Creative Dance and Learning ─ Making the Kinesthetic Link

Essential reading for teachers who want to include movement and dance into their lesson plans

Bringing together the traditions of creative dance and current educational theory,Creative Dance and Learning gives teachers the means to make movement expression a part of students’ lives. By helping them develop their kinesthetic intelligence, the text shows teachers how to tap into this rich modality of learning and integrate it into the many goals of education, including self-awareness, creativity, fitness, and individual and group problem-solving skills. Extensive lesson plan applications demonstrate how movement activities can be linked to academic subjects such as language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. More than 25 lesson plans and 40 lesson adaptations are included so that lessons can be adapted to a wide range of age groups and settings. Creative Toolboxes offer specific activities to try with students and Concept Spotlights encapsulate lesson concepts. Lesson Worksheets and Brainstorming Lists illustrate the lesson-planning process, while chapter summaries and review questions round out this helpful resource.

Mary Ann Brehm has taught dance to people of all ages and abilities for more than 30 years, including courses for classroom teachers in using dance within a school setting at the Lesley University, University of Vermont, and University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. She currently offers creative dance teacher training workshops. She lives in Oil City, Pennsylvania.Lynne McNette has taught creative dance and integrated arts in school settings for 30 years. She worked for ten years as a professional development consultant for the Allied Arts Education project in Bellingham, Washington, and currently teaching at Western Washington University. She lives in Bellingham, Washington.