Dynamic Play and Creative Movement offers effective and accessible methods to supplement elementary education for young children using dance, movement, and play.
Imagination, physical energy, and the need for self-expression are childhood qualities recognized by parents but are not sufficiently valued to be applied to formal education. Yet when valued as natural endowments, they might intelligently be used to increase a child's perceptive abilities and self-confidence, essential to learning. These three qualities combine in dynamic play, a term devised by the author to describe an approach to learning. Through physical participation, children deal with concepts, ideas, and emotions while they reach out to touch a vast world of people, animals, nature, and activities. The chapters provide for improvisations in music, visual art, drama and stories in addition to topics related to the changing seasons, sports, school subjects, travel, games, and many other elements of the natural and man-made world. Research about the correlation of movement to brain activity is included to support the thesis that creative movement is an effective adjunct to learning.
Therapists, counselors, and preschool and elementary teachers will find this easily adaptable material valuable in fostering perception, insight, and cognitive understanding in children.
Author(s): Judith Peck
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 251
City: New York
Cover
Endorsement
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I Dynamic Play
1 Journey of Discovery
Dynamic Play
Group Participation
Ways to Bring Dynamic Play into Existing Schedules
Dramatizing Ideas and Emotions
Shared Imaginations
2 Channeling Physical Energy, Imagination, and Expression
3 Imagination: Origin of Individuality
60 Boys
4 Getting Started
A Word to Parents
Definitions
5 Questions and Answers
For the Leader
What Kind of Shoes or Clothes Should Be Worn?
Get Going
Part II Movement and Brain Connections
6 Brain Plasticity and Exercise
Neural Networks and the Mind–Body Linkage
Perception and Intelligence
Self‑Confidence and Learning
Starting at the Start
7 The Developing Brain
Three Epochs of Evolution
The Brain in Embryo: Astounding Numbers
At Birth: Billions of Brain Cells Ready and Able
The Eye/Brain Connection
The Nature–Nurture Deliberation
The Flexibility of a Child’s Brain
Story Reading
Conclusion
8 The Brain, Movement, and Dance
Moving with Intention
Getting Inside the Body
Dance and Learning
Learning and Imagination
The Body’s Role in Emotional Well-Being
The Purpose of Emotion
The Intensity of Emotion
Brain and Self-Esteem
Brain Activity and the Arts in General
Part III The Creative Conquest of Space
9 Taking Off
Transforming Shape into Movement
The Dance of the Butterfly
Forming a Mental Image
Wide Circle and Middle of the Room Formations
Single-Line Formations
10 Ground Instruments
Legs and Feet
Head and Arms
Torso
Reference List for Class Sessions
Movements in Place—Middle of the Room
Broad Movements Around and Across the Room
11 Flight Patterns
The Launching
Part IV Improvisations
12 Getting Started
Group Discussions
Group Improvisations
Summary of Things for Children to Remember
Ways to Present the Improvisation
13 Improvisations on Nature
14 Improvisations on the Seasons
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
15 Improvisations on the Visual Arts
Drawing
Painting
Abstract Painting
An Art Class
Comparisons
Sculpture
Photography
16 Improvisations on the Performing Arts
Music
Drama
Stories
17 Improvisations on the Holidays
Easter
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas
18 School Projects
19 Fun and Games
Part V Creative Movement Plays
20 Dynamic Plays
Adapting the Stories for the Group in Session
Procedure for Preparing the Movement Play
Beginning the Movement Play
Space, Sound, and Clothing as Instruments of Expression
Preparing the Movement Stories as Program Entertainment
Movement Story Reminders
Conclusion
21 The Stories
Star Party (ages 6–11)
The Robin Family (ages 3–7)
The Visits (ages 6–11)
A Magic Sewing Box (ages 5–11)
The Treasure Chest (ages 6–11)
The Shoe Tree (ages 5–10)
Robert the Rabbit (ages 3–6)
A Smile in the Snow (ages 4–10)
The House on the Hill (ages 5–10)
The History Class (ages 7–11)
The Speed and Fury of Fire (ages 5–11)
A Small Statue (ages 3–9)
The Baby Bud (ages 3–9)
The Pencil Party (ages 6–10)
The New Old Woman in the Shoe (ages 7–11)
Bibliography
Index
