Movement

Movement Tools

The tools below can be used to help get your students up and moving during class. These activties help them engage with the space they're in, develop stronger spacial awareness, and become comfortable acting and reading with their bodies.

Movement Activities

Back-tag

• You can only touch another person’s back for 1 point, however every time your back is hit, you lose a point.

• Keep a running tally

Big, Small, Twisted 

• Walking around the space until the facilitator says stop, with limited contact with one other person make yourself as big as you can, As small as you can and as twisted as you can before your are free to roam around the circle to do it again.

Floor is Lava

• Keeping  ball off the ground, trying to keep it off the ground with everyone counting at the same time. 

• To start the game, the person with the ball says WuHa! and the rest of the group repeats it. 

Popcorn

• Once you hit the ball you have to move to the side of the room, the last person with the ball yells popcorn and everyone has to come in to the center again and repeat the process. 

Finger Jousting

• Left hand on the small of your back, palm facing out. Right hand raised for combat. 

• Each tap of your opponent's hand is a point. First to three wins!

Bop Around

• Walking in the space, getting a feeling for your surroundings, don’t look at the floor, look around you, understand the space. No talking

• Within this space creepily make eye contact at other people as your pass them in the creepiest way possible

• Within this space wink at people as you pass them

• Within this space roll your shoulder, wink and point at other people as you pass them

Dynamic Moving

• Walking in the space, getting a feeling for your surroundings, don’t look at the floor, look around you, understand the space. No talking

• When the facilitator says stop, stop, switch, switch the way you're moving, go, go. Clap, clap, (but it must be done as one group, Jump (But it must be done as one group.) Have group do it again until they get it correct. 

• Once they have an understanding of what is happening slowly start to change things. Make stop the word for starting and go the word for stop and then add in jump means clap and clap means jump.

Zip, Zap Boink

• Passing a clap with energy and focus, to change the direction of the clap jump shimmy and put arms up. Adding rules. To send clap across the circle R & J style, Point and say villain, send clap saying draw, do you bite your thumb at me, and rat-catcher

Varying Movement

• walk the space and try to fill the entire space

• Begin to add movement dynamics slowly, building on top of one another to helo students get a feel for different ways they can create a story

  • add on stops

  • add speed variation

  • add circle up close

  • add circle from afar

  • add follow close

  • add follow far

• the goal is that students are able to create a story without adding in facial expressions, sounds, words, etc.

  • the space creates the story

Cucumber

• Have students circle up and follow the teacher as they guide the students through the work. Physicalize the words and sounds as you say them to allow students to fully engage

  • cucumber- hands over head

  • mango- get big

  • prune- get small

  • strawberry- cheek twist

  • potato- hug human sized potato

Splat

• splat master sends a splat to someone in the circle

  • the person who receives the splat from the splat master must duck

  • the people on either side splat towards each other

  • down to two, back to back

    • ask someone to name things and disrupt a pattern

      • Maggie is going to say even numbers, when she says an odd number, turn and splat each other

  • last person to splat wins and becomes splat master