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New Colorado P-12 Academic Standards

Current Display Filter: Dance - Preschool

Content Area: Dance
Grade Level Expectations: Preschool
Standard: 1. Movement, Technique, and Performance

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Demonstrate simple phrases of movement in time and space
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Practice how to move with action movements to action words (movement vocabulary) using simple non-locomotor body actions such as bend, stretch, twist, turn, shake, and stretch, and simple locomotor body actions such as travel, jump, run, hop, and roll (DOK 1-2)
  2. Explore movement in personal and general space using shape, size, level, direction, stillness, and transference of weight (stepping) (DOK 1-3)
  3. Explore how to move using qualities of movement (DOK 1-3)
  4. Perform simple phrases of movement to experience movements in sequence, rhythm, and relationships (DOK 1-2)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. Where is your space?
  2. Why is it important to have our own space when we're moving?
  3. How many different ways can you move?
  4. What kind of shapes can you make with your body?
  5. How do you feel when you are moving your body?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Demonstrating respect for another's personal space shows attention to the feelings of others.

Nature Of:

  1. Dancers are active and physically fit.

Content Area: Dance
Grade Level Expectations: Preschool
Standard: 2. Create, Compose and Choreograph

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Translate simple ideas and stories into movement
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Explore with movement that expresses different feelings in personal and general space (DOK 1-3)
  2. Experience different shapes, sizes, levels, and directions to make simple patterns of movements in space and time (DOK 1-3)
  3. Select some movements out of many, and create a simple movement phrase to encourage self-expression (DOK 1-3)
  4. Use sensory stimuli and real-life situations as an impetus for moving and creating original work (DOK 1-3)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. What movement should you use?
  2. How do you make your movements different?
  3. What are the differences between a low, middle, and high shape in your own space?
  4. How do you change shapes when you are moving in space?
  5. What do you imagine when you move?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Connecting varying sizes, shapes and levels provides a beginning level understanding of differences.
  2. Understanding how movement can describe and illustrate everyday situations provides an awareness of the many ways people communicate such as visually, aurally, verbally and kinesthetically.

Nature Of:

  1. Dance is the language of expression.
  2. Dance communicates ideas and stories.
  3. Dance uses a moving and thinking body.

Content Area: Dance
Grade Level Expectations: Preschool
Standard: 3. Historical and Cultural Context

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Recognize dances from around the world
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. View dances from around the world, and explore the country of origin (DOK 1-2)
  2. Explore dance as a way for people to express themselves (DOK 1-2)
  3. Demonstrate how people in different cultures move in similar and different ways (DOK 1-2)
  4. Explore occasions for dance across different cultures (DOK 1-2)
  5. Explore shapes, levels, and patterns in a dance, and describe the actions (DOK 1-3)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How do people today express themselves through dance?
  2. What feelings can dance create?
  3. Why do different cultures have different dances?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Identifying the special occasions and festive events that use dancing provides an understanding that dance can serve a specific purpose.
  2. Identifying how dance is used to express feelings provides opportunities to explore individual feelings.

Nature Of:

  1. Dancers share their life experiences through movement.

Content Area: Dance
Grade Level Expectations: Preschool
Standard: 4. Reflect, Connect, and Respond

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Observe and identify different dance genres
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Experience the joy of seeing and responding to dance
  2. Demonstrate movement to express emotion
  3. Describe what is seen and felt in a movement by speaking or drawing a picture

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How does dance help to convey feelings?
  2. How does dance help us to learn about other people?
  3. What movements and objects are seen in a particular dance work?
  4. What do you like or dislike about a particular dance?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Observing dance works and discussing the emotions a dance creates builds foundational language development skills.
  2. Connecting emotions to dance builds foundational abilities to that recognize ideas and messages are shared in many ways.

Nature Of:

  1. Dance provides the opportunity for people to express their ideas and feelings through movement.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

2. Attentively observe a dance performance
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. View a performance with attention (DOK 1)
  2. Clap to show joy and appreciation of a dance (DOK 1)
  3. Draw on paper the movement seen in the space of a particular dance work (DOK 1-2)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How is dance used in everyday life?
  2. What do you love about dance?
  3. Why is it important to watch respectfully during a live dance performance?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Demonstrating appropriate audience behavior builds foundational self-direction skills for many societal events such as live performances, movie showings, public events, and presentations.
  2. Transferring movement that is observed to a drawing on a paper builds foundational fine motor skills.

Nature Of:

  1. Choreographers create dances that have meaning, but people often find their own meaning in those dances.