On the 29th April it is National Dance Day; Dancing develops a whole hosts of fundamental movement skills with Sammy Skills, as well as helping to improve children’s rhythm, sequencing and spatial awareness, key skills which are also used in a whole host of mathematical concepts. Dancing is a great way to incorporate 180 Katie into your setting by trying to achieve the government guidelines of working towards 180 minutes of physical activity daily and for the over 3’s 60 mins of high intensity physical activity daily to get the heart going BOOM BOOM BOOM! Check out our video which shows the difference between moderate and high intensity physical activity.
Why not ask children to tell you their favourite music for everyone to dance to – this is a great way for practitioners to role model like Suzy Startwell too. Faster tempo music is also a great way of increasing the heart rate and incorporating more gross motor skills. Exploring different genres of music is also a great catalyst for discussing different cultures and different ways of moving their bodies to the music. Using props is a great way to get children to move their bodies more, with the added benefit of developing manipulation skills.
We would love to see how you use the Startwell characters this National Dance Day, so don’t forget to tag @startwellbirmingham in your social media posts.
