Dory the Dorian song :)

Lesson plan idea:

 Sing the song while sitting and moving with flow.  Tell the class we're going to pretend to be Dory the fish, and show them one hand moving like a fish, still moving with continuous flow but with obvious squiggles in the air from that hand.  

Chant triple meter patterns (Verbal Association or Aural/Oral) to individuals between repetitions of the song.  If you have a marine animal toy, have the student say their pattern to that animal! (My students love saying patterns to my big inflatable dolphin. ;)

Each time through the song, change what kind of underwater animal the class is pretending to be--dolphins, stingrays, turtles, whales, minnows, etc. Get student ideas for this - they LOVE giving ideas!   
If the animal is larger, like a whale, the teacher can use both arms and a wider amount of space for the flow.
If the animal is smaller, like a minnow, the teacher can have them just flow with a pinky.  

The teacher could also suggest to be stingrays flowing in low space, or dolphins flowing in high space, not expecting the children necessarily to contribute to ideas for the animals but only using the ideas as a guide for variation in the movement the teacher models.

My favorite ideas from the kids: shark and plankton! Make the movement and dynamics small if the animal is small, and big if the animal is big! J

§  Curricular rationale: continuous flow, body awareness, high and low space, exposure to Dorian, rhythm patterns in usual triple 



***Rhythm Creativity Alternative!***

Using the dolphin or other stuffed marine animal, have rhythm conversations with the students!   Ask the kids to put a finger on their nose if they want a turn.  When the teacher comes up to them, they should chant something DIFFERENT than what the "dolphin" just chanted. :)

To show the students to audiate before they chant, the teacher shows the dolphin whispering in his/her ear. The teacher then chants the pattern the dolphin "whispered" to him/her.