So much more than your standard professional development...

Today was day 1 of summer PD with the Southeast Center for Arts Integration.  It was so much more than sitting and listening to professionals in the area talk on integration.  I met my colleagues, shared ideas on collaboration, danced, played "Freeze" and "Control."  I practiced keeping a steady beat.  I played a bucket drum with sticks made from newspaper.  I made music.  I hope that I can take many of these ideas into my classroom.  Maybe I will, maybe I won't.  But what I do know is that I am beginning to get my mind on art and ready for the new school year.

These activities would be a great addition to any curriculum and would easily fit into Morning Meeting...
Noodle Train
(source)
Resources: Noodles cut into halves or thirds...one piece per participant
Goal: In teams of 8-10 (for adults....I would suggest 5-7 for students), you must stand in a line with your noodle on your belly button and the person in front of you's back.  You may not put your hands on your noodle.  As a team, you must walk 10 steps (for adults...modify for younger students).  If a noodle falls, you get to start all over :)

Name Game - incorporates bodily-kinesthetic, visual, and linguistic MI's
1. Student says his/her name and a movement. Other students in circle watch and listen.
2. Other students repeat the name (possibly with "Hi ___") and repeat the student's movement.

Variation: Instead of students saying their name, what they say might have a curricular tie: verbs, compound words, words that start with "st-", rhyming words, character traits, etc.

Control/Freeze Game
Rules: If you make a sound with your voice (either accidentally or on purpose), you sit down. If you touch someone else or any furniture or wall, you sit down.  If you move when the music stops, you sit down.
When the music plays, move.  When the music stops, you freeze.
*It is important to model what "freezing" looks like.  You must have a point of focus and stare at it the whole time.
Students can move in many different ways and as the facilitator..you choose :) They can walk slowly, faster, sideways, backwards, beside someone.  Students can saunter, hurry, mosey, swagger, lope (didn't know this word till today!), limp, strut, drag, slitter, pound, push, slink, wiggle, bounce, etc.
When studying word choice, you can have students demonstrate shades of meaning (tip toe to stomp, jog to sprint). Students can move as their favorite animal and then freeze.  Then have one student interview a frozen animal. (You could focus it on only animals from a certain biome.)  If you're studying the swamp, have students move and freeze like their walking through swampy mud, surrounded by mosquitoes, etc.

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