First Week - Tuesday - Dance

TUESDAY - DANCE

Today is Dance Day. We have some classic music on the radio, and a tutu to put on, some dance shoes and a mirror - that's the perfect equation for some dancing for any toddler! It doesn't matter what kind of music you listen to, kids love to dance. And it's fun to join in too!


We are exploring ballet today. We looked on the internet for some ballet videos (youtube is a great resource) and watched Swan Lake. My 3 year old then wanted to balance on one leg for the rest of the morning!! :)

Our craft for today is to make a dance mobile - I thought this was a good way to show movement with the ballet dancers.

I used color craft paper, an exacto knife to cut out the ballet figures, a cutting board, some paint, ribbon, stapler, bit of tape and two coat hangers I was going to recycle back to the dry cleaner.
First, I went to the internet and did a google image search for ballet images. I found three images showing different dance poses and printed them out. You may need to then photocopy them larger if you wish, or I used Photoshop to enlarge the images. Once I have them printed out I traced them onto the color paper.



You can go over the outline of the image with pencil on the back - this will help leave a faint outline on the page you are tracing the image onto.



From here you get the kiddos to decorate them however they wish. My 3yr old wanted to paint, so paint was it.

Firstly, I cut out the figures and she painted them (very carefully - real skill test there!).

(Exacto knives for adults only please!!!)

Then I also let her just paint the whole page, after I had outlined the figure.


Either way worked, just depends on what you prefer and how your little one handles the figures. I would think drawing would be easier on the whole page rather than just on the cut-out.


We let all the pages dry, then I cut out the figures with an exacto knife.

Then I constructed the mobile hanger. You can do whatever you can think of here, I saw these two coathangers and used them. I tied ribbon around the "necks" to secure them together, and also used a little bit of tape around the bottom where they crossed. If you use hangers you can also decorate it with ribbon (wrap it around the wire), or hang beads from the top arms, or do a design in the triangle area - many possibilities.





Next, I attached each ballet dancer to a piece of ribbon using a stapler and tied the other end on the mobile hanger.


Then trim off the loose ends and wella! There is a ballet dancing mobile!




Please make sure no little ones can grab at it - hang at a safe distance as it could pose as a choking or strangulation threat with the pieces of paper, string and staples, and coathanger. It is just pretty to look at.