LESSON PLAN FORMAT- DANCE CONTENT AREA

WINTHROP UNIVERSITY
Educator: Brittany M. Johnson
Date: 09/19/2014
Target Age Group/ Grade: 6th
Length of Lesson: 40 minutes
Focus of Lesson: Todays lesson will focus on the contrasting qualities of plants and animals
through the use of AB choreographic structure.
Materials: Promethean board, white board, markers, eraser, PowerPoint, checklists, iPod, stereo,
sentence strips
Resources: Support Documents for the Grade 6 South Carolina Academic Standards and
Performance Indicators for Science,
http://www.ket.org/artstoolkit/dance/glossary.htm#compositionalforms
National/ State Curriculum Standards:
Life Science
Standard:
6.L.4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of how scientists classify organisms and
how the structures, processes, behaviors, and adaptations of animals allow them to survive.
Indicator:
6.L.4A.2 Develop and use models to classify organisms based on the current hierarchical
taxonomic structure (including the kingdoms of protists, plants, fungi, and animals).
Dance
Standard 2:
The student will implement choreographic principles, processes, and structures.
Indicator:
D6-2.4 Create original dance phrases or brief movement studies that demonstrate the principles
of contrast and transition.
Vocabulary:
Introduced Vocabulary
Heterotrophs- animals eat other organisms to store chemical energy
Autotrophs- plants use sunlight as a source of chemical energy
AB Form- a two part compositional form with an A theme and a B theme. The binary form
consists of two distinct self-contained sections
Reviewed Vocabulary
Level- high, middle, low
Locomotor- movements that travel throughout the space

Stationary- movements that remain in the same place

Energy- the quality of a movement; bound/ free, light/ heavy, tight/ loose, sharp/ smooth
Speed- fast, medium, slow
Lesson Objective

Students will be able to:

1. identify and recall the contrasting qualities between plant and
animal structures, behaviors, and processes;
2. choreograph a dance phrase using AB structure to highlight
the differences between plant and animal structures, behaviors,
processes.

Instructional
Procedures

Warm-up Activity: (5 minutes)

1. Students will engage in a brief warm-up activity to prepare the
body for todays movement activity.
Introductory Activity: (3 minutes)
1. The lesson will begin with an introductory activity called
Opposites.
2. The class will be divided into two halves, Group A and Group
B.
3. Each group will be given a movement cue that is the exact
opposite from the other group. Contrasting levels, energy,
shapes, and stationary/ traveling movements will be especially
emphasized.
a. Ex. Group A move on a high level. Group B move on
a low level. Group B show me heavy movement, while
Group A shows me light movement
Developmental Activity: (20 minutes)
1. Discussion: Plants vs. Animals. Students will be asked to be
seated in front of the Promethean Board with their notes for an
opening discussion, which will be accompanied with a
PowerPoint presentation.
a. What did we talk about last week? We talked about the
common characteristics of living organisms and used
theme and variation to help us remember those
characteristics. Today, we are going to talk about the
differences between some of those living organisms,
plants and animals.
b. Does anyone know about some of the differences
between the structures, behaviors, and processes of
plants and animals?
c. Lets take a look.
i. Plants are classified into two categories;
vascular and non-vascular. Non- vascular
plants do not have true roots, stems, and leaves.
So its very hard for them to reach water under

the soil. Because of this non vascular plants are

smaller in size. (Show examples: mosses,
liverworts, and hornworts) Vascular plants
have true roots, stems, leaves, and they are
larger in size. (Show examples: ferns, conifers,
flowering plants)
ii. Plants can only reproduce by themselves
(asexually).
iii. Plants stay in one place.
iv. Plants are autotrophs, meaning they use
sunlight to produce their food.
v. Animals are classified into two categories:
vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates are
animals with a vertebrae. (Show examples:
fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals)
Invertebrates are animals without a vertebrae.
(Show examples: sponges, segmented worms,
mollusks, anthropoids, echinoderms)
vi. Animals can reproduce with a mate and
without a mate (asexually and sexually).
vii. Animals can move from place to place.
viii. Animals are heterotrophs, meaning they have
to eat other organisms for food.
2. Matching Activity: The students will engage in a matching
activity on the PowerPoint to test their knowledge. Lets see
how much we can remember.
3. Movement Activity
a. Now, everyone lets go out into the space. We are
going to do a movement activity very similar to what
we did last Friday. But, I want to start off with you all
deciding on the movement, since you are the
choreographers. We are going to create a movement
phrase to represent the differences between plants and
animals. Here are the rules: You must pick two
movements with contrasting speeds, a locomotor and
stationary movement, two movements with contrasting
levels, and two movements with contrasting energy
(sharp/ smooth, light/ heavy, bound/ free, tight/ loose)
(Students pick movements.)
b. Lets start with our first characteristic for plants.
Plants have are non-vascular or vascular. Pick one
movement.
c. Plants can only reproduce without a mate. Pick one
movement.
d. Plants stay in one place. One movement.

e. Plants use sunlight to produce their food. One

movement.
f. Animals are vertebrates or invertebrates. Pick one
movement.
g. Animals can reproduce with and without a mate.
h. Animals move from place to place.
i. Animals eat organisms for food.
j. Lets try performing the movement phrase together
while I read.
4. Discussion: AB Form
a. Lets come back to the Promethean Board. Can
anyone tell me how we emphasized the differences
between plants and animals in this movement
exercise?....Right, we used movements that were the
exact opposite from one another, such as high and low,
and heavy and light.
b. Choreographers also do this when they use the AB
choreographic form. AB form is a two part dance with
an A theme and a B theme. A theme and b theme show
contrasting movements.
c. What was our A theme?....Plants.
d. What was our B theme?....Animals.
e. How did we contrast the movements in each theme?
We used a different tempo, energy, level, and spatial
relationship.

Assessment of Each
Objective

5. Concluding Activity: (12 minutes)

a. So lets mix it up. Lets go back to our first
movement activity and keep the movements we
decided on, but lets change the order. (Rearrange
order of movements.)
b. I will divide the class into groups of 4 or 5. You are in
groups of 4, but I want you all to split your group in
half. One half will perform A theme and the other half
will perform B theme. While A theme performs, the B
theme group will read. While B theme performs, A
theme group will read
c. Students perform phrases.
I will assess the first objective, identify and recall the contrasting
qualities between plant and animal structures, behaviors, and
processes, throughout the entire lesson, as students will be asked to
read and respond to the characteristics of plants and animals in
movement activities. Students will identify the characteristics during
the beginning discussion and recall them during the concluding group
activity. I will assess the second objective, choreograph a dance
phrase using AB structure to highlight the differences between plant

and animal structures, behaviors, processes, in the concluding group

activity. Students will be divided into groups of four to perform a
phrase that represent the contrasting characteristics between plants
and animals through the use of AB choreographic form; which consist
of contrasting speeds, levels, spatial relationships, and energy. I will
use the checklist to record whether students have met all the
requirements.