Mrs. DeFrang's Music Room: Thriller Dance

It's Halloween! For the past couple of weeks, 4th and 5th graders have been learning choreography to the Michael Jackson hit "Thriller" in a combined music/PE effort (we can't take credit for the choreography- I found it on another music teacher's blog and thought it was so great that we HAD to do it). This morning, we all met in the gym to perform for one another and then to finally perform as one big group.

Believe it or not, we're doing more than just having fun dancing together. We're actually accomplishing some music, PE, and dance state and national learning standards! In music class, we worked to identify the form of the music. We identified an introduction, A, B, C, and D sections, a bridge, and a coda. We identified "like" sections in the music and learned choreography for each section of music, and using our music map, we were able to put the whole song together quite easily! We rehearsed in a combined music/PE effort, and that was all there was to it!

Here are some of the standards we achieved during our "Thriller" experience: (There are many more than what's listed, but here are some things we focused on)

PE:     State Goal 19: Engage in Health Related Physical Activity.
           Standard Description: Flexibility Component (The ability to use body in full range of motion).
           Example Rigor: Creative Movement and Dance
                          - Executes combinations of steps
                          - Combines steps to create a short routine.

Music: National Content Standard 6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
            Achievement Standards:
                       - Students identify simple music forms when presented aurally
                       - Students demonstrate perceptual skills by moving, by answering questions about, and
                         by describing aural examples of music of various styles representing diverse cultures.

Dance: National Content Standard 2: Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and
            structures.
            Achievement Standards:
                     - Students create a sequence with a beginning, middle, and end, both with and without a
                       rhythmic accompaniment; identify each of these parts of the sequence
                     - Students improvise, create, and perform dances based on their own ideas and concepts
                       from other sources
                     - Students use improvisation to discover and invent movement and to solve movement
                        problems .

To see the video of our students in action, click here! (Clearly we were very excited, and this was BEFORE candy!)