Waltz of the Flowers- Simple Movement

So I LOVE The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky and use it all year round (with special focus during December).

Most of my lessons have a loose theme (especially in younger grades) to aid in transitions, etc. and last week we were doing Trees, Flowers, Planting, etc.

In this garden themed lesson, at one point we BECAME seeds/ flowers and did some adorable movement to the beginning of Waltz of the Flowers. The movement includes practicing balance, cross-body movement, and form.  The explanation below is meant just as a reminder of motions- I recommend watching the video to really learn it!

Intro: This movement starts out with students as seeds. They start to grow slowing, stretching and swaying during the entire intro of the song.

A Section:
Students lift rt leg, place arms above head to be petals and then "Bloom"
Repeat on left side
Blow in the wind (can they blow in the wind on one leg? I add this as an extra challenge!)
repeat

B Section:
Right arm up, left arm up
right arm down, left arm down
"wave" motion
repeat 3x
4th time Last time- right arm up, left arm up, sway arms back and forth.

The 2nd time during the A section I challenge students to "blow in the wind" on only one foot, making sure to let them know that it is ok if it is hard for them!

The 2nd time during B section I added some cross-body movement so you can see a slightly more difficult version.  You can do what works for your kids!

Other garden songs/ chants:
Bee Bee Bumble Bee
Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee
Meet Me at the Garden Gate
Down By the Bay (although watermelons are more a patch than a garden)
Engine Engine traveling to a garden
Queen Caroline planting seeds to the heartbeat or tiptoeing through a magic fairy garden

Tuesday Book Club- Good Night, Firefly

Today's Tuesday Book Club is focused on the book Good Night, Firefly by Gabriel Alborozo.

This is such a sweet book!

Nina's electricity goes out and she captures a firefly to help her see.  As Nina and the firefly play, the firefly's light grows dimmer and dimmer. After trying to help her firefly in a few different ways, Nina realizes what she must do.

When I read this book, we sing one of my favorite Firefly songs every few pages (when she finds the fireflies, when she is reading by the fireflies light, and then at the end a few times as well).

After reading the book, I have students do simple movement to Fireflies by Owl City. This time, I did not use finger lights, as we still are working on movement expectations, but this movement would look awesome in the dark! It is purposefully very simple so it is accessible even to my new kinders.  Unfortunately, the movement video is too large to embed into this post directly, but you can check out the movement here. Feel free to change it up a bit, add in more cross-body motions, turns, or even locomotor movement to make it work for your students.

Enjoy!