Today I went to the elementary school to assist Mrs. Birdsinger with her 4th grade class. Those kids are CRAZY. I swear they've got more energy than one can fathom. From the moment they saw me they were all like "HI!" or "Who are you?" One girl I'd never met before hugged me and wouldn't let go. Another girl told me I was her new best friend. Mrs. Birdsinger said that since today was their last day she would basically let them build their own class. In other words, she let them pick their favorite exercises from the class and run them again. It was interesting watching them make their list of favorites. They chose everything from the Nutcracker to improvisation to dancing to MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This." Watching them dance really is amazing, because they have so much energy they know how to channel it into dancing. When they are dancing, it's amazing to watch because they are so into it and are having so much fun it's like they're unstoppable. Unfortunately, they don't know how to stop talking when necessary, so they lost lots of class time that could have been spent having more fun.
Also, they're really versatile. They went from a hip hop combination to traveling across the floor to free-styling to the Nutcracker. They also did something called "The Helping Dance," where they are all on the floor making shapes and the leader walks around and picks up one person and then that person picks up another person and so on. It was interesting watching their creativity in their shape choices.
As for me, I didn't know much of the set combinations they had, however most of it was the same movement repeated again and again, so it was easy for me to catch on. When they went across the floor I kept them quiet and ready to go once the group before them was finished dancing. For the free-styling I free-styled with them (and had a blast). Overall it was a great class, and we all had lots of fun. But even though I had so much fun, I still missed my 6th graders...
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