When I teach my preschool dance classes I love to have a theme! AND my favorite time of year is the holidays so what better way to include it into my dance classes! Listed below are 5 Winter and Holiday Themes for preschool dance classes with an idea or two to use in the class along with a couple song suggestions. These ideas will be perfect to assist you in getting your creativity flowing!
Arctic Animals
I love using imagery in my dance classes. For preschoolers still working on coordination, referring to animals is a great way to help them understand. From tapping penguins to stretchy seals, and dancing polar bears the opportunities to move are endless!
A couple of my favorite songs to use for this class are:
Frozen Penguin: Caspar Babypants
Winter Party: Caspar Babypants
Clapping with Sally the Seal: Andrew Holdsworth
Frozen
Frozen is a great themed class for this age group. You can play off the storyline from the movie, make it a winter Disney princess party, or create choreography to some of your dancers favorite songs.
A few song ideas for this class:
Ring in the Season: Olaf’s Frozen Adventure
Reindeers are Better Than People: Frozen
That Time of Year: Olaf’s Frozen Adventure
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a classic, and there are plenty of opportunities to make this into a fun class for your preschoolers. This theme could be drawn out over several classes as well. Showing your dancers the story through a short children’s book of the Nutcracker helps bring the storyline to life. You can always use the music from the ballet, but there are also plenty of different versions of the songs to keep the class moving and upbeat! Using props and plenty of imagery can be a great way to let your dancers’ imaginations soar!
A few song ideas:
The Nutcracker Suite: The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy: Lindsey Stirling
Mother Ginger: The Nutcracker
Polar Express
This is such a fun theme! If you have not seen the movie, it really has some great music! The Polar Express song is great to make a train and have different children be the conductor to lead the students around the room, while performing various locomotor movements. Just keep in mind due to covid it is best to practice a socially distanced train.
A few song ideas:
Hot Chocolate: Polar Express
Believe: Polar Express
The Polar Express: Polar Express
Snow
Depending on where you live the children may be very familiar with snow or not familiar at all. You can take the time to talk about the uniqueness of each snowflake and how it makes each snowflake special. This is a great opportunity to relate that to each dancer in your class being special and give them a solo moment to dance on their own. This helps with self confidence and gives the dancers a chance to work on performing. After each child gets a chance to dance by themselves, have the other students clap and cheer for them, and as the teacher always give each student praise.
A few song ideas:
Let it Snow: Kids Bop
Waltz of the Snowflakes: The Nutcracker
Do You Want to Build a Snowman?: Frozen
At the link below you will find a Spotify playlist I created of Holiday and Winter songs perfect for a preschool dance class! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0tWlR3CBnTalS3fbvxmEH2
Happy Holidays and Happy Dancing!
