Duration: 90 minutes
SPIRIT Skills:
- Critical thinking
- Creativity
Brief Description:
The lesson begins with an “artistic part: movement.”
Using four pictures of familiar objects or states (melting ice cream, solidified candles, drawing a heart on a “wet” window, and boiling water with steam), the students come up with various movement-related words.
We go through the images one by one:
- What do you see?
- What is happening in the photo? Where?
- How does the event in the photo move or unfold?
Together, we come up with definitions for each photo:
We create a mind map with movement-related words for each image.
Photo 1 (Evaporation – floating high in the air, lightly jumping, fluttering, little weight, moving very lightly):
FLOATING, RISING, BLOWING, SPREADING OUT, HOPPING
Photo 2 (Condensation – small, light, suddenly rolls downward with a lot of energy):
FALLING, DESCENDING, SLOWLY SINKING
Photo 3 (Freezing – also involves FORCE, requires a lot of muscle tension, going from something liquid to something very hard, moves slowly):
TENSE, STIFFENING, FREEZING, STANDING RIGID, SHRINKING
Photo 4 (Melting – the opposite of freezing):
RELAXED OR FLOWING, SOFTENING, SPREADING, LENGTHENING, SINKING
Next, the students physically act out all these words with their bodies. The teacher or a student demonstrates a specific movement, and the other students imitate it.
How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills
Critical thinking and creativity.
What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?
Critical Thinking (e.g., “What is happening in the photo? How does it move or unfold?”)
Children engage in critical thinking by analysing the images and identifying movement patterns related to each scenario. They focus on interpreting the relationship between the object or state and its associated movement, while formulating definitions for each picture. Behaviour:
- Discussing and comparing with peers to identify key details in the images (e.g., “What does melting ice cream look like when it moves?”).
- Listening attentively to the teacher’s questions and actively participating in defining the movement words (e.g., “It’s floating, but how do we describe it?”).
- Thinking critically about the movements and contributing their own ideas to the group’s mind map.
Creativity (e.g., “How can we move our bodies to represent this?”)
Children use their creativity to translate abstract movement words into physical actions. They experiment with their bodies to find ways to express these movements, showing flexibility in adapting to different concepts. Behaviour:
- Acting out the words in creative and varied ways (e.g., “How does floating feel? Let’s hop lightly!”).
- Imitating movements demonstrated by peers or the teacher, then modifying them to add their own personal twist.
- Collaborating in pairs or small groups, exploring different ways to embody each movement, showing excitement and energy.
Academic/Curriculum Objective connection
When moving, consciously make use of the space they or others occupy.
Recognize, imitate, and describe the energy in a movement.
Materials and tools needed for implementation
4 pictures (melting ice cream, solidified candles, drawing a heart on a “wet” window, and boiling water with steam. Own body.
Preparation notes
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Guided Questions
- In what way do you see movement in the photo?
- For example, in a photo of a melting ice cube: where is the meltwater going?
- In a photo showing boiling water with steam: where is the ‘steam’ going?
Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)
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Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges
- Challenge: the students to perform larger movements, to carry out the movements more slowly, and to make the movements more clearly (e.g., when rising, they should really make themselves big).