Weather on the Move Workshops for Students
​Learning Activity 2: Kaleidoscopic Cloud Dance 

Summary:  
Focusing specifically on clouds in the troposphere, this lesson introduces cloud types and their associated altitudes directly to dance concepts of level, motif and shape.  Participants use movement skills to learn and communicate information about the structure of the atmosphere and objects in the sky.

Objectives
Students will:
  • Demonstrate control of the hand and body to create and hold a shape, connect it to a partner's hand or body and maintain a light touch.
  • Identify and sequence the correct order of movement or events.
  • Create meaning and relationships with body shapes and placement.
  • Relate specific cloud types and their associated altitudes to dance concepts of level and body shapes.
  • Explore and contribute to the creation of a group improvisational dance with a central theme of clouds.

​Next Generation Science Standards
  • 5-ESS2-1. Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.

National Core Dance Standards
  • Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work. Interpret meaning in a dance based on its movements. Explain how the movements communicate the main idea of the dance using basic dance terminology.
  • Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art. Create a dance study that expresses the idea. Explain how the dance study expressed the idea

Common Core State Standards 
  • ELA/Literacy – RI.5.9 Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. 
  • W.5.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and finished work, and provide a list of sources.


Go to Learning Activity 1: Sphere’s Density Dance 
Go to Learning Activity 3: Dancing Winds


Copyright S. Harlan Brownlee: No copying or other reproduction of this work allowed without the express written permission of the author, ©2014.
Gray clouds
with golden fringes
block the streaming sunlight
from Cloud Dance
Thomas Locker
Dark-and-light
storm clouds
tower.
from Cloud Dance
Thomas Locker