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Shake your Tutu

Dance to Your Health

Students will learn about the benefits of dance to promote health and then use sidewalk chalk to illustrate a dancer.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

Steps

  • Step 1

    Introduce the lesson by reading Angelina Ballerina by Katharine Holabird. Discuss main events of the story and particularly the character. Have students hypothesize why Holabird decided to have a dancer and not someone of another profession as her main character.

  • Step 2

    Share with students how many people over time have been inspired by dancers. Emphasize how dancing is NOT just for girls. Discuss how many sports professionals are encouraged to take dancing lessons to improve their skills.

  • Step 3

    Introduce students to the work of Edgar Degas. Be sure to have plenty of examples of his work. Provide a brief biography and discuss the art (e.g., mood, media, line, movement).

  • Step 4

    Give students white dry-erase boards and Crayola® Dry Erase Markers. Go over simple figure sketching. Allow students to spend some time working in pairs posing and sketching on dry erase boards. Make sure they change positions frequently.

  • Step 5

    Give each student a piece of black or dark paper. Have students sketch a ballet dancer (male or female) lightly in pencil on their paper. No erasing.

  • Step 6

    Hand out colored chalk or chalk pastels. Discuss how chalk provides a nice contrast to the dark page. Show how chalk can be smoothed or layered to provide tones and alter mood. Always have students start with light colors and add darker colors last to prevent smudging.

  • Step 7

    Once art is finished, spray completed work with a fixative or hairspray to minimize smudging or place behind a sheet of acetate and frame. Display in the classroom.

Standards

LA: Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words of a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting).

LA: Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

SS: Describe ways in which language, stories, folktales, music and artistic creations serve as expressions of culture and influence behavior of people living in a particular culture.

VA: Students experience, analyze and interpret art and other aspects of the visual world.

VA: Students will initiate making works of art and design by experimenting, imagining and identifying content.

VA: Students will investigate, plan and work through materials and ideas to make works of art and design.

Adaptations

Read other books from the Angelina Ballerina series. Compare and contrast elements of the books (e.g., setting, plot, conflict and resolution, character development).

Collaborate with the physical education department to conduct a unit on dance in Physical Education.

Introduce students to other famous artists influenced by dancers such as Paula Rego, Bill Brauer or Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Compare and contrast artist’s styles (e.g., line, color, mood, media).