Move. Create. Educate.
By maria, on February 29th, 2012%
Read It. Move It. Share It. is a collaboration with Kerry from Picture Books and Pirouettes. Once a month Kerry recommends a book for me to use in my creative movement classes. Then I write a post on what I did with the book and how I used it with my students in hopes of giving you some new ideas to use in your classes! Here is the February book. Enjoy!
I love the Hokey Pokey! It’s one of my favorite dances to do with my littles. It seems like all ages love this song and dance and it never gets old. This month Kerry recommended The Croaky Pokey and I was so excited to try it out. I tried this book with my grown-up and me classes which are ages 2-3. They loved it! Here’s what we did! Continue reading The Croaky Pokey + The Hokey Hippo
By maria, on February 28th, 2012%
By maria, on February 23rd, 2012%
Dear readers, my awesome friend Liz mentioned in passing that I should check out The Bossy Frog Band. Uhhh, it’s amazing! You have to check it out. It’s smart, and so ideal for incorporating into creative dance class. My fave is the Nature Freeze Dance. The Nature Freeze Dance gives spaces for freezing (making shapes), free dancing, animals to dance like, slow and fast, and a directive clap hands and stomp feet all in the same song! Can you believe it? Continue reading The Bossy Frog Band
By maria, on February 22nd, 2012%
This month’s Dance Advantage Circle Time topic is The (Dance) Things I Love. I have been thinking about what to write in this post all month! I kept asking my husband, I need to think about some dance things that I love. He was like “ummm, dance is your life, you surely can think of something.”  Sooo here it is… Continue reading These Are A Few Of The Things That I Love…
By maria, on February 21st, 2012%
 On Saturday almost every one of my students told me that they were flying to a place this week for vacation. Then I promptly said “If I get really small, can I crawl into your suitcase?” They giggled and smiled! I then had the idea that if they are all flying somewhere we should do an airplane dance! Here are some ideas if you find yourself in the same boat (?)… plane. Continue reading Airplane Dance
By maria, on February 14th, 2012%
Happy Valentines Day Friends! Have anything fun planned for classes today? I am doing this dance and I am thinking of incorporating a few new words of encouragement into my vocabulary while teaching. Are you up for it too? Here are some ideas! Continue reading 20 Words To Encourage Young Dancers
By maria, on February 9th, 2012%
I usually don’t post ideas until I try them with my dancers, but I am going to try this dance on Saturday and thought maybe you might want to plan to do it in your classes for V day. I had this idea on the train yesterday and I think it’s going to be so fun! For valentines day last year I made these. Here is my idea for designing a whole class with X’s and O’s. Continue reading X’s and O’s: 3 Ideas for Incorporating XOXO Into Class
By maria, on February 6th, 2012%
 The best days of teaching are when I go with a lesson plan and then my 4 year olds totally spin me on my head and come up with other ideas even cooler and more fun than I had planned. Do those days ever happen to you? Continue reading Puffer Fish Dance
By maria, on February 3rd, 2012%
Over on facebook, a dear reader wrote “Im looking for a song, story, dance on losing a tooth. I have a class full of little ones that are all losing teeth and every week have a story about it. Thought it would be fun to dance about losing teeth.” Isn’t that a genius idea?! So I went searching and here is an idea I gave her. Continue reading I Lost A Tooth (Tooth Fairy) Dance
By maria, on February 1st, 2012%
Hi Friends! Can you believe it’s February? This week marks the first week of the new semester. I always have mixed feelings. I know that after a few weeks things will settle in and it will be just fine, but it always seems to a bit of craziness on the first days. The part that confuses me is that I have returning students and new students all in the same class. Of course I just pick up and keep going through the curriculum but the dancers who just joined have a lot of catching up to do. Continue reading Tricks Of The Trade
|
About 
Maria Hanley is an independent early childhood dance educator in New York City.
Site Managed and Hosted by:
|
|
Maria serves on the 
