Date of awareness Day: 29th April 2024
International Dance Day
International Dance Day was founded in 1982. The intention of the International Dance Day is to ‘celebrate dance, revel in the universality of this art form, cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers, and bring people together with a common language - dance.’
In the early years we value and encourage children expressing themselves through movement; bringing benefits for their body and mind.
On this page we have compiled all of the resources from our website (‘Little Owls-Premium’) which you may find useful when engaging your EARLY YEARS children in exploring dance and expressive movement.
If you are not a member already, become a ‘Free Access’ member here. This will give you access to resources within the ‘Free Sample Resources’ sections at the top of most pages and ‘Special Dates Calendars’. Some whole topics are even free! Find out more about all of our membership options here. If you are already a member… thank-you! x
Please note that both Editable (docx file) and non-editable (pdf file) versions are available for the following resources. (Editable files require Microsoft Word to work at optimum level and Non-Editable files require a pdf viewer.)
‘Dance’ resources in ‘Exercise’
Click on the thumbnail images below for further details…
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENT CHALLENGE CARDS
Explore expressive movement with your children using our movement cards as a prompt! Choose from a variety of different themes below. One day you may all be pretending to be minibeasts and on another day acting out key elements of a traditional tale!
To begin with you may like to introduce the various movements by taking it in turns to pick a card from a pile for everyone to do. Cards could equally be shrunk down and placed on a key ring to take out on adventures or featured on an indoor or outdoor display board and referred to with everyone carrying out the activity on floor space in front.
Once the children get to know the cards they will be able to relate the action to the picture without necessarily needing the card read to them...For example an adult may be able to simply hold up a card and everyone will be able to do the activity together! At this stage, why not add music?! Hold up cards for children to make the movements along with the music. For those children who are exceptionally engaged, these cards could be explored in a set sequence for a dance performance!
Great for physical development, descriptive language, understanding the world, exploring the expressive arts, concentration, turn taking and many more skills.
More APRIL ‘Awareness Dates’ you may be interested in…
APRIL ‘Festivals and Celebrations’ you may be interested in…
Other pages which may interest you…