Dance dance dancey dance!

Many of you will know OSHC educator Maggie. You may have seen her choreographing events such as Wakakirri and dance workouts at our school’s Morning Fitness programme. Did you know that Maggie has her very own performing arts company? Check out Mid Coast Performing Arts if you’re interested to learn more. #shamelessplug!

What’s more interesting than any of that though, is that Maggie is regularly seen inspiring children with dance, drama games and performances at OSHC.

We thought it would be an excellent idea to create a list and breakdown of some of the games that Maggie and the children have been playing this year. You might find this useful to learn to play with your children at home too! If you need further details on any of these games, please leave a comment or send us an email using the form below.

This article will likely be posted to our private mOSHCer’s blog in the near future and will include photos of mOSHCers having a great time dancing, playing and in character as Elsa, a Marvellous superhero, or Princess Jasmine! We just need to figure out the cyber safety stuff first, to protect their privacy.

Musical statues

A simple and super fun classic! Children dance to some funky music- you’ve gotta move, kids! And when the music stops everyone must freeze like a statue. The last one to freeze is out and must sit down. The last one standing wins! A referee with a keen eye is required as well as an impartial supervisor to pause and play the jukebox.

Musical colours

This game is similar to musical statues but with an extra challenge! When the music is playing everyone must dance. As soon as it stops the referee calls out a body part and a colour such as ‘elbow on red’. All children have to touch their elbow to something red and the last one to do so, is out. Play continues until a winner emerges!

dance off/ dance battle

There are several great variants of the dance-off. It can be a one-on-one battle or two teams of dancers that go head-to-head. Each individual dancer or team take turns freesytylin’ to the selected music. The winner is chosen by the audience and officiators and are awarded based on their creativity, variety of dance moves and teamwork skills, if they were performing in a team. This can be done in rounds and include multiple participants.

lip sync battle

Play a favourite song and pretend to sing to it like you’re the singer! Extra points for how well an artist knows the lyrics, what props they use and how creative their performance is.

DAnce story challenge

Pick an idea and music for children to create and choreograph a dance or movement to. The idea can be anything, a theme, an emotion, or a story. Organise children into small groups and give them a set time to get to work on that theme, five or ten minutes is the limit we give at OSHC. The time limit for each performance is up to you but we like to keep to approximately one minute. The winning team is determined by how well each group used their time, team work, performance and the creativity in how they interpreted the theme. Dance Story Challenges are a big favourite amongst the children at OSHC and are the most requested game to play!

dance whispers

Ask the group of children to stand together in a circle or a line with enough space between them to move. Choose someone to begin the game by creating a small phrase of a dance and ask the rest of the group to close their eyes. The game begins by the leader tapping the person next to them on the shoulder and showing them the dance. The dance is passed on one at a time with a dancer tapping the person next to them on the shoulder, sharing the dance, and then closing their eyes once again. Once the dance has been passed along to everyone, ask the group to open their eyes and the final dancer to show everyone the dance to see how much it has changed!

zap!

Arrange the group of children in a circle and choose someone to begin the game by standing in the centre. The child who begins has to call out someone’s name, for example, it could be Maggie! Maggie has to bob down as fast as she can and the two children on either side of her must point their fingers at her and say, ‘zap!’ before she bobs. If Maggie is ‘zapped’ and doesn’t bob down in time, she must replace the child in the middle to call out the next victim. If Maggie is fast enough to avoid being ‘zapped’ she is safe. If one of the ‘zappers’ was too slow off of the mark, they can be penalised by being sent to the middle.

evolution

Everyone in the group begins the game as an egg. Each egg must play and win a game of rock, paper, scissors against another egg. Those who win become a chicken. Chickens can then continue by playing rock, paper, scissors with another chicken. Those who win become become a dinosaur. Play continues from becoming a dinosaur to a cool dude and finally, supreme. Most players will make it to the final step, but at the end there will be one cool dude, one dinosaur, one chicken, and one egg. But a good egg!

community feedback

Does anyone out there have any ideas for dance, dramatic and creative play? If so, please leave a message in the comments section below!

MC + AO