Kick, Clap, Dance, & Count

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• Ask students to count how many times you clap, then clap five times. Call on students to share how many times you clapped.
• Now stand up and ask students to count how many times you kick, then kick three times. Call on students to share how many times you kicked.
• Say, "It can be hard to remember the numbers that you count. Watch how I can write lines or circles to keep track of the claps and kicks I notice. This is a way of recording the information I want to count."
• Ask a student to come to the front of the class and clap. As the student claps, draw lines to represent each clap. At the end of the clapping sequence, count how many lines you recorded.
• Now repeat this with another student, but this time record the kicks with circles. Discuss how each shape plays the same role when you record, explaining that the important part is recording one shape per movement.

Guided Practice

• Tell students that they will be creating their own dances using kicks and claps. Explain that people who create dances are called choreographers.
• Show how to fold a piece of paper in half. On the left side you will record how many kicks were used and on the right side you will record how many claps were used.
• Put on music and compose a short dance. As you dance, ask a student to come up to record how many kicks and claps you used.

Independent working time

• Have students work independently to create their own dances using kicks and claps. Advise students to be careful as they practice kicking!
• After composing their dance, hand out paper to each student and have them fold their papers in half. Have students work in pairs and perform their dances for each other. As students watch each other dance, they should record how many kicks and claps their partners did.
• After recording, have students count how many kicks and claps they saw in the dances.