and describing dances from a variety of cultures.
Students will watch short video clips showing different cultures' dances.
These have been sourced from Youtube clips as there is a wide variety of traditional cultural dances available from this source.
Task
The task is to research different cultural dances and create a poster displaying the understanding of the dance movements learned from these dances.
This webquest will challenge the students to explore their new knowledge from the variety of cultures.
This poster is to be created on Google Drive, iCloud or a similar cloud based file.
Process
The children will watch the following video clips of cultural dances:
Mayim Mayim Israeli Dance -
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X15ODiDDev8].
Chinese Dragon dance -
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isOywmO-Udo].
Samoan slap dance (Fa’ataupati) -
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy3L09yg2tw].
Turkish dance - Halay - Anatolian folk dance -
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jOK_mWkjw].
In doing so, keep in mind:
What is unique about each dance?
Where do the dances come from?
What is the reason for the dance?
What is the main idea for the dance?
From the dances shown could you explain its significance?
Evaluation
- That the children are able to correctly draw dancers using geometry shapes focusing on body positioning.
- There is a written paragraph describing each of the above pictures.
- They have written a diamante poem using words relating to the dances.
Conclusion
By watching these video clips you will learn about a variety of traditional cultural dances and the history of these dances.
There are any different reasons for these dances, including religious, celebrational traditions and cultural reasons. This diversity reflects the diverse range of people around the world today.
As we learn we are also accepting and carrying on these traditions by passing this information down each new generation.
Credits
Thanks to all of the cultures seen within these video clips and to the patience of the camera person recording these wonderful dances.
Permission is granted to anyone wanting to use this information. Constructive feedback is gratefully received.
Teacher Page
This lesson is created with year 5/6 students (9-11 year olds) based on the New Zealand Curriculum in the arts of Understanding the Arts in context.
It was created for the Achievement Objective strand of 3A1 UC - exploring and describing dances from a variety of cultures.