We got the opportunity to teach a dance class with Deborah Damast. We taught a kindergarten class. The kids had a lot of energy and it looked like they needed to move around. When Aidhan, Lily and I were teaching, they were very enthusiastic about us being there. Deborah told us that in the lower school, if a kid is misbehaving, as a punishment a teacher usually takes away their recess. But in most cases, when a kid is acting out, it means they need to run around and not be sitting in a classroom. Therefore, taking it away is just making the child more anxious. The first thing that happened in the class was a warm up. They danced/stretched on the floor. They had to point their toes, stretch their arms, and move their heads around. Next, they played a skipping game. One person started standing up, and everyone else was sitting down. The person that was standing up would have to skip around the room and tap someone on the head. Then that person would stand up, skip around, and tap the next person and do the same thing over again. This went on until every person was skipping. Lastly, they had a dance routine to a song and they wanted to show it to us. It was actually pretty good. Overall, this fieldwork was very helpful for us to understand why kids need to play sports.
