Brown Bag Lunch Rhythms Program

The music teacher has sponsored a Brown Bag Lunch where every Thursday in March the entire student body (approximately 900 students) eat a sack lunch and watch a variety of music presentations during a one hour lunch period. This year I volunteered my Physical Education classes to perform a variety of rhythms and line dances on a Brown Bag Lunch Day.

It was a culminating unit activity and it acted as a nice assessment for the rhythms unit that we always do. Students performed the dances in a real-world setting in an outdoor amphitheater with parents, teachers, and students sitting on blankets on grass and walkways. Due to the large grade level size (140 in grade 5), students from each grade level volunteered to perform at the Brown Bag Lunch Rhythms Program. They signed up in class and it was mandatory that they attend two practice sessions during the regular class period. All students had previously received a handout with all of the line dance steps clearly detailed.

Parents were sent invitations to eat lunch with their child and watch the performance. The parent/grandparent participation was phenomenal. Working parents took their lunch hour to come to the school for the show.

In addition, I designed and distributed a 5 X 7 program with each class listed and the particular rhythm and dance they performed. Each class level had a particular dance and dress. For example, the 4th graders performed the "Men In Black" line dance and all wore black and even black sunglasses!

Here are some of the other dances the students did:

• 2nd Grade: Rhythm Ribbons-Song: Circle of Life - Lion King Soundtrack
  
• 3rd Grade: Hand Jive Song-"Hand Jive"-Christy Lane Electric Slide-"Holiday" Madonna
  
• 4th Grade: Men In Black line dance - "Men in Black" - Will Smith Hustle - "Hustle" Christy Lane
  
• 5th Grade: Honky Tonk Stomp - The Tractors: "Tulsa Shuffle" Slappin' Leather - "Boot Scootin' Boogie" by Brooks & Dunn
  
• Teachers & 5th Grade: Hully Gully - The Tractors: "Baby Likes to Rock it"
  
• All Panthers: "Chicken Dance" - Christy Lane
  

This activity addresses the following Physical Education Sunshine State Standards (these standards were added to the program that was handed out):

• PE.C.2.1.2 The student knows various ways to use the body and movement
  activities to communicate ideas and feelings.
  
• PE. A.2.2.2 The student understand and applies basic movement concepts
  (space awareness, body awareness, and transfer of weight) to games, dance, and
  gymnastics.
  
• PE.B.2.1.2 The student follow directions given by instructor or group leader.
  
• PE.C.1.2.2 The student knows how to perform games and/or dances from a
  variety of cultures.
  
• PE.A.2.2.3 The student knows the reasons that appropriate practice improves
  performance.

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