Crown Design & Creation

We noticed an interest in costumes clearly emerging within our exploration of using fabric in dance.  We gathered a variety of gems and jewels for crown creation and invited children to design their own crown on paper first.  This process slowed the children down, inspired them to be very deliberate in their planning, had students talking about colour, shape, numbers, and patterns, and allowed for the discovery of the beauty of materials instead of rushing through.  We were amazed by the amount of time children put into their plans and blown away by the similarity when we compared their plan to their crown.

Expanding Elements of Performance Based on Interest

The beauty of carefully observing and documenting children's interests is that, even as educators, we are constantly and pleasantly surprised.  It has been evident that there are two current interests around performance:  set/prop design and dance.

As you've read, the set crew has been researching, sketching, using 2 and 3D shapes to create models, visiting the stage in the gym, and watching video about castles.  We often share our current focus in the classroom with fellow educators around the world on our professional Twitter accounts and are grateful that families have given us permission to do so.  It is exciting to be able to inspire thinking in other classrooms but perhaps what is most meaningful is the chance to have hundreds of educators have the chance to make suggestions for next steps in projects.  We had been sharing our elements of performance and connected with a teacher whose class has a similar project happening.  She shared photos of using an overhead projector to add elements of shadow, light and colour for a background set.  She also shared ideas about using beautiful material to support movement in dance.  It is such a rich experience to be able to work with an online team to enhance our programming and to share our own ideas to move their projects forward.


The dancing group has been exploring patterns and emotion in movement.  They have also been listening to various types of music (classical, medieval, etc.) and discussing the way the music makes them feel.  Both groups began to combine as the dance group realized that their shadows were appearing if they moved in front of the light.  Their level of enthusiasm and engagement and the quality of their movement has been inspiring.   We have also posted a video below that so stunningly gives a look into the level of engagement and creative expression that has been developing within this group.

One student walked into the classroom, saw the overheard on the table and yelled "What is that thing???".  It made me completely change the way I approached the exploration of light and a different take on set building.  Instead of watching a minds-on video about shadows and talking about what the projector did, I asked the children to look carefully and share what they noticed.  This led us to predicting it may be something that lit up.  The look on their faces when I plugged it in and they press the 'on' switch was magical.  This approach led to a prolonged period of student-led investigation instead of teacher-led instruction.  It was a big "a-ha!" moment for me as well.  Children explored using shapes to create stories/shadows, observing shadows of their hand, moving the direction of the light, and using their bodies to make shadows.  We knew it was of much interest when they asked to explore further during discovery centre time.

As educators, our excitement builds each day as we watch the learning and creativity unfold.  We love sharing with you along the way and look forward to posting about the various destinations along our journey with this project.