What a great start to our new year! We have the highest enrollment in recent memory and we couldn’t be happier meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones!
With out first 6 weeks wrapping up I wanted to give you a look into some of the classroom happenings.
In our age 2-5 classes we have had a pumpkin/fall/Halloween theme, both in our music activities, as well as some of our small props. We flew like witches, shook like skeletons, tiptoed like ghosts and crawled like cats during our large motor time.
We also used pumpkins and talked about how they grow as well as incorporated our leaves and pretended we were falling off the trees.
We also got to use our rhythm sticks finding the beat and tapping to the music along with other fun variations such as tapping high and hitting the floor.
We have introduced our campfire as well. We will be using the camp fire as a visual aide to help the children make the right size circle. If they are too far away they will be too “cold”, and if they get too close they will be too “hot”. We also are using the fire to practice pointing and flexing as we warm our toes then we warm our heels.
Finally during this 6 week set we used our balance beam and large hula hoops to practice balance and jumping. We just love how the beam sparkles and all the ways we can walk on it!
Finally all our under 10 friends had a blast during our bring a friend/sneak peek/my favorite costume week! We so loved meeting all your friends and we can’t wait to dance with them again soon!
Our Shining Stars have been getting acclimated to their new curriculum this year as well. Our 1st graders have been learning how to stand at the barre in tap and are getting to explore jazz dance this year! Our second graders are really expanding their ballet vocabulary and working on a front back motion which we use in balchange in tap, balance in ballet and chasse (in both ballet and jazz!) And our 3rd/4th grade class is learning to work at the barre in ballet and on their transitions between sides without stopping in tap.
In other news our Illuminations Dance company is hard at work getting ready for our winter showcase as is all our 1st grade and up students. They have been working hard to learn, polish and perfect these performances so they are ready for November 22. These Dazzling star classes have really been focused on technique and learning to work together as a group as well. Keep up the good work!
I hope you enjoyed our recap of the first 6 weeks or so of class. Look for our November one in you December newsletter!