On Monday in my creative movement classes I introduced Motif symbols to my 4 and 5 year olds. I know what your thinking, isn’t it a little advanced to ask them to remember all the symbols and the movements? It is actually so easy, and they love it! They can create their own dance using THEIR movement based on the symbols. Here is an example:
This symbol is shape (they think it looks like an apple, which it does!) Make a frozen shape!
This symbol is balance… we try to balance on many body parts (it’s a very silly)
Then we try to put some of them together- Wiggle and Travel at the same time! So fun!
Connect and Turn (woah tricky) They love to come up with different ways to move and connect!
We then put them all together and we have created a dance!
With my 5 year olds I introduced the symbols of levels (high, medium, low) We add those to the symbols above. Make a low shape- Travel in the middle- Wiggle up high!
Have you tried using symbols with your students. I find that no matter how many times I use them, the kids never get bored, because we can always make a different dance. There are a bunch of other symbols you can find here if your students are older or really picking it up! As you can see I just hand drew them on paper… easy easy! We can never have enough ways to explore movement. Try it out!
Maria Hanley is an independent early childhood dance educator in New York City.
Maria serves on the 
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