Dance Warm Ups For Primary Classes

Teaching primary dance and don’t know where to start? These dance warm ups for primary will give a strong start your dance lesson plans.

A lot of teachers feel uncomfortable coming up with dance activities, but you don’t have to resort to YouTube to fill your lesson plan. Ditch the “just Dance” videos and try these rigorous dance activities so you can feel good about your dance instruction – even if the principal walks in!

Who is the leader? This variation on a classic warmup adds an element of teamwork and observation. Students stand in a circle, with one student who is “it” leaves the room or covers their eyes while the teacher chooses a student to be the leader. With music on, the leader demonstrates different dance moves, and the other students follow along while “it” tries to identify who the leader is. Switch up the leader every few minutes so everyone gets a turn.

Stories In Motion – These themed movement stories are a great way to introduce range of movement in contexts that students can relate to. Simply choose and read a story aloud while your students follow the movement directions.

Simon Says Dance Elements: You can use the classic game of “Simon Says” to review various dance elements. For example, the leader might say, “Simon says make round shape,” or “Simon says pose without using your feet as a base” and the students have to follow along.

Meet me in the middle is another common game that you can add dance elements to – don’t forget to add background music in different styles. Form two lines on either side of the room, meet a partner in the middle and return to a different place in the line on the other side. The teacher gives instructions for how you will move when you meet in the middle. For example, “Join two body parts that aren’t your hands or your feet and move in a curved pathway to the end of the line”.

Use the elements of dance to bring in vocabulary for the lesson and make it more involved or faster as the game goes on. You can even instruct students on how to move into the middle by describing the pathways, levels and dynamics that they will use with their locomotor movement. Adding music helps them get even more creative but start by just doing it in silence.

By starting with a fun dance warm up that doesn’t need a screen, you’ll promote students’ creativity and independence within the art of dance.

Primary Dance Lesson Plan Ideas

No time to put together complete lesson plans for dance? Grab these curriculum based, ready-to-go plans that will have you teaching dance like a rockstar.