This semester I joined “Kids in Motion,” an Oberlin ExCo designed around providing a safe and encouraging space for elementary school students to move their bodies through movement games and dance. Each week consists of two meetings: one for lesson planning and one for visiting the Oberlin Elementary School afterschool program. At the end of the semester, the students perform the dance we taught them for all their friends and family. As someone interested in the field of education and a lifelong dancer, I was so excited to join this ExCo—it seemed like the perfect merging of my interests! Here’s a quick look at Kids in Motion:
Mondays are our planning days. Each week we meet in the South dance studio and recap how the last school visit went—we discuss what went well, what challenges we faced, and moments that made us laugh (there are a lot of those). Next, we review what choreo we’ll be teaching that week. This semester’s final dance is to Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” from the Barbie movie, which everyone in the ExCo helped choreograph. We then choose some games to play for the upcoming visit to the school and create a lesson plan, assigning each member a section of the lesson to facilitate.
Then we get to the fun part—on Wednesdays we get to go to the school and see the kids! No matter how exhausting my day was, seeing the students get so excited to play games and dance around never fails to lift my spirits. We start out with a check-in question (“favorite bug” was a fan favorite) and do some stretches to get warm. Then, on to the games! I had forgotten how fun some of the games I played as a kid were. We include some classics like “Red Light, Green Light,” some high energy ones like “Sharks and Minnows” (or as I’m told it’s referred to by some: “Fishy, Fishy, Cross My Ocean”), some strategy-based ones, like “Poison Dart Frog,” and some creative ones like group charades! Ah, it’s nice to feel like a kid again.
We end the day with what we call a “Kindness Circle”: everyone goes around and says something kind about themselves, which the whole group repeats. It sounds cheesy, but something about saying “I am important” (even when surrounded by giggling 8-year-olds) is actually really heartwarming. The kids take it surprisingly seriously, too—I’ve been impressed many times by their vast vocabularies of positive adjectives. With that, we say our goodbyes to the kids and head back to campus.
Finally, the end-of-semester performance gives the kids a chance to perform for their family and friends at one of Oberlin’s venues, the Cat in the Cream. We treat this performance like an open lesson, doing our normal lesson plan and activities while the parents watch. To end the performance, all the kids and ExCo members perform the dance we learned. To our pleasant surprise, we can tell the kids really practiced the moves at home! They absolutely nailed it, and we were all so proud of them. With a heaping slice of cake and a cup of soda (sorry, parents) we celebrate all the hard work that went into this performance. As for me, I suppose it’s back to my college responsibilities of lectures and exams, but I’ll really miss being able to take a break and just play “Duck, Duck, Goose!”
