A huge thank you to Kath Rudd and all at the Active Dorset Event in Bournemouth -  It was a lovely afternoon and great to meet you all.  Thanks for  throwing yoursellves in to the dance workshop and creating some really effective choroegraphy during the Freestyle section.

To help you remember what we did watch this short film >>>>Active Dorset

Any questions just email me at imogen@imovesdance.com

Hope you like your new free resources too.

Imogen

Hi

Racheal Lissaman a student teacher at St. John Moores University in Liverpool asked us if she could do her research project entitled  “Does providing support enhance teachers’ confidence towards planning and teaching dance at Key Stage Two? using our resources as a support system for her participating teachers.  We immediately agreed as its valuable feedback from a completely independent reviewer.    Here’s what they said…

“The planning was very detailed and easy to follow. The videos showed demonstrations of moves you may not be aware of and really easy to follow.  The children loved the sessions, especially the boys. They really responded well to the combat”  - A primary school teacher taking part in the case study

“I found the imovesdance.com resources and lesson plans extremely up to date, offering a wide variety of activities exploring creative movement and dance. The resources were very simple to understand and the layout was clear. The resources and activities were exceptionally enjoyable to deliver, and the participants were also having a lot of fun. Overall, imovesdance.com resources were fun, easy to use and imaginative. They are a great way to introduce and maintain dance in schools”  – Rachael Lissaman, PE & Dance – Liverpool John Moores Uni

The full report is very interesting as it looks at the barriers to teaching dance in primary schools and offers sound and impartial solutions to overcome these barriers.

May I take this opportunity to thank Rachael and the teachers who participated in this study and hope that their future experiences teaching dance are good ones.

Bye for now Imogen

READ THE FULL REPORT>>>>>imovesdance case study in Liverpool Primary Schools

Our new “Recommend a Friend Scheme” allows you to earn valuable dance and music resources for your school

Step one: apply for a unique code to give to your friend/s.
Step two: your friend buys products for £15.00 and over using their code.
Step three: you recieve a promotion code to purchase the following products for free:

1 Friend  = Any Choroegraphy Club resource worth 9.60 
2 Friend’s  = Double Music CD either our Little Stars CD for 3 – 11 years or Key Stage 3 & 4 short schemes CD worth £17.09
3 Friend’s = Short Scheme of work worth up to £23.99

Apply for your first code now and get started!! Click this link now….

Congratulations to Hermitage Primary School in Scotland

winners of the imovesdance 2011 schools dance comp.

They produced a fab super hero themed routine that mixed up styles such as street with contemporary, working beautifully in group formations and really attacked their performance.  They obviously worked very hard on their routine and it showed.  Well done little ladies – keep up the hard work.

I’ll be working with school soon delivering a variety styles to the children and their teachers so cant wait to meet you all in person.

Imogen

Our competition aims to create a unique Urban Dance scheme of work for 7 – 16 years using Urban dance poses created by children in British schools.

We are looking for 20 urban style group poses to create our scheme of work.  The scheme will be a free resource to any school who enters, even if your entry doesn’t make the final 20.

Step one: you and your students create a dynamic street style pose that could be held for at least 8 counts of music – i.e. no action shots! other children should be able to look at the photograph and recreate the pose.   We would like a variety of work that show cases poses featuring pairs of students and groups of either 3, 4,5 or 6 students, who must be aged from 7 – 16 years.

Step two: Photograph the poses the children have created

Step three: send in your schools selection of entries to imogen@imovesdance.com or post them on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/imovesdance.

Our deadline for entries is Friday 29th June 2012.  The scheme will be ready for September 2012.

Get involved and help us to create an extra special scheme of work that’s by the kidz for the teachers.

we are so excited by this idea – we hope you are too.

Good luck – and hope to get your entries in soon.

Imogen

Hi

i’ve put together a little something for you to try with your very little ones.  Its a simple christmas story and actions with flash cards to help you control your group.

Please let me know how you get on if you have a go at teaching it.  Music wise you will need a CD of jolly Christmas songs playing in the background.

A Magical Christmas Flash Cards – 3 to 6 years (print off in colour if possible)

A Magical Christmas – 3 to 6 years (these are your lesson plan and session notes)

Good luck!

Imogen

This case study was conducted during term times (2011) in PE lessons with teachers from Infant and Primary schools in South Yorkshire, UK.  All schools have been using imovesdance.com resources for 1 year.  Imogen Buxton Pickles – company director – led the case study by working with each teacher and their class on a one to one basis, demonstrating and teaching a lesson in week one. In week two the participating teachers and assistants then followed on from that scheme adding to the previous sessions movements.  In week three Imogen returned to assess the work they had done in week two and to start another scheme.Here’s what some teachers had to say…

Teacher 1 - The Circus – The children loved the various parts of the dance. We adapted it to suit our class and they thoroughly enjoyed performing to others.  They learnt to work together with dance and adapt movement in time to music

Teacher 2 – I think the lesson plans are well presented and layered well. It allows a non-dancer the opportunity to teach dance well. Being a dancer I found that I use the plan as a base and then added my own things to it (which I think it’s designed to do) so as people become more confident teaching dance they will begin to make it more their own.

Teacher 3 - Creative Combat – lots of movement and concentration is required and that’s just what the children need.  The style (Combat) was instantly appealing to all members of my class. Children still practice the moves from this scheme as a warm up – so it must be a winner!

Teacher 4 - Countries – The group loved the music and the theme. They also enjoyed talking about their own experiences in the counties where we visited during the lessons (France, Spain, America and India), which inspired them to think of further movements we then added in to the dance.

Teacher 5 – This scheme (Yoga-Dance 5 – 7 years) doesn’t have video just photographs of the poses which are very useful – A video of the performance would be nice but not essential.

Read the rest of the case study in full: imovesdanceUK Ltd Case Study results 2011

Picture of children performing the Circus theme at Stocksbridge Infants School.

Hi

Its been a crazy September, with lots of training sessions delivered into schools with a view to kick starting dance programmes for this term.  Birley Spa Primary School is one of those schools using our Start – Up Resources and have a fantastic group of teachers driving their dance programme forward.  In just one hour we were able to cover 6 schemes, a brilliant bunch and pleasure to work with.   Thanks to Gareth Morgan for making it all happen – Gareth wrote…

“Thanks once again for a superb twilight session! Teachers commented on the Friday how good it was and are planning units of the next half term”

Here’s a little taster of what we did…

Try our FREE  Halloween themes for Primary Schools which are so simple but great fun.

The Haunted House for 4 – 7 years is a simple 1 – 2 lesson idea to  the theme from Ghostbusters. FREE LESSON Ghostbusters Scheme of Work for Halloween (4 – 7 Years)

Thriller for 7 – 11 years is a more structure routine you could easily have ago at teaching.  Click here for the choregraohy notes. FREE Thriller Routine for 7 – 11 years

Let us know how you get on – or send us in a video!

Imogen