UPDATED AND IMPROVED ON 03/10/2021 This resource is for KS1 teachers teaching dance through the Physical Education part of the national curriculum during the topic of rainforests (or any topic connected to rainforests, Brazil, carnival or celebration). This ‘Rainforest Animals/Carnival’ SOL allows pupils to discover Brazil in a fun, exciting and an imaginative way. During the first 3 lessons of this scheme of learning, pupils will learn about the animals that live in the Amazon Rainforest, which they will use as a stimulus for choreography. The following 3 lessons focuses on carnival, where pupils will be able to take part in their own carnival parade. At the end of this scheme of learning, pupils will have a performance piece that they can perform in an assembly or for parents. This SOL comes with: 6 lesson plans, detailing the activities in each lesson along with coaching points to aid teaching. A 6 lesson PowerPoint including notes under each slide to help with the delivery of the lesson. A document with the pictures of each of the rainforest animals to be explored. These can be printed and laminated to hand out to groups so that they know which animal they have been assigned to. A CPD document that should help with aspects of teaching dance that a none dance specialist might find helpful. Notes: The timings of the lesson and the activities within the lesson plans can of course be adapted. Activities can be changed, lengthened, shortened, taken out, differentiated etc. Feel free to adapt this resource to suit your own needs as well as the needs of the children. Feel free to use your own music. I used Rainforest sounds and ‘Beautiful Creatures’ from the Rio 2 soundtrack on YouTube. I loved teaching this SOL and I hope you do too. If you find it helpful, I would massively appreciate it if you could leave me a review :)

This ‘A Linha Curva’ 6 lesson SOW and delivery PowerPoint is for teachers teaching dance at KS3. Using the professional work taught at GCSE level, it will allow pupils to explore the professional work through performance, choreography and appreciation activities suitable for their age range. The delivery PowerPoint includes starters in the form of ‘bell activities’/‘talking points’ for each lesson, homework and assessment activities at week 3 and week 6 to record progress. ‘A Linha Curva’ is an upbeat fun SOW that my year 7 pupils have loved. It really beings out their creativity and love for dance.

This ‘Shadows’ 6 lesson SOW and delivery PowerPoint is for teachers teaching dance at KS3. Using the professional work taught at GCSE level, it will allow pupils to explore the professional work through performance, choreography and appreciation activities suitable for their age range. The delivery PowerPoint includes starters in the form of ‘bell activities’/‘talking points’ for each lesson, homework and assessment activities at week 3 and week 6 to record progress.

This KS4 GCSE Dance Component 1: Set Phrase Breathe 3 week Delivery PP is for teachers of AQA GCSE Dance who are preparing their pupils for their Solo exam. The PowerPoint presentation set over approximately 3 weeks guides pupils though the set phrase: Breathe, using all the resources that the AQA website provides; including still images from the video links and copied text from the breakdown tables. The PowerPoint is designed for ease of delivery and to answer pupils (and teachers) questions regarding the steps of each set phrase. I delivered this SOW by firstly asking pupils to get into groups of 3 and labelling themselves A, B and C. As would firstly come to the front to learn the phrase on the board that I would demonstrate and break down before returning to their group to teach the phrase to their group. Bs would learn the next phrase and Cs the final phrase. All 3 pupils would then work together to practice the section that they had learnt before a whole class performance to the metronome or a piece of music of 105bpm. I decided to do it this way to promote independence and increase self-confidence as both are extremely important for the successful delivery of the set phrases in the solo exam. I adapted the PowerPoint into a homework booklet so that pupils could take it home to practice. The homework booklet is included in this resource. The creation of the PowerPoint was very time consuming. Feel free to create your own or save a lot of time by downloading mine.

KS4 GCSE Dance Revision – Component 2: Performance Skills This resource has been designed for teachers of AQA GCSE dance revising performance skills in preparation for the written exam. The lesson is divided up into 2 sections: Section 1 – Practically in the dance space go through the PowerPoint of possible exam style questions. Encourage pupils to physically try out questions such as ‘describe one exercise a dancer can do to improve flexibility’ before putting it into words. Section 2 – Allow pupils 20 min to complete the test paper (total 20 marks). Encourage pupils to visualise themselves in the dance space when completing the test paper.

This year 9 GCSE Dance Taster: Choreography 12 lesson delivery PowerPoint has been created for teachers of Dance preparing their Year 9 pupils for GCSE. During lessons 1-6, pupils will explore a variety of different stimuli used in choreography e.g. 2D art and text. Pupils will learn how to create and develop motifs based on a stimulus, structure their choreographies and experimenting with choreographic devices. During lessons 7-12, pupils will choose from a list of stimuli (based on the actual GCSE component 1 exam paper), take part in research tasks and choreograph their own group choreography. At the end of the SOW, pupils will be assessed using the GCSE choreography mark sheet. Each lesson comes with starters (bell activities) and lesson objectives. The SOW also includes: Homework 1 – Choreography exam style questions (based on section A of the written dance exam paper) Homework 2 – Programme note with examples. Choreography help sheet (I advise printing this out back to back and laminating for each group) Research task (theory lesson). Please note, the video included in the PowerPoint is from Eaqa. You can use your own example video if you prefer.

This year 9 GCSE Dance Taster: Anthology 14 lesson delivery PowerPoint has been created for teachers of Dance preparing their Year 9 pupils for GCSE. Within this SOW pupils will explore key motifs within each of the 6 GCSE dance anthology professional works: A Linha Curva Emancipation of Expressionism Artificial Things Shadows Infra Within Her Eyes I have included a music file within this resource which is a ‘megamix’ of clips from the 6 anthology works. Using the motifs from the anthology, a dance megamix can be choreographed to the music. I used this as a performance piece with my school performance evening. Each lesson comes with starters (bell activities) and lesson objectives. The SOW also includes a written homework task.

This resource is for teachers of GCSE dance who want to forecast what levels their dancers will get in their GCSEs based on the 2018 grade boundaries. Either use it to keep an up to date track of pupils scores from their assessments or use it to enter predicted scores, guide conversations with pupils or to answer questions such as ‘how many more marks would I need to get a level…” Cells coloured in a peach colour are cells that contain formulas. I have coloured them to remind me to not touch them. I recommend keeping a copy of the original file just in case something vital to making the spreadsheet run smoothly is accidently deleted.

The Let It Grow SOW has been designed with high ability EYFS children in mind but could also be taught to KS1 children in relation to a ‘Plants’ topic. The 6 week SOW structures together a final performance about the plant cycle from seeds, into a flower and then returning once again to seeds. Throughout the 6 lessons, pupils will develop their spatial awareness and will be encouraged to use their creativity and imagination to explore different actions using the plant cycle as their stimulus. Within this resource there are 6 detailed 30 min lesson plans including: Aims and objectives, descriptions of activities (starter, warm up, main activity, plenary etc), Organisation information and ‘coaching’ points. For music, I use ‘Let it Grow’ from the movie ‘The Lorax’ that can be found on YouTube.

This is a resource for teachers of Pearson BTEC Level 1/Level 2 Tech Award in Performing Arts Unit 1: Exploring the Performing Arts and are up to the presentation/promotional material task. This resource in intended to be used at a point where pupils have a good knowledge of the practitioners and repertoire that they are studying (preferably after the research journal task). This resource is a very general guide though what is needed in their presentations/ promotional material which is broken up into 6 lessons to chunk it down in easy to manage tasks. This resource references 3 performing arts practitioners: Kenrick Sandy (Dance), Mark Wheeller (Drama) and Frantic Assembly (Physical Theatre). However, this can be very easily adapted for your chosen practitioners.

The KS4 GCSE Dance Anthology Quiz is great as a lesson starter, plenary or revision task. It includes questions on all 6 professional works from the GCSE dance anthology.

Taken from the AQA GCSE Dance website, I have taken the command words and formatted them ready for printing on colourful paper or card to make your dance studio look pretty.

Updated: 11/08/22 This ‘Objects as Stimulus’ 6 lesson SOL is for teachers teaching KS3 dance. This ‘Objects as Stimulus’ resource is an alternative resource to my ‘Artificial Things’ resource. The difference between the 2 resources is that ‘objects as Stimulus’ can be taught to pupils at KS3 who will progress to either GCSE or BTEC at KS4. Whereas my previous ‘Artificial Things’ resource was aimed at KS3 pupils who would progress to GCSE only. This SOL has been designed to encourage pupils to use their imagination and apply their creativity at the same time as developing their dance skills. Choreography skills are homed in on in this SOL, as pupils are given an object as a stimulus (the box) and taught how to create motifs that can be later on developed to create a dance that is entertaining to watch. Later on in the SOL, pupils choose their own object as a stimulus to create and develop their own motifs into their own choreographies. Throughout the choreography tasks, dance appreciation is explored through questioning why pupil’s motifs relate to their object stimulus and what actions, space, dynamics and relationships they have used. Includes: 6 lesson (60 min per lesson) delivery PowerPoint with: ‘Enquiry questions’, ‘Do Now’ activities, ‘TIF (Take It Further) challenges’, YouTube clips and level descriptors. STAR marking grid Mark sheet Written task Cover work Dance feedback toolkit

This GCSE Taster : Shift 6 lesson delivery PowerPoint has been created for teachers of Dance preparing their Year 9 pupils for GCSE. Over the 6 lessons, pupils will explore the GCSE Set Dance: Shift along with appreciation tasks linked with section A of the written exam paper (component 2). E.g. The components of Dance (actions, dynamics, space and relationships), performance skills etc. PLEASE NOTE: I have created this resource to follow the GCSE Taster : Breathe 6 lesson SOW as some of the exam questions relate to the Breathe set dance. The Shift breakdown sections were created using the resources on the AQA website and print screened images of the YouTube video of Shift. The PowerPoint also includes starters (bell activities), lesson objectives, homework tasks and assessment material. This resource also includes homework handouts. Enjoy!

This GCSE Taster : Breathe 6 lesson Delivery PowerPoint has been created for teachers of Dance preparing their Year 9 pupils for GCSE. Over the 6 lessons, pupils will explore the GCSE Set Dance: Breathe along with appreciation tasks linked with section A of the written exam paper (component 2). E.g. Warm up, performance skills etc. The Breathe breakdown sections were created using the resources on the AQA website and print screened images of the YouTube video of Breathe. The PowerPoint also includes starters (bell activities), lesson objectives, homework tasks and assessment material. This resource also includes homework handouts. Enjoy!

This resource has been designed for teachers of GCSE dance revising choreographic devices and choreographic intent within the anthology, in preparation for the written exam. This lesson has been created to provide a way for dance students to revise in a fun and interactive way. Prior to the lesson, decide how you are going to divide your class into 6 groups (ideally a mixture of high and low ability in each group). After the starter activity on the PowerPoint sit pupils in their groups and give them access to one of the GCSE dance anthology dances each, either on their phones or iPads. Links to GCSE dance anthology dances can be found on EAQA but you will need a log in to access them. While watching their given dance piece, pupils should write notes about the choreographic devices that they see. Discuss with each group how the choreographic devices relates to the choreographic intent of the piece. After the discussion, give each group their exam question handout and allow pupils to answer the 2 questions (using their notes to help them).

This KS4 GCSE Dance Component 1: Set Phrase Shift 3 Week Delivery PP is for teachers of AQA GCSE Dance who are preparing their pupils for their Solo exam. The PowerPoint presentation set over approximately 3 weeks guides pupils though the set phrase: Shift, using all the resources that the AQA website provides; including still images from the video links and copied text from the breakdown tables. The PowerPoint is designed for ease of delivery and to answer pupils (and teachers) questions regarding the steps of the set phrase. I delivered this SOW by firstly asking pupils to get into groups of 3 and labelling themselves A, B and C. As would firstly come to the front to learn the phrase on the board that I would demonstrate and break down before returning to their group to teach the phrase to their group. Bs would learn the next phrase and Cs the final phrase. All 3 pupils would then work together to practice the section that they had learnt before a whole class performance to the metronome or a piece of music of 105bpm. I decided to do it this way to promote independence and increase self-confidence as both are extremely important for the successful delivery of the set phrases in the solo exam. I adapted the PowerPoint into a homework booklet so that pupils could take it home to practice. The homework booklet is included in this resource. The creation of the PowerPoint was very time consuming. Feel free to create your own or save a lot of time by downloading mine.