In my 5th grade physical education classes, students have been learning to juggle, dance, do different gymnastic routines, spin jammer routines, jump rope tricks, etc. Therefore, I decided to put it all together by putting on a Circus which family and friends could attend. The Circus was held one night and again the following morning at an assembly for the school. The performance was a little over an hour. It was a great success!

In addition to the learning of movement skills, I also wanted them to learn all about how the circus came about. To do this I made an educational Web site (which can be accessed by going to www.stjosephpinole.com, then click on Faculty, click on Diane Adame and then scroll down to the link to the Circus Web site) about the Circus. It provided information about the history of the Circus and the students were given questions that they had to answer by going to the Web page to find the answers. You can also create a page like this by going to FunBrain.com.

To advertise the Circus of Movement, we made posters and pennants (made out of felt using puffy paints). Students designed their own costumes and wrote most of the introductions of the different acts.
During the Circus students gave a brief history of some of the things they learned about during their research. Circus-type music was used (i.e. Strauss Marches) throughout the event. The students learned magic and a couple illusions that added to the excitement of the circus. Students picked what areas they were interested in. They were in at least two acts each and some of the 5th graders were involved in 3 performances.

It was a terrific event with both students and attendees enjoying the Circus of Movement.

Email this best practice!