Nutcracker - Zoom Lesson Plan
With my zoom classes i have found its important to keep them moving and focused on the screen. one way that i have found works really well is a storybook style class. We did a very very simplified version of the nutcracker and they loved it. Here is my lesson plan in case you fancy giving it a go :)
Age - 4-6 years
Style - Ballet
Length- 40 Minuets
I told the class like i was reading them a story and then we joined Clara on her adventure.
"Once upon a time live a ballerina called Clara she was just like you and loved to dance! She also loved winter! The snow, Christmas trees and presents! Every year her mum dad and brother would have a party and dance the night away! Lets join them"
We then did a fun high energy warm up as our "party dance" I LOVE all the ballet goes pop and ballet goes disney music as the kids really like trying to guess what song it is.
For our fun warm up we skipped into the party and twirled to show off our party dress. I then taught them a short phrase consisting of pliés, tendus, sautés and side gallops to a basic 1st arabesque. We then traveled round the room (party) dancing with different guests! This is where you can get really creative and choose some of the favourite characters, we danced with Elsa and I told them she made my hands feel cold! Gus Gus (the mouse from cinderella) we danced really lightly on our feet with him as we didn't want to scare him or squish him! In total we danced with 4 characters each time repeating the same phrase mentioned above but switching up the traveling move between them.
"All that dancing was tiring work! Its time to go to bed… night night"
We then all pretended to fall asleep.
When she woke up she found a present at the bottom of her bed, lets see whats inside ….. A nutcracker! But his arm is broken lets fix it can you blow him a kiss to make it all better!
I matched these word we actions, we sat up yawned a stretched before I opened our present (i just wrapped up a shoe box with some left over Christmas paper) when i said "A Nutcracker" my glamorous assistant (my sister ;p) popped up our nutcracker on a stick. The look of all the dancers face was beautiful! We then blew him a kiss to fix his broken arm.
"When Clara fixed the nutcracker something magical happens he come to life and takes her on an amazing adventure, lets go too! "
Traveling song - we used an instrumental piece from the movie Enchanted called girls gone shopping.
The first place we were traveling to is a frozen lake to dance with the snowflakes so as we used different traveling moves gave them different terranes to make it more visual, imaginative and fun for them. For example we walked quietly on our tippee toes past a camp site as they were sleeping and we didnt want to wake them, we jumped from stepping stone to stepping stone to get across a river (some stones were big and some were small so we could practice our jumps in 1st and 2nd) and we crawled through some icy caves.
Whilst this was happening my sister was having fun making the nutcracker bop along with the dancers.
"Wow we are at a frozen pond with snowflakes dancing all around... lets dance with them "
As i was saying this my sister was "flying" the snow fairies on to our zoom screen. We then learnt a dance to The skaters waltz by The Snowflake Symphonie - a kids version of the nutcracker classic.
When creating this dance a tried to combine traditional ballet moves with some more visual movements for example we did port de bras but later on we also did some tippee toe runs to make it snow with sparklerly snow fingers and some gliding ice skating actions with our legs. Not only do i think this helps them loose them selfs in there imagination and the dance it also helps introduce the gliding feel of a Glissade that they will learn when there older.
"Oh that was so beautiful let’s see where were gonna go next! Oh no the nutcracker just told me the mean king mouse is looking for us if we see him we must hide! because only toys should be here! Let practice "
My grumpy king mouse prop was probably my favourite! He could pop up at any time so they had to keep an eye out for him.... i.e keep there eyes on the screen.
When king mouse popped up we all had to drop to the floor to hide from him. We had a little practice and then we the repeated our Traveling song and dance mixing up the traveling moves we used and the terranes we explored. Maybe this time its really muddy so we have to do some big marches to free our feet from the mud or we need to climb up a mountain or swim across the sea! Whilst this is happening my sister would pop meany king mouse into view and we would all hide! They LOVED this.
My sister also had a great time making king mouse chase the nutcracker across the screen whilst we were all hiding.
"Phewww i though king mouse was going to find us then, great job guys! Oh my look at all the sweeties and sugar plums! Shall we dance with the sugar plum fairy!"
The props for this seen are lots of sweeties that during our dance we traveling over to 'taste'. This was also a lovely opportunity to ask the dancers what's your favourite sweet and then unmute them one at a time so they get there chance to interact with you. You can then use there answers to inspire what sweets you are traveling to.
We used another song from The Snowflake Symphonie- Dance of the sugar plum fairies. I taught them a dance this time focusing more on the sharpness of there movement compared to the gliding nature of the snowflake dance. We included retiré, tendu, pas de cheval, dégagés, natural turns and different variations of jumps.
"All that dancing was tiring work! Claras so tired she's falling back to sleep and when she wakes up she is back in her bed hugging her new friend the nutcracker!"
To finish i yawned and acted out the above with the dancers.
I loved this class and am currently planning my next ballet inspired storybook class (i'm thinking cinderella) not only was this a nice change to normal zoom lessons it also introduced them to the nutcracker ballet at a young age, my hope is by doing this it will ignite there passion and they will want to learn more about the story. Then when there older there might sit through the four 4 hour ballet ;p
Props
I have attached a pdf of the images I used to create my props below. I printed these out then laminated them before cutting them out and hot glueing them to some wooden kebab sticks. These were super easy to make and don't take up a lot of space so i can store them for later.
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