Howard Ward has the second dance session based on Greedy Zebra by Mwenye Hadithi.
2. News travels fast
The children listen to the next part of the story, as the news travels about the wonderful cave and all the animals rush to look - except one. The session focuses on: contrasting movement; travelling; reaching and stretching; body shape.
Resources
Download the audio for this dance session as an mp3 file.
Guidance on using the dance sessions in this unit with your group (pdf)
Lesson summary:
Off to the cave. Thinking about contrasting movement ideas, the children explore different ways of travelling, quickly and very slowly. They are encouraged to think about the time a journey takes at different speeds.
Who gets there first? The children try out all the different ways of travelling mentioned in the story. They run, jump, and slide, and they swing and slither through the trees. Again, the emphasis is on the speed at which they move, as well as the body parts they use.
Who gets there last? Greedy Zebra cannot resist the juicy grass he sees on his way to the cave. The children experiment with the idea of eating as they travel, taking food from all around, reaching, stretching, twisting and pulling, weaving in and reversing out of spaces. They move more and more slowly as they imagine getting bigger and bigger, fuller and fuller. Finally, they freeze in Greedy Zebra shapes. Since this is all based on the narrative, you may need to remind the children of the story sometimes.
Final thought. Melting down to the floor from their final position, the children think about the story so far, and what might happen next.
More from this unit of KS1 Dance: Let's Move
1. Time for change. audio
Part 1 of Greedy Zebra by Mwenye Hadithi.
3. Spots, stripes and a stitch in time. audio
Part 3 of 'Greedy Zebra' by Mwenye Hadithi.
4. Zebra's lesson. audio
The final part of 'Greedy Zebra' by Mwenye Hadithi.